The Phantom of the Opera - UK Tour

Any rumors on this?

Hey, so weird story with a question. I know nothing of musical theatre. I was training for opera years ago but ran away to join an orphanage (by which I mean I got a PhD in an unrelated subject). Anyways, I did actually go to the open auditions for this and it was my first serious audition of any kind for ... well, not to give it away but a decade. So, I did make a friend in line and we exchanged info. She messaged me the other day to say that the casting directors had sent her a rejection email. Pretty classy given it was an open audition and there must have been about six hundred hopefuls. I haven't heard anything at all yet. No callback, no rejection, crickets. According to the notice callbacks would have been through August. So my feeling is that I didn't get it but, why would they send my friend a rejection and not me? I did check and my contact info is clearly printed on my CV so I doubt it's that. There was also some talk that the audition process for this show is pretty slow.

So for those of you who've been through the ringer a few times ... is this typical? Is there any meaning to it? Should I remain hopeful? Should I - god forbid - follow up?

Maybe there’s a “maybe” list?

Whatever happens with Phantom,please don’t be disheartened,keep auditioning all over the place....I have many,many former Drama students who have had varying degrees of success in the Arts,but the one thing they all had in common was determination and perseverance...Good Luck to you and hope it all works out...keep on keeping on!

Ticket sales for this seem to have slumped massively in Manchester - unfortunately...
Les Mis was doing a lot better at this point in time, although the Big Brexit effect maybe taking hold.

When I was a kid I had the show memorized to the point that I would sing it and ... Puccini ... in my sleep. It was a bit of a spur of the moment but it was also one of those things that I knew if I didn't do I'd regret it for the rest of my life. As for taking a part if offered I was mulling over that and basically what I came down to is it's an 18 month contract so if it were a reasonably big part absolutely yes. Only thing that could haul me away from that is national public office and that seems somewhat unlikely given I'm not running. If it were a smaller or ensemble part I'd have to make sure it's financially feasible. Given that I'm currently sans job anything is more financially feasible but if I had to choose between an ensemble part in this tour and a Post-Doc at for example the National History Museum or UCL I'd go with the Post-Doc.

would never buy tickets without a cast

maybe Amy Manford will do the tour after ending her run in London?

What is BAME?

(I had to google) Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. 

Just had a quick look at the seating plans for Manchester. I was really surprised by how slowly this has sold - most performances maybe 1/3 full at mo? Les Mis sold much faster. Sure will be more packed when it arrives but I had expected this to be pretty much a sell out.

The big Musicals normally do incredibly well in Manchester so not sure what's going on - perhaps as you say there's a few mega musicals on at mo (though Mamma Mia mega in name and concept rather than staging) and people don't wanna fork out for all.

Curve is a much shorter run in a theatre half the size so these things always sell out there.

I do think in the last decade+ however Les Mis has shot past Phantom in terms of popularity. Even in London Les Mis generally sells out in advance whereas Phantom generally has good availability up until the day.

And maybe things are slowing down in Manchester. I know & Juliet is an unknown entity but very surprised to see the Opera House less than half full every night.

Wonder how Back To The Future is doing.....  

Oops sorry. I was only curious as I love the show. I'll stay quiet now!

Edinburgh tickets just went on sale. I haven't bought mine yet but the best deal I could find was £32 for the restricted view end aisle seats in the stalls, which is nowhere near as bad as I expected. I think the same seats were something like £45 for Les Mis last year.