"Magic is my friend"

Oh my dear friends, if you haven't seen the SAU production of "Phantom" you are missing out on a great piece of musical theatre. It was absolutly fabulous, I haven't bit my lip as hard since the West End production of "Blood Brother" that we saw in London.

Ok, so for some back ground, "Phantom" is different from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera". It is kind of the same story, with some of the same characters. First of all Madame Giry, and her daughter Meg, aren't in this production at all and neither is Raoul. Christine is not ballerina, instead she is a random farm girl who came to Paris in search of a career.

The curtain opens on a street in Paris where we see a crowd gathered and Christine singing and handing out music she has written. Right from the beginning I was very confused. Paris? Not so much. And what year is it? I can't tell, some of the chorus members are wearing things straight out of the 80's that is the 1980's, not the 1880's. My favorite part of this opening scene is the "ladies of the night". There are three of them who we see over and over again throughout the production, and one is very funny, she has great sense of comedic timing.

As we continue we meet other influential characters such as Carlotta and her husband (both who do a wonderful job! I loved their performances!)The Count de la Chandon (Philippe) who is the love interest of Christine, the Phantom, and Gerard Carriere, the former opera manager who we later find out is the Phantom's father.

The first act moved along fairly quickly and I am sure my lip was bleeding by the time we were half way through it. If it hadn't been for Carlotta and her husband I would have died for sure. The two of them were very, very amusing. The first act closed with the Phantom appearing on the stage or something, I'm not so sure the scenery was in desperate need of help and better design, and the whole chorus runs off stage in the the audience sreaming (yes, it was wonderful, I was practically on the floor dying of laughter) and then the best part came, the Phantom picks up Christine to carry her to his "tomb" and both of them fall down and Christine goes rolling across the stage. It was wonderful. The perfect way to end the first act.

After intermission we are with the Phantom and Christine in his Catacombs. He sing of his love for her, she lays asleep on a random couch in a really ugly green dress. When she wakes up the Phantom's father tries to convince her to leave, he tells her the story of the phantom's birth (he knocked up a ballerina in the company and then left her because he was already married). Christine feels sorry for the Phantom and decides to stay and convince the Phantom to show her his face. The Phantom takes Christine on a picnic and his minions pretend to be moving trees. Then when Christine finally convinces the Phantom to show her his face she freaks out and runs away.

As you can guess the Phantom is mad, Christine is crying looking for Philippe and the Phantom's father tries to comfort his son admitting to the Phantom that he is his father ("Erik I am your father") (No joke, that is what he said, or rather, sang) The Phantom already knew, they kind of make up and then the are interrupted when the police come into the Opera house to kill the Phantom after Carlotta is found dead. The police have the Phantom cornered and are ready to take him into custody when he begs his father to save him. To save his son Gerard shoots and kills him and the curtain closes on a dead Phantom and many people crying.

It was fabulous.

Now, I don't blame the actors for everthing that was silly about this production, they really had some goofy lines to work with "Magic is my friend" "Erik I am your father" just to point out two. They also weren't given very good costumes or scenery. As I mentioned earlier I couldn't tell what year it was suppost to be or that they were even in Paris. Some of the singing was very well done, Christine had a nice voice and the girl who played Carlotta did a wonderful job with her numbers. The Phantom's voice was a little disapointing. I guess I expect more from the title role.

Anyhow, it was very fun night. I am glad I went, I needed a good laugh.

In other news, I had an interview this morning, it went ok, I thought the one interviewer was kind of weird and was putting words in to my mouth, which was frustrating, so I guess we will see. If I don't get it I guess that means there are bigger and better things waiting for me!!!

Happy Friday the 13th!!!!