Last Phantoms of the summer

[winter]

Despite having already seen it a few times, I'm not that fond of the Warsaw production of Phantom of the Opera. It's simply the only decent show in town at the moment, and I am fond of some of the actors. And the sets, because they're gorgeous; as moe_almanthea recently remarked, they're really built for a stronger cast than the one we have.

Still, this weekend I had two opportunities:

- to finally see someone other than Damian Aleksander as Phantom

- to see the final summer show, in a theatre with a long tradition of making a fine mess of final shows



After seeing what is technically our third Phantom (Erik #2 having acquired a solo career since being cast and not having played a single show), I have to say I am very, very impressed. Unlike Erik#1, he gets what the show is about, and has charisma in spades. And oh, can he work that cloak :D He's wiry, frantic, half-maddened in an elegant feyness. For once, you actually notice the Phantom, which is the way it should be; with Damian, Raoul outshines him far too easily.

(Mind you, the other highlight of the show was Marcin - Raoul - who decided to get drunk during Notes, downed three glasses of what I am informed is cherry juice, and spent the rest of Notes and Il Muto tottering around and slurring his lyrics. It looked like Edyta - Christine - gave him a right slapping before All I Ask of You, because he was thankfully sober for that part.)




The final shows of a run in Roma theatre are traditionally exceedingly strange - up to and including slashy insinuations about various characters' preferences. The first act of the Sunday show followed this tradition to the dot, though I think they got a telling-off during the intermission, because act two was disappointingly normal and subdued. It might have also been because few people seemed to get the jokes; where at Tanz or Cats half and more of the audience were repeat viewers, here there were maybe two dozen.

List of changes:

- the directors were on crack, especially Andre; he minced and pranced and acted drunk half the time

- Ida (Meg) was on a roll - she volunteered to sing Think of Me, told Christine that she sang almost as well as herself in Angel of Music, and at the start of Il Muto, where she's supposed to just fall down, she idly scratched her head with her toes, the way she's only supposed to do when she's being Victoria in Cats

- the start of Mirror had "foolish youth" rather than "slave of fashion"; judging by Paulina's (Christine's) giggles this is what Damian (Erik) calls Marcin (Raoul) offstage

- Paulina got her own back by singing "my Damian" rather than "my Angel"

- this time Madame Giry was the drunk one in Notes

- obligatory switch of Raouls - the one leading Christine up to the roof was the understudy

And finally the coup de grace: all throughout a lovely All I Ask of You, I was wondering why Marcin was having so much trouble with his choregraphy and kept trying to get behind Paulina. Then he managed it at a point where he's supposed to go for the intense kiss. Instead, he pushed her hair elegantly away, then pushed her face away as well. He bared his teeth.

And he did the full-on Totale Finsternis vampire bite, with growling :D

I have tickets to the first show after the summer break, because those are also usually interesting shows. I believe someone will be getting flowers.

Comments

[tokugawa.livejournal.com]

LOL all I can laugh about is the crack, weirdness that was going on in this performance that sounds like a typical Senshuraku that people would do some jokes, fresh performances and insert a lot of ad-lib's, :D!

Sounds quite fun, :D!

[winter]

Oh, it was :D I'm almost dreading the last performance of the autumn run - it's going to be on Halloween, so they'll go crazy.

[lamath.livejournal.com]

LOL! Krolock!Raoul. Ah, if only Steve could have done that. That would have been a sight to see. XD

[winter]

Judging by his interpretation, Marcin is a Steve-nut as well ;) I'm sure it was an intentional reference.

[lamath.livejournal.com]

We need to ship him over to Broadway so I can have a look-see at his Raoul. :P *steals*

[winter]

Careful, he's dangerous to sets. And cast ;) Bites, swipes, kicks, manhandles people...

[sepulchralice.livejournal.com]

LOL I love the sound of that AIAOY bite. Ad libs are awesome :D

[winter]

It wasn't quite on the level of the Tanz derniere (or the Cats one - bitey pirates with vampire teeth and constant insinuations that Old Deuteronomy's gay), but I'm very happy to have seen it :>

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Omigod! I've never seen anything as delightfully goofy as that onstage. I wish I could see performances like that!

[winter]

And people wonder why I see shows n times ;) It takes experience to appreciate the ad-libs.

[moe-almanthea.livejournal.com]

It's great that you saw Tomasz Steciuk, I think he should be in the first cast, not third. But still I have feeling that he don't use all his abilities, at least that was on my show...

Raould biting Christine, OHMYGOD!!:D Standing ovation for Marcin! :D

[winter]

He does have better and worse days. On Youtube there is a video of This is the moment he did at an open-air Avon gala - you can see that he starts it off at half strength and a third of the way in, he spotted us making faces and going "meh, that's a Jekyll???", then turned on the power ;) He was in stellar form on the weekend, probably because it was his last show of the run.

Marcin is most definitely getting flowers for the bite :D

[moe-almanthea.livejournal.com]

My friedns who were with me on the show told me later, that this was the best POTO with Steciuk they have seen. Maybe I had too big expectations ;)

[winter]

I think we're all spoiled by the fact we see so many other performances :)

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

This just makes me think back to my ill-advised attempt to stick Tanz references into, of all things, the production of Urinetown the Musical I was in in high school. The only one I got away with was copying some of Magda's choreography from the crypt scene while my character said something about having been something of a strumpet in her day.

[moe-almanthea.livejournal.com]

I think so ;) This theory works for my mother, she hasn't seen many musicals and was very impressed by POTO (she even wanted me to get ticket for her on the second performance, while a day before she was a bit annyoed that I want to see the same show twice ;) ).

[winter]

Hey, educating parents is fun ;)

(Other things are not. Like A Certain Herbert having a concert in Warsaw on September 20 when I have POTO tickets already. You gonna swing by his concert in Opole?)

[moe-almanthea.livejournal.com]

Very fun when you have such results ;)

You can try to sell your tickets, it should be quite easy on Allegro.
I would love to see any Kuba's concert, but I'll be in Berlin from 19-21 of September ("Elisabeth", yeeees! ;] ).

[winter]

Hey, the first Opole concert is on the 18th ;) Seeing as pictures from his POTO are being used to promote them...

[moe-almanthea.livejournal.com]

I know, but going straightly from Opole to Berlin would be too much for me (or rather for my parents) ;)

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

Someday I am coming to Europe and stalking you.