THEATRE REVIEW: The Phantom of the Opera
- Posted on June 30, 2008 1:14 PM
- 1 comment
Review by Naima Khan
From the don of musical theatre today’s production of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ at Her Majesty’s Theatre is still phenomenal.
My experience with musicals does not extend much past a Billy Elliot matinee and a brief encounter with Bas Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. The world of baritones, tenors, and sopranos, is not a world I’m familiar with. So two and a half hours of the stuff was not something I was prepared for but The Phantom of the Opera was the perfect introduction. There’s not a lot of hard core opera, it’ musical theatre at its best. The seamless set changes, the infectious music and endearing characters draw the audience into the world of late 19th century Paris.
I have two housemates who are made about this musical. They banged on about it for weeks after they’d seen it for the first time; so I was a bit sceptical. Could it really live up to the hype? I invited them along last minute knowing they’d be the ones to show me how to truly appreciate it in all its glory. As we waited between the pillars of her majesty’s theatre, to the side of Londoners in suits leaving work and tourists walking around much slower than most of us appreciate, we also got to see the truly unspecific demographic who responded to the Phantom’s allure. Grandparents with teenage grandchildren, ladies in pearls and heels with clutch bags, tourists in baseball caps lugging shopping bags up the stairs to the Royal Circle as equally as excited and curious.
The adaptation of the gothic novel tells the epic love story of Christine and Raoul, childhood friends who find each other again as adults. They have to contend with the arrogant ‘opera ghost’, Christine’s ever-present, never-seen, obsessive music teacher who makes various demands on the opera house mangers threatening them with catastrophe if his demands are not met.
The beautiful lighting and frightening music played unashamedly with our emotions and the colourful characters kept things light and at times hilarious. The novel the play is based on is a romantic, mysterious horror with a little tragedy to top things off. The musical recreates all of this on stage. For me the real triumph of the production was the sets. We were swiftly taken from the romantic rooftop of the ‘Opera Populaire’, to the eerie subterranean lake where the Phantom leads Christine to his candle lit chambers in a gondola. Then back to Christine’s dimly lit dressing room before we are taken to the grandiose staircase for the ‘Masquerade’. Whilst I’m happy to have cinema divulge it’s CGI secrets in DVD ‘special features’, I never want to know the secrets of the stage. How the characters can be running around on the stage of the Opera Populaire one minute then floating around on a mysterious lake the next is all part of the illusion and was created so well at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
The Phantom of the Opera is a beautiful, fun and frightening adaptation of a captivating gothic novel. Performed flawlessly and produced to the highest standards, if you want musical theatre, go see this.
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me
I wanted to stop myself, but...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23453626@N05/2640456010
Posted on July 6, 2008 12:09 AM
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