Lloyd Weber Musical



Review by J. Irwin for The Phantom of the Opera (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Rating:
As a qualifier, I am an avid musical theatre fan and classically trained singer. Back in the 80s, I couldn’t be bothered with seeing Phantom, partly because I was too busy going to show after show of Les Miserables, but mostly because I couldn’t picture Michael Crawford as anything other than Cornelius, the wussy shop boy in Hello Dolly. His voice is nicely trained but his upper register is just simply annoying. I’m sorry to all his fans, but in my musical mind tenor does not equal dark and mysterious and emotionally tortured. The anger expressed by phans over casting the originals is just silly! Who wants to watch a 61-year old lusting after an older teenager? That is not entertainment, that is just gross…anyway, after relentless hounding by my niece, I broke down and took her to NYC to see it. It was wonderfully entertaining and I was glad to have gone.

Ranting over, on with the good stuff. The movie is an absolutely over-the-top, spectacle in everything (AS IT SHOULD BE, FOLKS!) We’re dealing with 19th century, gothic romance and a musical score that is closer to opera than not.

Honestly, what else could you expect?

The visual aspects of the movie are rich and sensual and draw the viewer into 19th century Paris. From the opening crack of the auction gavel to the end scenes of phantom disappearing into the emptiness of his life, I found myself ignoring the actors to “let the spectacle astound” me.

The performances were very good with moments of brilliance for some. I’ll save the best for last, so…

MIRANDA RICHARDSON-MADAME GIRY-wonderfully mysterious, has great empathy for phantom, yet realizes he must be stopped. Any cast is improved by her presence.

CIARAN HINDS/SIMON CALLOW-MONSIEURS ANDRE/FIRMIN-light comic relief from two veteran actors with good voices.

MINNIE DRIVER-LA CARLOTTA-completely campy and completely hilarious. Eventhough Driver is a trained singer, her singing parts had to be dubbed by a true operatic soprano. The closing credits song is nicely sung by Driver, though. SIDENOTE: I have read some reviews that criticized the dubbed voice of the soprano as overblown and baudy-umm, hello? Carlotta is SUPPOSED to be past her prime and painful to hear-enough already!

Now for the big three:

PATRICK WILSON-RAOUL-Let’s face it, the part itself is not exactly meaty but rather insipid. Wilson handles it competently and even ups the hero factor. An accomplished Broadway actor, he has a wonderful lyrical tenor voice, but it does get drowned out at times by the dynamic swells in the orchestrations, a mixing problem, not his. That hair was awful, though!

EMMY ROSSUM-CHRISTINE-In a word, angelic. Again, the critics drive me insane with reviews stating her young voice was not polished enough. DUH!!! She was 17. The storyline clearly implies that Christine is very good, but to excel she needs to return to her teacher. Rossum’s upper register did sound a bit pinched in a couple of spots, but the quality in general was pure and open especially during the boat ride to phantom’s lair as she is essentially vocalizing on an open “ah” that ends on E above High C-yikes!

Her acting performance was average-it would have been better to see a little more confliction/emotional stress in her facial expressions. The graveyard number was beautiful and poignant-lovely. However, the instant costume change from white dressing gown to black irked me.

GERARD BUTLER-PHANTOM-In a word, sublime! As the critics have said-he’s no Michael Crawford-THANK THE GOOD LORD!!! This talented Scot absolutely commands the eye to watch every move he makes. His phantom is emotionally wrecked, sexy, dark, edgy, tragic, soulful and ultimately heartbreaking. As others scoff at the frilly costumes and assume the bared chest shots are purely for female viewers, I feel his vulnerability is made even more apparent by those ruffled shirts which seem to lay wide open his aching heart that waits for someone to take care of it.

Butler’s singing performance is quite good for someone with so little training. Yes, a couple upper notes seem shouted and/or strained, but I do not think it detracts from the performance, but rather adds a sense of desperation that he no longer has control over Christine and his efforts to do so are futile. Butler’s performance highlight is, without a doubt, Point of No Return; it is simply mesmerizing.

Butler’s phantom is raw sensuality and emotion. He could not possibly be more in love with Christine and it is heartbreaking to watch him be denied and ultimately defeated. If you can watch the last 30 minutes without crying, you have a cold, dead heart! Butler is so captivating and convincing that it is inconceivable to me how Christine chooses Raoul over phantom.

Do yourself a favor, get a bottle of good Italian wine, settle in for a couple of hours of shameless romance and let your fantasies unwind through Gerard Butler’s phantom.

(this is a self-indulgent post)

I’ve been playing Company (2007 revival) on iTunes non-stop since I watched it streaming on Netflix. (You can also catch it on YouTube.) I wasn’t much a fan of that soundtrack (preferring the original, especially after watching the documentary of the recording session ALSO available both on Netflix and YouTube) but after seeing it performed, I got to liking it a lot. I’m also now crushing on Raúl Esparza after being underwhelmed by him in Tick Tick Boom (aka “Rent Lite”). He is my new imaginary boyfriend.

But I didn’t actually find Sondheim via showtunes. I actually discovered that I loved him (not realizing how many standards he’d written) when I was deep in a decade-long obsession with female jazz vocalists. It was Dianne Reeves singing Sondheim — this song — that got me hooked.

I don’t always like his songs at first but once I’ve heard them enough, I love them. I compare that to, say, Andrew Lloyd Weber who I often like at first (with the exception of Phantom of the Opera, which I loathe) and then listening to it starts driving me insane and I feel like I’ve heard every little bit of it and can never hear that particular song again. There are exceptions but they are singular. (Although I’ll admit to a nostalgic fondness for Cats but that’s because I got the London Cast Recording for Christmas when I was 12. And the way I hear it, it’s still a good musical if you’re 12 but it’s not so great if you’re 40.) (You can disagree with me and we can start a flamewar here except I have a policy about never commenting on youtube.)

I feel the same way about Stephen Schwartz. Defying Gravity is an amazingly great song but the rest of the score? Meh. But Sondheim? I can listen to everything he wrote and I am always fascinated especially when I hear a new rendition. I feel the same way about Rodgers & Hammerstein and Gershwin and Cole Porter. Those are great songs — great, great songs. And anyone who says Sondheim isn’t hummable obviously hasn’t listened to much Sondheim.

Here’s a terrific version of a terrific song: Tim Curry giving an extremely emotional performance (only audio, no video sadly) of Losing My Mind