The Phantom of the Opera
Prices: Ranges from $50 - $160

Date: 23 March - 13 May 07
Venue: Esplanade Theatre


The Story:

Prologue
It is 1911 and the contents of the Paris Opera House are being auctioned off. Present are the auctioneer, porters and bidders. Raoul, now seventy years old and in a wheelchair, buys a poster and a music box. As the auctioneer displays the Opera House chandelier, he explains that it is connected with the legend of The Phantom of the Opera. With a flash of light, the audience is flung back in time, when the Paris Opera was at its height.

Act 1
We are thrust in the middle of a rehearsal for the opera Hannibal. Monsieur Lefèvre, the retiring manager of the Opera, is showing the new managers, Monsieurs Firmin and André, the great stage. As the prima donna, Carlotta, is singing, a backdrop falls to the floor, nearly killing her. The cry is raised, "It's The Phantom of the Opera!" Upset, Carlotta refuses to sing.

Meg Giry, daughter of the ballet mistress, Madame Giry, suggests her friend, Christine Daaé, take Carlotta's place. Christine has been taking lessons from a mysterious new teacher.


At her triumph in the Opera, is Raoul, a nobleman and patron of the Opera. Raoul recognizes Christine as a childhood friend. He comes backstage after the performance to escort her to dinner, but Christine tells him she cannot go, because her teacher, "The Angel of Music," is very strict.

When Raoul leaves Christine's room, the Phantom appears. Christine is lured into the bowels of the Opera House, where the Phantom will continue her lessons.

He leads her to his underground lair, where she sees a frightening vision of herself in a wedding gown. She faints, only to be awakened several hours later by the Phantom's music on the organ. Creeping up behind him, she rips off his mask. Horrified, he takes her back to the surface.
The Phantom has sent notes to both the managers of the Opera, as well as Raoul, Madame Giry and Carlotta, which give instructions that Christine will have the lead in the new opera, Il Muto. The manager's refuse to give in to the Phantom's demands.

Il Muto proceeds as planned, with Carlotta in the lead, and Christine in a secondary role. As promised, disaster strikes - the stage hand, Joseph Buquet, is killed, and Carlotta's voice is stolen.

In the confusion, Raoul and Christine escape to the roof of the Opera House. There, with all of Paris around them, they pledge their love to one another. They cannot see the Phantom overhearing their vows of love. Enraged at Christine's betrayal, the Phantom causes the final disaster of the night - the mighty chandelier comes crashing to the stage floor.

Act 2
The second act opens at a grand Masquerade Ball, held on the steps of the Paris Opera. No one has heard from the Phantom in six months. Christine and Raoul are engaged, but are keeping it a secret; Christine keeps her engagement ring on a chain around her neck.


Suddenly, the Phantom appears, disguised as The Red Death, and delivers to the managers a score from his opera, Don Juan Triumphant.

At first, the managers refuse to perform the strange, disturbing opera. Then, with the help of Raoul, they devise a plan to trap the Phantom, using Christine as bait. Plans for Don Juan Triumphant, and the trap, are made.


Christine visits the grave of her father. There on the grave stands the Phantom, beckoning her to join him. Raoul appears and takes her away.

At last, the opening night of Don Juan Triumphant arrives. The theater is surrounded by guards and police, eager to catch the Phantom. As the opera comes to its end, the Phantom takes the place of Piangi, the lead singer. He confronts Christine on stage during the performance, and escapes with her once more to his labyrinth below the Opera House.

In a last confrontation, the Phantom gives Christine a choice: stay with him forever, or he will kill Raoul. Her decision brings to an end the story of The Phantom of the Opera.

The Review:
It was far better than Sound of Music musical for sure. The Phantom actually features more on the music than the dialogues in it. Whatever is said is sang in a song. Their singing were superb. I have to comment on the cast acting as The Phantom - Brad Little, his acting is really great. Though I was sitting very far away (I bought the 2nd cheapest tickets so was sitting in the 3rd row of the 3rd circle) so I could not actually his facial expressions, his singing were so touching and you can practically feel every of his emotion through the songs he sang. His rage, sadness, love for Christine Daae and his passion in the songs he wrote. I can feel people were touched at the final scene where I believed some have actually tears in their eyes. All I can say is that this is really worth the money as this is like once in a lifetime that you get to watch such piece of the art. If I have a choice over to choose how much topay to watch The Phantom, I would choose to pay the most expensive ticket. It is really worth spending that money.

I have to comment on certain people who just do not know the meaning of punctuality. And I meant Singaporean. Singaporeans seemed to be ignorant of how a musical is that it starts at 2pm sharp. Few minutes before 2pm, the doors will be shut. But it still did not refrained people ffrom coming in. After the show started at 2pm sharp, there were some people coming in which were sitted in the same row as me but had to get past me to get to the direct centre seats. Two guys were considerate enough to sit by the stairway so as not to disturb the other people. But there were 3 ladies who just walked their way through to their seats. This isn't all. There are actually latecomers who comes in at 2.45pm and is seated at a row in front of me so they had to block my view too. In the beginning of the show, I heard this woman suitting near me told the people in front of her row to lean back as they are blocking her view. There was this guy sitting of me who does that initially too. Everytime he does that, I had make a jerk noise to inform him that I am irritated by his leaning forward as he is blocking my view. Whenever people does that, we will tend to lean forward first and then the person behind will be affected too. But at least I am glad that still majority of them knows how to respect a musical. All were dressed properly and all were rather silent throughout even though there were many kids around. I had even felt I was a little too formal or overdressed.

Watching The Phantom of the Opera has really enlightened me to appreciate musicals more. I even filled in the survey hoping to win a trip to London. If there were future musicals, which one will you watch? I chose Footloose and Riverdance. I have heard of Footloose songs so I would wanna watch that show too. There wasn't a choice for Miss Saigon though otherwise I will choose to watch that too. I heard it is equally good too. I would like to comment and praise the productions behind the Phantom by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions. Their props and stage layout is really good. They really did a good scene featuring the river leading to the lair of The Phantom. It really looked like they are on water. And the stars that twinkle when Christine was with Raoul on the rooftop, they were actually twinkling which really looked convincing it's like a real star we normally see. This same production did for the World Tour which included countries in Asia. Thumbs up for that!!! I bought a magical mug which I was eyeing for it on the Phatom website in London. It was a similiar mug which the white mask will appear when hot water is poured into it. I even bought the Soundtrack however it is from the Original Cast Reording in London which starred Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford. I even uploaded the music for you all from the Soundtrack. I still preferred the cast in the musical I watched. Their voices were so much better. Brad Little had far better voice than Michael Crawford. Even the singer in this musical had a better voice than Sarah Brightman in terms of voice quality.

The Music:


The Lyrics:

Christine:
In sleep he sang to me
In dreams he came
That voice which calls to me
And speaks my name
And do I dream again?
For now I find
The phantom of the opera is there,
Inside my mind

Phantom:
Sing once again with me
Our strange duet
My power over you
Grows stronger yet
And though you turn from me
to glance behind
The phantom of the opera is there
Inside your mind

Christine:
Those who have seen your face
Draw back in fear
I am the mask you wear

Phantom:
It's me they hear

Both:
My/Your spirit and my/your voice
In one combined
The phantom of the opera is there
inside my/your mind

Chorus:
Is that the phantom of the opera?
Beware the phantom of the opera

Phantom:
In all your fantasies you always knew
That man and mystery

Christine:
Were both in you

Both:
And in this labrinth
Where night is blind
The Phantom of the opera is here/there

Christine:
Inside my mind

Phantom:
Sing, my Angel of Music!

Christine:
He's there,
the Phantom of the Opera . .

The Facts:

• The dazzling replica of the Paris Opera House chandelier is made up of 6,000 beads consisting of 35 beads to each string. It is 3 metres wide and weighs one ton. The touring version falls at 2.5 metres per second. The original version was built by 5 people in 4 weeks.
• The Phantom's make-up takes 2 hours to put on and 30 minutes to take off. The face is moisturized, closely shaved and the prosthetics are fitted, setting immediately, before 2 wigs, 2 radio mics and 2 contact lenses (one white and one clouded) are placed.
• 2,230 metres of fabric are used for the drapes, 900 of them specially dyed. The tasselled fringes measure 226 metres. They are made up of 250 kilos of dyed wool interwoven with 5,000 wooden beads imported from India. Each one is handmade and combed through with an Afro comb.
• There are 130 cast, crew and orchestra members directly involved in each performance.
• Each performance has 230 costumes, 14 dressers, 120 automated cues, 22 scene changes, 281 candles and uses 250 kg of dry ice and 10 fog and smoke machines.
• The touring production takes 27 articulated lorries to transfer the set between theatres.

The Souvenirs:

The mug, phamplet and Soundtrack...

Labels: Hot Stuff, reviews, synopsis

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