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Phantom of the Opera
Jun. 6th, 2006 06:01 pmI moved this review of last Thursday's activities to its own entry:
Phantom was AMAZING! Ahhh! It was sooooo cool to be able to go backstage. (one of Courtney's brother's friend's mom knew the stage manager. I think I got that right!) The longest running show in Broadway history (even if I hurt a little bit that the title's been taken away from CATS. ::sniffle::) and I got to see where it all happens. It was so cool. Actual backstage on an actual Broadway show. And not just any show, the most successful show! My god. They really don't have a lot of space back there. We got to see where the actors change their costumes, and we got to see all the machinery and how they do all the special effects (except for the chair thing at the end--the only thing she couldn't tell us! ::gasp!::) and where all the props are kept, and we saw all the wigs--the Phantom wears a bald cap, creepy Phantom prosthetics, a wig with weird Phantom hairs, the Phantom's wig, and the mask. Insanity! And we got to see the costumes, and Courtney and I watched them put the chandelier back into place. And we were wandering around on stage while people were still exiting the theater! Dude. Awesome.
It was so cool.
And we got the meet the Phantom himself!! Howard McGillin stopped by while we were in a costume room, and we all sort of grinned at him in awe, because he was so amazing! He was great. Really. Even comparing him to my previous experience and Michael Crawford on the recording, his performance held up. So we like, stared at him and it was awesome. And then when we left, he was outside signing playbills, and Courtney and I were like, "let's do it!" so we had him sign our playbills and then we actually spoke words, and told him how amazing he was, and how much we enjoyed the show, and how impressed we were that he does that 8 times a week! So fierce!! And he wished Matt (Courtney's brother) a happy birthday (the reason we were there) and he was like "the Phantom wished me a happy birthday!" which is really cute.
Oh man. The whole thing was so awesome. And the show was great too, of course! As I mentioned, the Phantom was excellent. And Raoul was as adorably clueless and loveably goofy as ever! He was great. Andre and Firmin were particularly funny, I thought. I just did not like the actress playing Meg Giry's performance. Usually Meg is one of my favorite characters, but this girl was not cute, and she was really nasal. And the girl who played Christine only does it twice a week, and she seemed sort of inexperienced in the role. But most of the time she sounded great, it was such sometimes she slipped. But I enjoyed the show immensely, so it obviously wasn't a big deal.
also, dude, the guy who played Piangi, who was very funny, was giving his friends a tour backstage at the same time as us! That was cool.
The rest of the trip to the city went off well, too, I think. I navigated everyone around the city with enormous success!! I did not make a single wrong turn or anything. I was very proud of myself. :D And we went to Chinatown for lunch and then went to Central Park and collapsed into the shade for, like, two hours. And then we walked down fifth avenue and went to Ellen's Stardust Diner, home of singing waiters and crazy movie musicals playing silently on the wall. It was awesome! Or at least, I enjoyed it--I loves me some crazy movie musicals.
So, yeah, excellent all around.
And when I got home, it was a blackout!
( work today )
Phantom was AMAZING! Ahhh! It was sooooo cool to be able to go backstage. (one of Courtney's brother's friend's mom knew the stage manager. I think I got that right!) The longest running show in Broadway history (even if I hurt a little bit that the title's been taken away from CATS. ::sniffle::) and I got to see where it all happens. It was so cool. Actual backstage on an actual Broadway show. And not just any show, the most successful show! My god. They really don't have a lot of space back there. We got to see where the actors change their costumes, and we got to see all the machinery and how they do all the special effects (except for the chair thing at the end--the only thing she couldn't tell us! ::gasp!::) and where all the props are kept, and we saw all the wigs--the Phantom wears a bald cap, creepy Phantom prosthetics, a wig with weird Phantom hairs, the Phantom's wig, and the mask. Insanity! And we got to see the costumes, and Courtney and I watched them put the chandelier back into place. And we were wandering around on stage while people were still exiting the theater! Dude. Awesome.
It was so cool.
And we got the meet the Phantom himself!! Howard McGillin stopped by while we were in a costume room, and we all sort of grinned at him in awe, because he was so amazing! He was great. Really. Even comparing him to my previous experience and Michael Crawford on the recording, his performance held up. So we like, stared at him and it was awesome. And then when we left, he was outside signing playbills, and Courtney and I were like, "let's do it!" so we had him sign our playbills and then we actually spoke words, and told him how amazing he was, and how much we enjoyed the show, and how impressed we were that he does that 8 times a week! So fierce!! And he wished Matt (Courtney's brother) a happy birthday (the reason we were there) and he was like "the Phantom wished me a happy birthday!" which is really cute.
Oh man. The whole thing was so awesome. And the show was great too, of course! As I mentioned, the Phantom was excellent. And Raoul was as adorably clueless and loveably goofy as ever! He was great. Andre and Firmin were particularly funny, I thought. I just did not like the actress playing Meg Giry's performance. Usually Meg is one of my favorite characters, but this girl was not cute, and she was really nasal. And the girl who played Christine only does it twice a week, and she seemed sort of inexperienced in the role. But most of the time she sounded great, it was such sometimes she slipped. But I enjoyed the show immensely, so it obviously wasn't a big deal.
also, dude, the guy who played Piangi, who was very funny, was giving his friends a tour backstage at the same time as us! That was cool.
The rest of the trip to the city went off well, too, I think. I navigated everyone around the city with enormous success!! I did not make a single wrong turn or anything. I was very proud of myself. :D And we went to Chinatown for lunch and then went to Central Park and collapsed into the shade for, like, two hours. And then we walked down fifth avenue and went to Ellen's Stardust Diner, home of singing waiters and crazy movie musicals playing silently on the wall. It was awesome! Or at least, I enjoyed it--I loves me some crazy movie musicals.
So, yeah, excellent all around.
And when I got home, it was a blackout!
( work today )
