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Photo by Don Kellogg

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Phantom of the Opera

I've reached a very momentous moment in my theater-going life. When i was 19 years old, I booked tickets 8 months in advance (yes, that's how long you used to have to wait for tickets),ventured into the city with a friend and attended my first Broadway Musical on my own! This Playbill is the FIRST in my stack of Playbills. (I save them all, if you couldn't already know or have guessed!). Over 300+ later - i now have a genuine duplicate!

Perhaps it's just the passing of time that enhances ones memories of the event... my first show... it was a big theater... we had orchestra seats... we got all dressed up... i recall the electricity in the air... i recall it fondly. I'm sure the theater was not as big i remember it to be. I am sure that there were many people with discount tickets in the audience and that someone sang a bad note or maybe flubbed a line, but I don't remember any of that. I was going to the theater and this was the biggest and best show that I could pick to see! I am positive that my rose colored glasses are still on whenever i look back.
Fast forward - When my awesome theater-going friend, Tom, told me he won tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera and asked me to go with him - I was torn.
"I don't see shows twice", I said. "And of all the shows, you won tickets to that modern day tourist trap?", I muttered.
Upon further reflection I decided that maybe it was time to have a repeat. Maybe it was time to visit something that was a distant memory. I'll update my opinion, record a review, maybe it will be bigger and better than I recall. Is it possible? Well, the answer is a big fat "NO!"
While the show is still the epic Andrew Lloyd Webber saga as it always was meant to me - I was embarrassed for all the tour bus patrons who attended. They were being duped in to thinking this was a GOOD show! I'm sure all their aunts and grandmothers told them to go to New York City and see a big Broadway show - like Phantom (or, god forbid, Mama Mia!).
Pedestrian! Run of the Mill. Emotion-less. Clearly director-less and direction-less. Actors going thru the motions with little gusto. The numbers were barely dramatic. The acting was marginal. The orchestra must have been missing 3 or 4 key players - it sounded anemic. I remember the theater shaking when the chandelier fell. I think it shook more when the "A" train passed by under 8th Avenue!
I left feeling a little bummed. I was disappointed, but even more i was angry for the tourists. Did all these tourists just see what they believed to be a "great" show? How they were robbed and they didn't even know it! Shame on the producers for turning this into the "Grey Gardens" musical on Broadway (i.e run down and shabby).
So - it is with great sadness that I lay this first duplicate playbill down on my pile. I am sure it was a lot better 18 years ago, albeit probably not quite as great as I seem to think it was. I just hope some young 19 year old kid didn't attend this show today and think "Ehhhh.. Broadway isn't really all that good - I think I'll go see a WWF event next week."