#phantom reviews

I know book reviews can be tedious because there’s just so much out there and a lot of it is bad, but I loved your book reviews back in the day.

If I can recommend a few recent reads, The Monsters of Music by Rebecca Kinney and The Stars May Rise and Fall by Estella Mirai are both quite good, and genderbending!

I haven’t read any of the books currently on the pill but I voted for the one that looked the most interesting. More book reviews please!

Thank you! (cough, go vote if you haven't, I need motivation)

I'm so glad to hear you like the book reviews! They DO take a lot longer to complete, which is one of the reasons there have been fewer of them lately - between reading time and writing time, they're a longer project. But I also enjoy them and now that I've gotten the review ball rolling a bit with the last few, I think it's time to head back into books more!

Tuesday night was the first time I’d seen Phantom in over three years. Can’t believe it’s been so long! Thank you once again to my wonderful friend for the (slightly) early birthday present; front row centre Royal Circle tickets, probably the best seats we’ve ever had.

I don’t really have the patience to write long reviews these days, but I thought I’d just collect a few thoughts on the show.

Just earlier in the day I’d been saying that in 11 performances I’d always seen the principal Phantom, and how it would be nice if Scott Davies was on. Well, he wasn’t, but neither was David Thaxton; we had understudy Adam Robert Lewis and oh my goodness what a voice! Almost up there with the vocal powerhouse that is John Owen-Jones. Between that and a nuanced portrayal (particularly in the final lair. P and I both loved the way he whispered ‘You try my patience... make your choice!’, and I particularly remember him hurriedly smoothing and tidying his hair as Christine returned with the ring) he shot right up to second favourite Phantom with me. He’s not a screamy or overly-violent Phantom, though he has the odd moment of both; he knows when to dial it up but also to turn it down. Would love to see him again.

The rest of the cast didn’t bowl me over; all very good, but no one else particularly outstanding, although Paul Tabone does have his moments as Piangi, especially in Hannibal.

Some random observations:

There are now bag searches and a pre-show announcement warning of gunshot effects. Things have changed since 2015.

The start of the overture and the rising of the chandelier still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Kelly Mathieson is taller than all of the ballerinas.

Another sign of changing times: the ‘gollywog’ face coverings in Hannibal have gone since my last visit.

Jacinta Mulcahy is still doing her strange Clousseau accent.

Christine’s dressing room was extremely noisy as it came on and off, as was the Masquerade staircase.

Jeremy Taylor went down on one knee in All I Ask Of You (as did ARL at the end of PONR), a little touch I don’t recall seeing before.

Kimberly Blake has been given the most hideous Countess dress I’ve ever seen. The mix of fabrics and the mess of lacing on what should have been a stomacher made me want to weep.

ARL was treading all over the train of Kelly Mathieson’s dressing gown during Music of the Night.

Ross Dawes has a beard that reminds me of Edward VII. He also has very white teeth that he makes much amusing use of being more genial Firmin than many I’ve seen, not even remotely annoyed with himself for his accidental use of ‘wrote’, unlike Barry James, who used to radiate disgust.

The Red Death trapdoor is in full use, but Jeremy Taylor doesn’t do the bridge jump.

The Gibson Girl and the pirate were both on for Masquerade.

You could really feel the heat from the graveyard flames from our seats!

Kelly Mathieson was one seriously pissed off Christine once Raoul was threatened. She was so in his face she practically backed the Phantom across the stage. Conversely, she was very gentle with him when she returned the ring, holding and squeezing his hands.

As I mentioned earlier, Adam Robert Lewis whispered ‘You try my patience’, which for me was so much more effective than screaming it. He really did seem to be becoming exhausted by the whole business, despite being the one who caused it all in the first place.

I don’t remember an excess of crawling about on the floor, but by the end of the show he had a nice rip in one of the knees of his trousers.

HMT has a proper souvenir stand. I didn’t look at everything they had as they were doing brisk business after the show, but as you’ve probably seen someone special did come home with me:

Since Blip.tv will be cancelling the Phantom Reviewer's account soon, the PR is moving some of his videos to a new YouTube account:

https://www.youtube.com/user/MorePhantomReviews

Also, for those people wanting to download the PR's videos from Blip, here's a way to do it. Go to:

http://savedeo.com/sites/bliptv

and paste the URL of the video that you want to download. Then on the link that says "download," right-click and select "Save Link As". This will allow you to save the video as a .WMV file.