Monday, November 29, 2010

Yeston/Kopit Phantom - BroadHollow Theatre at Elmont Public Library Review

Your Phantom blogger pal with Brianne Boyd (Christine), Chris Dufrenoy (Erik) and Janette!
On Friday night (November 26, 2010) I didn't celebrate Black Friday by shopping, I never do unless it's online shopping. Instead I went to a local community theatre production of Phantom by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit. My Phantom PHriend as well as PHellow PHan who happens to live local to me Janette and my love went with me. Janette will eventually write up her opinion of the show and I will add it to this entry.

This is my second time seeing this version of Phantom, I saw it when I was 18 at Hofstra University (10 years ago! Oh my!) Janette also saw it at Hofstra, we were trying to remember if Hofstra had a live orchestra for this version or not. What we saw Friday night was pre recorded orchestrations but live singing.

Chris Dufrenoy was Erik, he had a good voice and played the part of Erik very well. Janette, who I have deemed the resident Y/K Phantom expert (because she's seen it one more time then I have) said he nailed the song My mother bore me. She said that is the best she's ever heard that song to be sung. 

Brianne Boyd was an amazing Christine, she sang beautifully, her facial expressions conveyed exactly what Christine was feeling.

There were two Phillipes, I'm not sure which of the two I saw that night, all I can say is unfortunately because I hate Raoul and Phillipe is the equivalent of Raoul in this version of the story, I kind of blocked him out of my brain a little bit (sorry actor).

Sheila Sheffield played Carlotta, she was good, she played the role of sneaky conniving diva quite well.

Dominick Trivigno played young Erik, he was adorable, and had a pretty good voice for a young boy.

The rest of the cast and ensemble did very well, they worked well together to keep the show rolling.

Scenery, set and lighting were great, the set was well done, they definitely made it possible for the phantom to sneak around, and the set was able to convey the mood that the Opera Company was being taunted by a phantom.

The costumes were stunning. I absolutely loved Christine's Tatiana (fairy queen) dress. Erik's masks were well done, in this version he has different masks to portray his feelings.

After the show to my astonishment as well as Janette's the cast was outside in costume willing to greet everyone. I eagerly gave out a few business cards, Janette and I sort of stood in awe staring at the two principle actors, and then finally asked to take a picture with them, which my sweetheart agreed to take for us.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Phantom ABCs

One of my friends posted something about ABCs and technology so it has inspired me to create Phantom ABCs, this is how PHans teach kids the alphabet. I had to stretch a few letters to relate to Phantom LOL.

A is for Angel
B is for Bar, Buqet, Box Five, Boat
C is for Christine, Carlotta, Cellar, Chandelier
D is for Don Juan Triumphant, disfigurement, deformed
E is for Erik
F is for Firmin, Fog
G is for Graveyard, Ghost
H is for Hannibal
I is for Il Muto
J is for Joseph
K is for Kopit
L is for Lasso, Lair, Leroux
M is for Monkey, Masquerade, Mirror, managers, music
N is for Notes
O is for Opera, Opera House
P is for Phantom, Punjab, Piangi, Persian
Q is for quite
R is for Rat, Rooftop, Raoul (gross!)
S is for Staircase
T is for Trophy, Tutor
U is for Underground, Understudy
V is for Violin
W is for Wishing You were somehow here again
X is for Perdita X - a character in Maskerade, a novel from Discworld written by Terry Pratchett, Maskerade was loosely based on POTO
Y is for Yeston
Z is for zazzle.com - a website used to sell custom phantom creations

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Great Neck South High School's performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera - REVIEW

Last night my love and I went to see what I believe to be the first local production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, performed by a high school, since the rights were released for high schools to performa Phantom. We attended a performance at William A. Shine's Great Neck South High School. I was very excietd and very curious to see the show and to compare it to the Broadway production.

Considering the high school probably worked on this production for possibly 3 months only (I'm still not quite sure about all the production details) they pulled together and did a pretty amazing job. Most of the scenes and musical numbers mimicked the broadway show but on a smaller scale although there were differences. I have some video clips (I was surprised I managed to get away with taking a few photos and video) which I will post to youtube, facebook and picasa sometime very soon.

Aaron Mor played the phantom, he did a wonderful job voice and acting wise. I have some of the final scene on video but couldn't finish taping because as always I started boohooing at the end. This kid blows Gerard Butler away voice wise. He's much better.

Karen Notovitz performed Christine very well, she managed to pull of Christine's high notes very well, which could have gone the other way as high school singers may not be as developed as a Broadway singer.

The real star of the show to me though was Jane Coons as Carlotta. She stole the show, she performed the role of the diva to a T and her voice was amazing, this young girl has great range for her voice and was an excellent Carlotta.

The set pieces, sets and costume as well as lighting were all very good. I liked the dancers costumes from the Il Muto scene best for this production. Christine and Carlotta's costumes mimicked the broadway costumes but were less elaborate, they were still pretty good though. The Phantom's costume was great, and make up did a pretty good job with the deformity, they gave him gray hair after he was unmasked which is pretty interesting.

Overall I can give the great neck high school's production a pretty good review, at the end of the performance I met the show's director and gave him my Phantom PHan business card with my contact information. I'm hoping he will contact me and I can score an interview or something for a bonus blog entry. It would be nice to get more pictures and hopefully some interviews.

Phantoons of the Opera

Raphael has made a 2011 Phantom of the Opera calendar, Phantoons of the Opera. Worth checking out and possibly purchasing :)

Phantoons of the Opera!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Christmas gift ideas for the PHan in your life!

The holidays are among us again. Are you wondering what kind of phantom goodies to ask for if you're a PHan? Or what you can get that special PHan in your life (whether they're your partner or relative). I've decided to put together a small holiday gift guide for PHans and PHan lovers everywhere!!!

Tickets
Tickets are always a great idea for the Phan in your life. We do not mind repeatedly seeing Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical over and over again, and we don't mind tickets to special phantom events in our area, if you know of any. Just DO NOT buy us a ticket to Love Never Dies unless you wish to risk our fear and loathing.

You can get tickets through the show's official website (which seems to be down at the time of this blog entry), or you can hunt around for discount ticket offers, around this time of year newspapers generally offer sale advertisements for tickets as well.


Books
I am a lover of books and also a PHan, I'm sure there are many phans out there like me, the books will be my most comprehensive ideas for gifts as I'm including a few common books that PHans must have as well as my personal wish list of Phantom books I'd like to receive. 


  The Phantom of the Opera: Pop-Up Book 













































































































PHilms
The PHan in  your life will always appreciate a phantom movie. We like to have a collection of PHilms available in case we are in need of an emergency fix or in case we crave seeing a certain phantom on our TV. Three common films are the 2004 musical, the 1925 Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney and the 1990 Phantom with Charles Dance. 
 





















Soundtracks
What Phan doesn't want a soundtrack from the show, even if they have it generally they will gladly take another one. Three good soundtracks IMO are the original OLC, The Mexican Cast Recording and the Y/K Phantom.
  

























Music boxes, Ornaments and other unique PHan gifts
A few years ago there was a company making Phantom of the Opera music boxes, the San Francisco Music box Company. Carlton Cards has also made Phantom of the Opera Christmas Ornaments. The music box company has gone out of business and I'm not sure if Carlton Cards sells ornaments from previous years. But you can always find these music boxes through e-bay, if you use Phantom of the Opera as a search term you can yield a search for many unique Phan gifts.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Phantom of the Opera Audio Book published by Tantor - Review

Sometime during late September I visited a book store in Huntington with my friends, it was part of a birthday celebration. To my delight I came across this version of Phantom of the Opera on Audio CD, with a free e-book included and it was on sale. Of course I had the funds to buy it, so I made the purchase. I was excited because in all my years as a phan this was only the second audio version of the Phantom of the Opera novel  that I owned. Quite some time ago I had the cassette version of the book on tape, but I don't think I have it anymore.

Tantor publications has made this audio book available, Alexander Adams is the narrator. He does a wonderful job narrating this novel, he expresses feelings of the characters but he is not over the top in expression and he doesn't make the story boring with his narration as some audio book readers can do.

If you do not have the phantom of the opera novel on audio book yet, this is definitely a worthwhile version to add to your collection :)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

The Phantom of the Opera Penguin Readers editon - review

I picked up this version of Phantom of the Opera for my thesis, just worked on re-reading it for this blog and well because I wanted to. Basically it is a retelling of Gaston Leroux's novel written by Coleen Degnan-Veness. It's 83 pages long with some discussion questions after the novel, this takes up about 3 pages. This book is great for younger students as well as teachers of younger students who are interested in the story, or would like to assign it. The discussion questions at the end provide a great guide for a lesson and to get the reader to think more about the novel. During the novel definitions are provided as footnotes for the reader. This book is the best I've seen so far for anyone wishing to teach phantom, so teachers who read my blog this is the book for you if your students range from 4th to 6th grade.

Great Neck South High School performing POTO

Oh I'm on phantom overload!!! Y/K phantom is performing at Elmont Public Library which I'm trying to get to and Great Neck South High School on Long Island is performing ALWs Phantom. I would like to go to both, that's two weekends in a row of phantom if I do.

Monday, November 1, 2010

November's Sexy Phantom

Wow haven't posted for some time...at least for me. Halloween and the time our favorite man, the phantom is most widely recognized has passed for this year :( But don't despair, I have a sexy phantom for November. This month's Phantom is Claude Rains, he also starred in Casablanca among other classic films. He was the 1943 Universal Studios Phantom.
Claude Rains 1943 Phantom of the Opera