Phantom of the Opera # 48 - Pre- Anniversary Celebration Review

I miss the Masquerade poster but this is pretty

Last night I went to Phantom of the Opera for performance number 48 under my belt! Today I am suffering from phanxhaustion but it's very worth it! Shawn and I got tickets to last night's show because we thought it was going to be impossible to see the 25th anniversary celebration...and then they put tickets up for sale for the 25th anniversary celebration, so I am going tonight sans Shawn because if he goes again he's going to suffer from phantom burn out, not to be confused with phanxhaustion! After tonight I will probably be dead because today I also had to show up to work 9 to 3, my boss luckily agreed to support my obsession and gave the okay to get out of here at 3 PM today (sometimes being a loyal employee is worth it when your boss can do little PHavors back for you!) Enough of this hopefully PHunny paragraph onto my review/thoughts on last night's show.

Phanxhaustion survival kit

Hugh was amazing as always! I love to see him, I'm really not a great judge of singing or tone, probably because you wouldn't want to hear me sing in real life (most likely I'm tone deaf) but Hugh has a distinctive voice which gives his version of the Phantom a unique twist that I happen to dig very much. Shawn actually thinks even though Hugh was billed it's possible that Jeremy Stolle went on for the first act and Hugh was on for the second. He might be right because I heard Hugh had a cold but I also heard that he wasn't doing performances for the previous shows as well so he might have been able to handle the whole show. I thought it was Hugh from the beginning. Eh one of us is right, this is what happens when you get married!

This was the first time I got to see Sierra perform. I thought she was much better last night then from what I saw of her during the 25th anniversary concert that was broadcasted live and later available on DVD performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London. IMO she had more facial expression live then she did during the London performance. It was interesting to see how she handled this role. She's played three different versions of Christine. Originally she was playing in Las Vegas as Christine, then she went to London to be Christine in LND, then she played Christine in London during the 25th anniversary in London, now she's here in NY as Christine for the NY 25th anniversary. Another phan said she was a fiesty Christine, which is true. I saw her shove Kyle Barisich (he was playing Raoul) during AIAOY. I felt like she was pretty much implying All I ask of you is to leave me alone.

I really don't have any thoughts about Kyle Barisich as Raoul. I was pretty damn tired last night and I'm going to be tired later too so these reviews might not be the very best to go by. All I'm saying is that didn't make me sick enough. A really good Raoul makes me sick to my stomach.

The managers were pretty cool, I like Jim Weitzer as Monsieur Andre he's pretty animated.

Ellen Harvey portrays Mme. Giry very well. She's pretty dramatic, which does well for the character, Mme. Giry is a pretty dramatic lady.

I really love Michele McConnell I mentioned her a few times before but she's a great Carlotta.

Those are pretty much all the thoughts that stand out from last night. The performance went too fast, it always seems the two and a half hours at phantom fly by for me and I spend so much time looking forward to it when I get to see the show. I can't wait until tonight if I am not dying of exhaustion hopefully I can formulate some decent thoughts for a 25th anni blog entry and performance review!