Phantom of the Opera # 51 Notes

pretty theatre!

As of today my reviews/thoughts about anything phantom that I've seen, heard, or read will be titled notes. I figured this was most appropriate as my reviews sometimes aren't full reviews but are more of a review/thoughts combination.

Jen and I outside of the theatre with some random man in the background. 

This past Wednesday night on September 25, 2013 I had the luck of attending Phantom of the Opera for my 4th time this year (51st time in total) with my friend Jen. She had gotten a bunch of tickets at the Broadway Cares flea market including a voucher to see Phantom of the Opera this week. She had asked me at the flea market if I would be willing to take a ticket and I said I would if we can go on Wednesday night. I traded her dinner for the ticket. I'll feed someone giving me a phantom of the opera ticket anytime!

Pre-show excitement!

Hugh Panaro made this performance amazing! He's back in the role of the Phantom right now. He did some new things I've never seen him do when he performed the role before, he blew Jen and I away with the new stuff he's come up with. Right after MOTN before Christine wakes up from her boat fainting and spending the night in the phantom's lair while Hugh is banging away at the organ he has a new head shake dance move. Adds a great touch to that part of the show. During the final lair scene he whispered "You try my patience," to Christine, which gave the scene a shuddering touch that took my breath away.

chandelier!

Jeremy Hays needs to grow into the role of Raoul a little more and I'm sure he'll be just fine. Towards the beginning of his performance he seemed to just be reciting his lines but he's new in the role of Raoul so I'm willing to cut him some slack and say he'll definitely be better with a little more time.

Jen hiding behind her t-shirt purchase

Once the show was over Jen and I stage-doored. I haven't gotten to a have a real stage door experience in awhile. When I tried stage-dooring the night before the 25th anniversary things were a mess because everyone wanted to meet Sierra Bogess. I didn't bother for the 25th anniversary and even though I wanted to stage door when Joback was in I didn't do it because the two friends Shawn and I met after the show really didn't want to do the stage door thing. Notable actors we met while at the stage door included Jeremy Hays and the very lovable Jeremy Stolle. Stolle is incredibly awesome he cares a lot about the phans and is so easy going with anyone he meets.

A blurry bad photo of Jeremy Stolle and I but I still need to post it!

So those are my notes for performance # 51. Go see Hugh, even if you've seen him before! My next mission is to hopefully see Mary Michael Patterson in the role of Christine. (I ended up missing Sam Hill unfortunately. I heard she was quite good.)