Me, Listening To The Guitar Riffs In The Phantom Of The Opera

me, listening to the guitar riffs in The Phantom of the Opera

*overture starts playing*

Me, rapidly looking back and forth while raising and lowering my voice several octaves: Why have you brought me he- Don’t take me back there! We must retur- He’ll kill me! His eyes will find me th- Christine don’t say that! Those eyes that bur- Don’t even think it! And if he has to kill a thousand men- Forget this waking nightmare! The phantom of the opera will kill and kill again! My god- my god who is this man? Who hunts to kill- this mask of death! I can’t escape from h- who’s is this voice you hea- I never wi- with every breath! And in the labyrinth where night is blind, the phaaaaa ntom of the opera is here, inside my mIND! THERE IS NO P HANTOM OF THE OPERA!R A O U L I’VE BEEN THERE!

Guys. The Pride playbills are EVERYTHING. So pretty. Couldn’t resist seeing Phantom again to get it. Number 29 was magical from the front row. I also impulse bought more Phantom swag cause why not?

We caught Elizabeth Welch as Christine, Ben Crawford as the Phantom, both of whom I’ve seen before, and Jay A Johnson as Raoul. I’ve been DYING to see the Raoulstache in action and it was wonderful.

I have lots to say about how wonderful Jay is as Raoul, which is super exciting cause I’m a huge Raoul fan. Aside from being Leroux Raoul in appearance, I thought he was very Leroux Raoul in his choices as well.

His dressing room scene was an adorable mix of childhood memories and clearly humoring Christine about the angel of music. I loved the confidence he has in his entrance.

He played the spoiled but sweet, appropriately entitled +childish but regal Raoul, and his rooftop was caring and reassuring, not too harsh or angry. And WHAT a swoon worthy AIAOY. I was on the side where I could see his reactions and hopefulness and love and adoration and everything wonderful. My sis said she teared up, and I know I had the dorkiest look on my face as I watched.

Elizabeth Welch is always a dream to watch. She’s such a wonderful Christine with a BEAUTIFUL voice. She has a lot of great reactions in MotN and is just lovely. I can’t say enough about how much I love the way she carries her Christine.

Ben Crawford has such an awesome Phantom voice it’s ridiculous. I don’t know how such a dorky person can play such a fierce Phantom. I love how he uses the accent in PoNR, and his AIAOY reprises (Act 1 and in final lair) are simply heartbreaking. He’s a menace in STYDI. He uses a different physicality than I’m used to, being MUCH more of an imposing figure than Peter was. It is fun to have seen him progress and I look forward to seeing where he takes it when I inevitably see it in the future.

Front row made for lots of eye contact, especially during masquerade, which was great. This cast has some of the best Carlotta, Piangi, Mme Giry, Meg and managers I’ve seen, understudies and all. It’s amazing to see it run so well even after 30 years.

Gah I just love this show. Some of the cast had even started remembering me at the stage door, which is, ya know, phantastic.

Time to dream about/plan my next visit. Have a few new shows in the mix to see, but of course I’ll always return to my one true love.

i love the third one!

Christine Daaé wigs backstage

he’s trying rly hard to dance to music of the night, not working