I would love to see it on the stage! So far my only Phantom experience has been by viewing the movie...which rocks.

*I voted - the official 50th "I loved it!" Woohoo! *

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you have to be careful with the stage show - if you do ever manage to go, don't get your hopes up too much because it will depend entirely on the cast you see. when i went, the phantom and christine were brilliant, but raoul was absolutely useless (not that brilliant a singer and he played it all wrong) and i really wanted to slap meg because she was just so annoying. it also looks really dated, like the costumes are a bit naff, and some of it was a little over-choreographed for my tastes.

having said that, it is an incredible exercise in stage design (they recreate the lair brilliantly, for instance) and hearing the music live is an experience like no other - i was crying four bars in, for pete's sake!

see it if you can, but just be warned - the cast won't be as good as in the film.

I'd have to disagree there (based on my own experiences of course), the cast in the stage show was much better than the cast in the movie in my opinion. Better vocals definitely!

The costumes are a bit dated but if you think about it, back in the 1800's - I don't think anything looked spanking brand new back then.

But yeah I guess it all depends on where you see it. I saw it in Stockholm, Sweden both of the times and the actors were top notch - the best musical performers in Sweden at the time (1989-1995), the Phantom especially. Mikael Samuelsson who played him here in Sweden has a voice that just sends chills up and down your spine on every single note he sings

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when i said the show looked dated, i meant that you can tell it was designed in the 1980s. i expected the costumes to look old fashioned cuz it's set in the late 1800s, but they didn't really look like straight period costumes - they definitely had a 1980s twist to them, especially in masqerade, which doesn't stand up well now.

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I think all period costumes made after that certain period slightly shows what decade they were made in. Looking back on PotO in 30 years we'll probably say "oh how early 2000's it looks!". But yeah I get what you're saying.

Then again, in stage show musicals no costume or set decoration is really ever truly straight period. There is a huge difference between movie costumes for a period film and theater costumes for a period production!

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Now when people talk about "the stage show", they're not always referring to the purely Andrew Lloyd Webber directed version. Yes, the script is purely Andrew Lloyd Webber, but stage direction, costuming and cast is purely all up to the theater --- they simply have to license it.

With broadway and other theaters, there's always a chance for someone to screw up the play version. It's the same as with films. The theater may not have been able to get appropriate costumes, or they can't find good material or their theatre is much too small for any real stage variety.

I agree with Erulisse that the cast for stage shows are without a doubt going to be at least 50% better than the cast in the movie provided they cast an excellent Phantom. I've said this before and I'll say it now, Gerard Butler is not the greatest <i>opera</i> singer in the whole world, he's a decent general, musical singer --- but opera? Not his thing and will probably never be his thing. My ears were bleeding.

I much prefer the singing from the 1980's PotO stage show with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman because... well, they were just that perfect. Especially Michael Crawford, man I love his voice.

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i'm afraid i have to disagree very strongly - sarah brightman is just shrill and michael crawford's voice is nowhere near powerful enough for my tastes. there are moments when he's singing where he still sounds like frank spencer (and for those who don't know, that was the extremely pathetic, weedy creature he played in some mothers do have 'em). plus, he doesn't have any charisma whatsoever to explain christine's evident attraction to him.

gerard butler may not be an opera singer (but then neither is crawford - he's still musical theatre; and after all, phantom of the opera is a musical, not a full-blown opera) but his voice is incredibly passionate and raises the hairs on the back of my neck like no one else. i think he also acts the part brilliantly - there are some wonderful subtleties to his performance, despite claims that he can only do "one step away from madness". and if andrew lloyd webber (who as we all know is the real-life phantom) said that's the voice he wanted, who are we to argue?

and the stage cast won't always be 50% better than the film cast - the cast i saw in the west end weren't even half as good. the phantom was alright, but didn't have anything like gerard butler's presence; christine was more expressive than emmy rossum, but her voice wasn't as pure; carlotta was a great singer, but didn't have minnie driver's comic abilities; the raoul would be considered poor even by amateur standards; and meg just needed a good slap.

i think we're all gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.

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I never liked Sarah Brightman or Michael Crawford at all, especially not Michael Crawford. Having seen the Swedish stage show for me there is no alternative to the Phantom than Mikael Samuelsson. The role of Christine varied from the different performances I saw but Mikael Samuelsson did the role for the full 6 years that it was running in Stockholm!

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well...I absolutely loved all three stars of the film. Gerry has an amazing voice. No, not opera-like, but I can't really imagine the Phantom singing the traditional, yodel-like opera. Christine can be a little annoying, but her voice is amazingly pure and she can sound incredibly good even when hitting notes far out of a normal person's range. Raoul is the weakest of the three, I guess, but even his singing is very good. His voice is not as compelling as the Phantom's, but it also has a sort of...pure-ness. Besides, how many guys do you know that can sing half as well as him? *is a Phanny AND Raoul fan*

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Seems we have different opinions, but I like Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford.

And I believe that Raoul's was one of the strongest vocals in the film along with Minnie Driver's singing dub.

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strange that people should say raoul was the weakest when he was the only musical theatre singer in the entire film (he'd previously been in oklahoma and i think the musical of the full monty). i actually think he's brilliant in the role - i can't pick fault with his vocal performance and there's an honesty to him that i absolutely love.

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The Phantom in the stage show doesn't really have an opera voice... just more of a musical-performance voice, all in all an excellent singer. Butler is an ok singer, but the Phantom should have been a perfect singer.

I didn't think Patrick as Raoul was the weakest at all, he had a lovely voice - I thought he was absolutely perfect for the role.

LoL we're probably not going to ever agree on these different matters so let's move on to a different topic. This has probably been talked about before but I haven't been to this thread in forever (until now) so let's bring it up again:

What was everyone's favorite moment/scene of the film?
For me, without a question, the opening sequence at the auction when they reveal the huge chandelier and then it all of sudden comes to life and the Phantom Theme starts playing.. I get shivers just thinking about it and when I saw it in the theater I actually cried because I was so overwhelmed. PotO has been such a huge part of my life having seen the stage show at such an early age and I grew up on the music, so that moment in the film just brought back all the nostalgic feelings inside of me and I couldn't help but weep

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Well, by "weakest", I certainly didn't mean that his voice was weak. I loved all three of them, but if I had to rank them...yeah.

Wow...that's my favorite moment too, Eru! I remember the first time I saw it with my friends, I got so filled with energy and excitiement I think I started jumping around...
Another favorite scene is the entire run through the songs "why have you brought me here" and "all I ask of you (phantom's reprise)". Raoul and Christine's song conveys their love so well, so beautiful and pure, that I couldn't help feeling exquistitely happy for them. And then when the Phantom sings, I just start crying, and my heart breaks at the same time. It's so odd to have those two opposite feelings together, and nothing else can do that for me the way that scene does.

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