Phantom of the Opera
So its a bit late, but I'm still writing this for the group.
If you haven't seen Joel Schumacher's film production of Andrew Loyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera yet, you have to go see it. It is, without a doubt, absolutely amazing. I was just blown away by it.
Over the years I've gone back and forth as a fan of Webber's work. I finally came to this conclusion: musicals put out by Webber are kinda like plays by Neil Simon, its not deep, but it works, people love it for a reason.
I don't have a bad thing to say about any of the cast. It truly was an ensemble piece where it was merited (which were many throughout) and they all worked splendidly together.
Gerard Butler's (Timeline, Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life) performance as the Phantom was great. There were a couple of choices in his singing that I did not expect, but meriting his overall character work they fit together beautifully. An interesting choice by Holloywood to make his mask a bit smaller to emphasize facial expressions (makes sense I guess).
The newcomer, and absolute shocker in the ways of talent would have to be the young Emmy Rossum (Mystic River, Nola) and her portrayl of the young and virtuous Christin Daae. Her singing was superb and so clean. Very well trained. Here's the kicker...she's 17!?!?!? My first thought was OMG...that a girl this young has such an amazing voice and such talent....yeah.
Then there is Raoul, played by Patrick Wilson (Angels in America, The Alamo). He would probably be the best choice possible for this character. Head strong and vibrant. The way he moved and looked and sang just screamed Raoul.
The rest of the ensemble (Miranda Richardson, Minnie Driver, Simon Callow, Ciaran Hinds) helped everything along just wonderfully.
Ok, so I lied. There is one thing that I would have changed with what we saw that night. The volume. It was too quiet. The way this music plays you need to be able to feel it to get the full meaning behind it all. I was absolutely breathless by the whole thing. Just ask
boundtothemusic who was siting next to me. We were singing along to a lot of the songs. Sooooo much fun.
The artistic design to the whole thing was so spectacular. Everything looked amazingly beautiful. In the sequence at the beginning when it jumps through time from 1930 to 1870, the visual effects are so spectacular.
Like I said, it was a great film. If you haven't seen it yet then you need to very soon. This will definetly be one that I will be buying as soon as it comes to DVD.
Pop in if I missed anything.
Ciao
If you haven't seen Joel Schumacher's film production of Andrew Loyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera yet, you have to go see it. It is, without a doubt, absolutely amazing. I was just blown away by it.
Over the years I've gone back and forth as a fan of Webber's work. I finally came to this conclusion: musicals put out by Webber are kinda like plays by Neil Simon, its not deep, but it works, people love it for a reason.
I don't have a bad thing to say about any of the cast. It truly was an ensemble piece where it was merited (which were many throughout) and they all worked splendidly together.
Gerard Butler's (Timeline, Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life) performance as the Phantom was great. There were a couple of choices in his singing that I did not expect, but meriting his overall character work they fit together beautifully. An interesting choice by Holloywood to make his mask a bit smaller to emphasize facial expressions (makes sense I guess).
The newcomer, and absolute shocker in the ways of talent would have to be the young Emmy Rossum (Mystic River, Nola) and her portrayl of the young and virtuous Christin Daae. Her singing was superb and so clean. Very well trained. Here's the kicker...she's 17!?!?!? My first thought was OMG...that a girl this young has such an amazing voice and such talent....yeah.
Then there is Raoul, played by Patrick Wilson (Angels in America, The Alamo). He would probably be the best choice possible for this character. Head strong and vibrant. The way he moved and looked and sang just screamed Raoul.
The rest of the ensemble (Miranda Richardson, Minnie Driver, Simon Callow, Ciaran Hinds) helped everything along just wonderfully.
Ok, so I lied. There is one thing that I would have changed with what we saw that night. The volume. It was too quiet. The way this music plays you need to be able to feel it to get the full meaning behind it all. I was absolutely breathless by the whole thing. Just ask
boundtothemusic who was siting next to me. We were singing along to a lot of the songs. Sooooo much fun.The artistic design to the whole thing was so spectacular. Everything looked amazingly beautiful. In the sequence at the beginning when it jumps through time from 1930 to 1870, the visual effects are so spectacular.
Like I said, it was a great film. If you haven't seen it yet then you need to very soon. This will definetly be one that I will be buying as soon as it comes to DVD.
Pop in if I missed anything.
Ciao
