Phantom Vegas DVD?- Page 2

[Wildcard]

Posted: 8/21/12 at 5:40pm

The chandelier begins as four pieces at the start of the show. One piece is on stage underneath the cloth. The other pieces are floating in mid-air. When it assembles, the four pieces fly and rotate in the theater before becoming one and lighting up.

Towards the end of Act 1, when the Phantom says "she is singing to bring down the chandelier," he is actually hanging from the bottom of the chandelier.

After it falls after "Point of No Return," it recesses into the ceiling and becomes hidden from view.
Chandelier assembling

[The Scorpion]

Posted: 8/21/12 at 5:41pm

Agree about the 25th anniversary DVD. It's a close representation and A LOT better than the movie but it still lacks the elegance of the actual show. I don't even mind the chandelier not falling on the DVD it's the fluidity of the stageing and some of the simpler stage pictures that I miss most.

Surprisingly for a die-hard like myself, I haven't seen the DVD of the Albert Hall event, but I was there live, and I really didn't like it that much. It started off promisingly but after a while the direction really started to bug me. There were some serious 'WTF?' moments: I still have no idea why Christine fainted during 'Music of the Night' (there was no mirror with the mannequin) and some of the staging was dodgy, for example where Raoul leaves Christine just before 'The Mirror' -- the lack of a dressing room set means that it seems like he's just ignoring her when she cries desperately that she can't go to supper with him and all is not as it once was. Not to mention the incredibly frustrating change in direction at the very end, as though to force the show kicking and screaming to fit with its unnecessary and contradictory sequel. It seemed poorly thought out and sadly augured Laurence Connor's equally bad direction in the substandard UK tour that is going on right now (nothing substandard about the cast, but the design and direction are disappointing exercises in cost-cutting that show little evidence of intelligent thought and research behind them). I doubt these faux pas would have happened had Hal Prince been at the helm of the RAH event.

As for Schumacher's piece of %#!&, the wonderful impression I'm getting so far of Hooper's Les Mis film makes me weep all the more for such a wasted, trashed opportunity. Hopefully one day it'll be remade by someone who has nothing to do with Schumacher and is free from the clutches of the Baron of Sydmonton, who has clearly lost his marbles in recent years.

Anyway yes, considering how ALW claimed recently what a shame it is the original Hal Prince production of Evita, among some of his other acclaimed shows, was never filmed professionally for release, you'd think he'd realise making a DVD of the original iconic production of Phantom would be well worth it. Actually, I'm sure he knows it would be, considering how much demand there's been for one ever since the show opened, but I still hold out hope. It's certainly more worthy of documentation than a certain flop show that was exiled down under and filmed...



Updated On: 8/21/12 at 05:41 PM

[westcoast_wannabe]

Posted: 8/21/12 at 9:15pm

If the show ever closes I wouldn't be suprised if we got a filming of the final performance the way we did for RENT.

Scorpion you mention the dressing room scene and that's the scene that bothered me the most on the DVD. I love the tiny raised dressing room with the ballet corp rehearsing at stage level in the background. Visually it's one of my favorite moments in the show. Playing it all on the same level lousy doesn't have the same elegance.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 8/21/12 at 11:43pm

The dressing room scene was also my biggest let down. It is one of my all time favorite sets and has been since I first saw it represented in a pop-up book when I was 5 years old. It is really the lack of that set that makes me long for a better pro-shot, commercially available DVD. I was fine with almost everything else about the RAH recording.
Although the end bit did not work as well for me. It seems they were trying to force the idea that she wanted to choose the psychotic killer who murders all that's good.

[ChiChi]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:34am

I didn't mind the production at RAH at all. I thought the design was nice. But I also expected that the new set would be a smaller version of that or something smaller and reminiscent of it.

Updated On: 8/22/12 at 12:34 AM

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 1:03am

"After it falls after "Point of No Return," it recesses into the ceiling and becomes hidden from view."

Actually, after it drops and the blackout, it raises back into place above the audience and it's in full view for the rest of the show.

There is a giant 4 foot wide opening for the Phantom stunt guy to drop down at one point, but the chandelier never is out of sight.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 1:49am

I seem to recall that while it was not lifted completely out of view after the crash that it was lifted higher than it had been during the rest of the show so that it was less present during the final lair scene.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 2:40am

"as though to force the show kicking and screaming to fit with its unnecessary and contradictory sequel."

Many people have said this about the RAH show, but I take issue with it. I don't think the ending was anything to do with Love Never Dies (there. I said it.) I think it was just a case of "this is the space we've got and this is how we have to stage it." There was no boat, so Raoul and Christine had to just exit via the stairs. Of course, with all that music, she had to take her time and thus people automatically assumed it was gearing it up for Love Never Dies. Hell, if they really wanted to gear the end of the show up for the sequel, they would have done it in the UK tour (which they have not done.)

[Justin D]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 8:42am

Back to the Vagas show, just to clarify, when the chandelier falls is does not seperate (you were asking how long it takes to come back together in the blackout) it basically falls as a unit with some interesting glass rattling sound effects. Also in an interesting addition, just before running offstage, the phantom shouts "bring down the chandelier" which draws people's attention to it (particularly those under it) but it does sound a bit odd, like he has an accomplace somewhere causing it to drop.

No one yet has mentioned what is I think the worst cut, that is shortening Point of no Return to only one verse and one chorus, a needless cut in my opinion.

Other minor changes and interesting additions are some set pieces. Il Muto has an expanded bedroom set where it isnt just the bed anymore, but a larger canopy and backwall. Don Juan is now set more in a Spanish courtyard rather than in a barn. They use the travelator more for Buquet's parts, in Hannibal and when he is murdered in Il Muto. For the dressing room, the mirror is set up slightly different, instead of the whole glass moving open, and you seeing the whole pane of glass moving, it still moves but there is just a 'hole' barely the size of christine to walk through, so with the addee smoke it looks (when the smoke is right) like she walks through the solid pane of glass. another 2 light touches: when the boat turns around in the lair it becomes a more convincing bed when a small headboard pops up from inside the boat. And the whole manequin popping through the mirror is a bit more dramatic with the mirror actually shattering open.

the only other change that i am not a fan of is the modified deformity. While the physical prosthetic is similar, it is just painted awful. Looks more like a burn with alot of gangrene around it and the painting does not go with the physical deformity at all, it's just all over the place.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 3:50pm

Here is a very large image I took of the chandelier pieces in their resting position, out over the audience. You can see the 4 pieces, how large the thing is (The smallest piece is the size of the chandelier I worked with on the tour), and you can also see the large hole in the center section where the stunt man is lowered through, when the chandelier is stacked and hanging in it's place.

You are welcome.

Updated On: 8/22/12 at 03:50 PM

[The Scorpion]

Posted: 8/23/12 at 7:26am

Many people have said this about the RAH show, but I take issue with it. I don't think the ending was anything to do with Love Never Dies (there. I said it.) I think it was just a case of "this is the space we've got and this is how we have to stage it." There was no boat, so Raoul and Christine had to just exit via the stairs. Of course, with all that music, she had to take her time and thus people automatically assumed it was gearing it up for Love Never Dies. Hell, if they really wanted to gear the end of the show up for the sequel, they would have done it in the UK tour (which they have not done.)

Disagree. I think Sierra chose or was directed to look like she was very reluctant to leave the Phantom. Her entire reprise of 'All I Ask of You' was addressed to the Phantom, at least on the night I saw it. She could have addressed it to Raoul, but she didn't. Whether or not the boat was used is irrelevant (and they could have actually used the boat, come to think of it, since they did in the title song).

What annoys me about the release of the RAH DVD is that so many people in the general public think that's the actual show, but the entire thing misses the point of Hal Prince's production being a love letter to the theatre. He said back in '86 that he wanted the audience the smell the greasepaint and the incense, and to 'feel' the fabrics of the curtains and so on. You don't get that with pixelated projections which don't actually show up well on the DVD from the clips I've seen (the Grand Staircase in particular is barely visible on the DVD and looked better live). I know this is all because the Albert Hall has limitations; but then maybe they shouldn't have marketed the DVD as the stage show coming to DVD for the first time (which is what they did - there's even a misleading trailer on YouTube by RUG/Cameron Mackintosh which actually uses clips of the EPK filmed at Her Majesty's rather than the RAH event).

Updated On: 8/23/12 at 07:26 AM