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House by the Lake:A Phantom of the Opera Guild

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The OTHER musicals...

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Trish the Stalker

PostPosted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:53 am


There are a ton of different adaptations of PotO (as seen here), at least 20 different stage versions of the story exist.

The two biggest name musicals next to the ALW one seem to be Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera and Phantom. I don't actually have the fortune to know much about them but I'd like to try to pry some discussion from the people who actually know about them *cough cough*Fox*cough* so they can further enlighten us.

Someone will to share the soundtracks or how to get them would be super-duper awesome too.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:47 pm


I just got the Yeston-Kopit one! Now if only I can draw myself away from Into the Woods... xd

It's a completely different Phantom, which is probably a good thing because this version might not have been released since ALW was able to stage our beloved POTO first.

There are a lot of differences namely:

- Christine Daee
- No Raoul! It's Count Philippe de Chandon, instead
- Christine doesn't start in the opera house. She starts as a song seller (as in handing out sheet music) and the count discovers her and gets her in (because he's the patron)
- No managers. CARLOTTA gets the opera house.
- Ooooh. A bit of the actual singing lessons.

The plot is a bit overdone, the lyrics are odd are times and the music isn't comparable to ALW's, but it still holds together and is nonetheless a good musical in its own right.

Jusy


PhantomoftheFox

PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 2:08 pm


You called, Belle? biggrin

Don't forget the changes to Erik's background in Y/K:

- He was born and raised in the opera house, and rarely leaves it.
- His half-mad mother lived down there with him until she died. She thought he looked perfectly normal and couldn't be convinced otherwise.
- Was taken care of and kept hidden after her death by the old opera manager, Gerard (Highlight for spoilers), who turns out to be Erik's father in the end.
- Only kills one person, by accident, and regrets it immensely. His mischief leans more toward practical jokes against Carlotta.
- Wears several different masks to illustrate his moods.

So, yeah... It's a whole different ballgame than ALW. The main appeal to a lot of people is that the whole show is about Erik and Christine, and there's a heavy E/C tilt to the whole thing. Somehow, it's still quite good, though. Y/K Erik is a lot of fun in the few scenes he gets, and the songs are pretty catchy, which makes up for the occasionally atrocious lyrics.
If you can't see the show, there was a 1991 television miniseries based on it that might be easier to track down. There's no music from the show, but the plot is the same, and Charles Dance and Teri Polo as Erik and Christine are my favorites. As a bonus, some scenes were actually filmed at the Palais Garnier. biggrin

And I'm seeing Ken Hill live for the first time in two weeks, so I'll have to post more on that then...
I'd review the 1990 Rosen musical (on video with David Staller as Erik), but you can't really review that show. It's just one of the things you have to see. The music is excellent and the staging largely ripped off of ALW, but David Staller's Erik just makes the show. One day I'll find a way of clipping 'Perfect Music' and you'll all see... xDD

ETA: One thing I'll say about the Rosen musical is that it actually has the Daroga in it. He's even pretty close to Leroux, although for some reason he has a Yiddish accent.
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House by the Lake:A Phantom of the Opera Guild

 
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