Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, Phantom of the Opera continues to thrill individuals across the world. A deformed composer living in a cavern underground creates operas for a soprano performing on the stage. As her fame increases, a suitor from the past comes back, leading to the composer's descent into madness. He begins terrorizing the grand Paris Opera House where she is performing, and the opera star finds she is attracted to him. The compelling story helps to explain why this is the longest-running show to ever grace a Broadway stage and why so many wish to obtain tickets to Andrew Lloyd Webber's of the Opera in New York and other stages around the globe.
Original Cast Members
Michael Crawford is well known for his portrayal of
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This show has now brought in more than $6 billion, thanks to its enormous popularity. This surpasses any stage play or film ever produced, and that includes huge hits such as Star Wars and Titanic. It has been performed in 15 different languages and will likely be translated into even more before it loses its luster, and it is one show that everyone should see.
Fun Facts About Phantom Of The Opera
Becoming The Phantom is not an easy task. It requires two hours in the makeup chair before the show, and the actor must spend half an hour taking it off once the show is done. The face must first be moisturized and closely shaved before the prosthetics can be fitted. In addition, the actor wears two contacts, one that is white and one that is clouded, two wigs and two radio microphones.
The drapes consist of more than 7,300 feet of fabric and the tasseled fringes more than 740 feet. Each fringe is hand crafted and combed before it is used in the production.
Each performance takes a great deal of work. The cast dons 230 costumes throughout the show, 14 people works as dressers to assist them in this task and the crew performs 22 scene changes. There are 120 automated cues and 281 candles that are used and each production requires more than 550 pounds of dry ice and ten smoke and fog machines are
If there is truly tradition to be found among the great theatres both on and off Broadway, then certainly the Sullivan Street Playhouse and its long running production of The Fantasticks rates as one of the most celebrated of New York theatrical traditions. Maintaining its place as the longest running production Off Broadway, The Fantasticks remains an enchanting and insightful tale of both young love and bitter disillusionment. It also reminds one, in this age of spectacle and the mega-musical, how powerful and truly inspiring theatre itself can be. Clearly, one of the great strengths of this production and a large part of its appeal for audiences over the last four decades lies in the fact that both the story and the style of presentation compliment each other so completely. Here we find the non-essentials are stripped away, and we are left to rely simply on the imagination of both the audience and the performers to create a magical evening.
It is curious to see the great star of the musical Wicked on Broadway, Indina Menzel, giving her voice to a character in Disney’s Movie, Frozen. This movie, that is an example of success, has won many awards, among them the Oscar for the best animation movie and music. However, does a musical produced in a theater such as Les Miserables or Chicago have the same success and prestige as the movie version? The advance of technology in the field of cinema that has been possible to adapt and improve the stories of books, real facts, and of course, musical theater presentations, makes everyone think the answer is no. Hence, even though the musicals produced in theater and for movies are very similar in the presentations, they have certain differences, such as audience and production that make one more successful than the other.
The new owners of the opera think they should go take a look at box five themselves. They saw something, but couldn’t really make it out. They figure they are hallucinating because they saw different things. Phantom claims war, but calls for an agreement in a letter to the managers. They don’t accept the agreement, but does the opposite of what the Phantom ask.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is regarded as one of the most popular names in musical theatre history, as he has a wide variety of famous shows under his name and with any truly, great name comes a humble background. Webber was born in London, England, in 1948, to William and Jean Webber, two very talented musicians themselves. Andrew’s younger brother Julian is also a well-known composer, but it was their father that Andrew was inspired by. Webber started to play every instrument his parents could teach him and by the age of nine he was performing beside William in his very own concerts which is when he began writing his own music he could conduct. “My father could easily have taken other directions as a composer, had he wanted. He was well versed in
From the late 1800’s up through the present date, musical theater has changed. Though customs and love for the theater will always be carried on, origins, trends, and styles will change throughout time.
Operas as a form of art became popular in society around the mid 17th century. Originating from Italy, people viewed the opera as a combination of poetry, dance and music. At the time, people were quick to be awed by the ability of the opera to combine all three forms of art into one show of theatre. Obviously, the opera was quick to spread and develop in other countries. The one destination the opera soon gained popularity and fame in was no surprise. As Oscar de la Renta once said, “If you want to establish an international presence you can’t do so from New York. You need the consecration of Paris.”
Within the last few decades we've seen a huge resurgence in the popularity of the musical. With shows like Hamilton, Wicked, and Once, musicals have become more modern, edgy, and overall more accessible to a wide range of patrons of the arts. In this, the movie musical has also seen a regrowth in popularity – with reinventions of classic musicals like Hairspray (2007), Sweeny Todd (2007), and Les Miserables (2012) and original movie musicals like La La Land (2016) and Across the Universe (2007).
...hat she is an ideal woman. Similar to Christine, Raoul fits the gender norms, as he is powerful and jealous. The audience is told that Raoul is an exemplary man because even with his forceful personality, Christine still chooses him. The Phantom, on the other hand, is depicted as queer with characteristics of a gender normative man, but the way he is treated still conforms to the norm because he is isolated and feared as a result of his differences. The Phantom of the Opera, overall, helps to support gender normative traits and suppress unconventional character traits.
Lloyd Webber’s widely regarded masterpiece Phantom Of The Opera uses key motifs and themes throughout the musical to establish its characters and scenes in an effective manner. Throughout the production the motifs, themes and songs all develop to reflect the changes their respective characters undergo. This is particularly evident when analysing The Phantom, his motifs and songs, and how they develop throughout the story.
American musicals just weren’t proving successful- as they were focusing on the previous century’s trend of “substance over spectacle”. However, ‘Brit Hits’ became overwhelmingly successful by breaking away from the previous ideal and creating a theme of ‘bigger and better!’, focusing primarily on creating sights over substance. With casts and creative teams of the shows being larger than ever, as well as the aid of technology advancements- it proved to be the way to go! Larger sets and bigger special effects were introduced, including helicopters flying onto stage and chandeliers crashing on stage. Due to higher budgets and musical theatre reaching its peak, shows like Cats changed the way theatre published and promoted. In the past, shows had only souvenir programs or shirts, but Cats’ signature pair of yellow eyes, plastered the show’s logo, across coffee cups, jackets, ornaments, key chains, pins etc.- anything that could be thought of, changing the course of advertising. These “Brit Hits” showed a promising future for musical theatre, bringing in tens of thousands of new fans and showcasing a real ‘WOW’ factor through the ideal of big budgets, big effects, big orchestration, big casts and overall, big
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Hall-25 Anniversary Celebration was filmed for the 25th anniversary for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s critically acclaimed Phantom of the Opera. The script was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The show is based off of the book Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. The show opens in Paris 1905 at an auction of old theater props from L’Opera Populaire. As they are auctioning off old props of the theater they come up to an old music box with a monkey on top of it. An elderly man buys it and the auctioneer soon moves on to what he calls “ chandelier in pieces” and coincides with the mysterious Phantom of the Opera. The cloth over the chandelier comes off and the it comes to life with light and we are transported back to 1881. The show follows Christine, a young vocalist with great beauty, and an Opera House Phantom who yearns to be closer and love her. The Phantom, who has a deformed face hides it from the world behind his mask try to lure Christine to his heart by teaching her the ways of music and vocals only for her to fall in love with her childhood friend Raoul. The Phantom, who has been alone for all this time, does
There are many great musicals that the world has ever seen in the past years. Some have often brought us to tears while some may have brought to us to a world far beyond our imagination’s reach. In a world where television and the internet have often given us too many options to choose from as a form of entertainment, the soul and level of perfection still brought about by the broad way musicals are still one of the best for some of us.
The components can be broken down into the following: dance and movement, character portrayal, masks/puppetry, music, costume design and idealistic process. Each component will be analysed in detail in an attempt to portray how this effectiveness has added to the overall musical vision.
Sound is what brings movies to life, but, not many viewers really notice. A film can be shot with mediocre quality, but, can be intriguing if it has the most effective foley, sound effects, underscore, etc. Sound in movies band together and unfold the meaning of the scenes. When actors are speaking, the dialogue can bring emotion to the audience, or, it can be used as the ambient sound. Music is one of the main things to have when filmmaking. The use of Claudia Gorbman’s Seven Principles of Composition, Mixing and Editing in Classical Film gives audiences a perspective of sound, and, how it can have an impact on them.
The Phantom of the Opera directed by Joel Schumacher is the 2004 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 musical of the same name. The Phantom of the Opera stars Gerard Butler as the Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine Daaé, and Patrick Wilson as Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny, who are embroiled in a love triangle. The film was met with generally mixed and negative reviews: Schumacher’s use of mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing, as well as symbolism contributes to the production of The Phantom of the Opera.