Shirt: on.
Baby: fed.
Cup of coffee: giant.

Time for a #Phantom25 livetweet!

For what it's worth, I've seen this before. I've seen lots of Phantoms. I'm from the dark pre-download, pre-Amazon Phandom where if you wanted the Japanese cast recording you had to contact someone in fucking Japan. I have seen/listened to 45+ versions of the title song.

And of all of them THIS production is my favorite. So I'll probably be mostly talking about what makes it unique and special.

And also talking about what the baby thinks. He hasn't had much ALW exposure yet, but he did Kiss Me Kate. But he's 12wks and his tastes may change.

I really am drinking coffee out of a mug designed to serve soup.

*presses play*

Old Raoul is hotter than Young Raoul and we all know it

he salt and peppers nicely

he has the look of a man who never made his wife come, not once

Great choice to have the Phantom visibly playing the organ during the overture for the anniversary

also the overture is the most 80s over the top theater gorgeousness and the orchestra is right there it's like 80% dark chocolate and heavy cream and i'm covered in goosebumps

baby update: he likes carlotta

Side note: the current touring production has the best Carlotta I've ever seen. She's amazing.

I think it's the dress the baby is into. SO MANY SPARKLES AND SO MUCH CONTRAST

In honor of Chorus Girl Christine, please read @sfiddyfic foot-fetish porn about Erik caring for her post-rehearsal ballet toes https://archiveofourown.org/works/17531183 

I'm iffy on this Andre and Firmin. Again, the current touring production has the funniest pair. They should be a little like Bloom and Bialystock.

the baby threw up when christine came onstage, i don't know if that means anything

20k francs a month. A good Opera Ghost doesn't come cheap. Years of training, loans to pay off, etc

what Sierra Boggess does with her eyes, my god

the moment Sierra really takes to Think of Me you know it's because Christine has forgotten the crew and is singing to please her angel

raoul just popped one up there in the box

these are bitchin production values

madame giry calling for a rehearsal right after a production is not good

the way Ramin draws out the last "Christine" is JUST

raoul you're gonna have to step up your note game

Okay, seriously, Raoul is the epitome of rich white male privilege here. Just by *being* in this young actress's room he's ruined her reputation. Everyone will assume she's sleeping with the new patron (and do). It's no joke for the era.

Poor Christine, all like "hey my old childhood friend, I could use a nice friend right now! ...oh, that's a boner against my back, isn't it. sigh."

And there's Ramin, never more vocally powerful than when the Phantom feels insecure

"look at your face in the mirror" second goosebump alert

some productions do this as Christine being hypnotized in some way, but Sierra does it as being led down into the cellar by her own vag hopes. Sierra = horniest Christine ever.

small son you cannot cry during the title song there are rules

I've heard so many versions of this song that I can tell where the electronic mixing has shifted emphasis

in this one they're playing up the guitar to almost 1985 music video levels

Ramin is the best at his solo verse. The best of them all. It's like butter.

"in all your fantasies" he's just staring at her back like he's going to pass out

note: how the phantom commands christine during her last aria varies by performer. In this Ramin doesn't even command her to sing; he just says "my angel of music" and she starts unprompted before he's finished speaking. total eye contact.

horniest. christine. ever.

The way he SMOOTHES DOWN HIS SHIRT

also the way Sierra plays that final note as though she just had an orgasm? that's unique to this production too. Horniest. Christine. Ever.

Most shows have Music of the Night as a seduction song. In this one Christine is like, "cool, we're gonna fuck, right? I'm into the draw out, but you know I already took my panties off, right?"

"let your spirit start to soar" yeah that's a subtle fisting he did right at the uterus level WE SEE YOU RAMIN

the second half of the song is Ramin's Phantom losing control over his intended seduction because it went TOO well and Sierra's Christine chasing him around like FUCK ME and the phantom having a mild panic attack because he is a trembly murdervirgin, it's unique and great

"this darkness which you know you cannot fight"
"NOT FIGHTING SWEETHEART NOT FIGHTING AT ALL"

seriously he's 100% got her here, she passes out not because she's scared but because she's had too many orgasms already

the entire angel of music/title song/music of the night sequence here is the horniest i've ever seen/heard, and as i said before we're talking close to four dozen versions i'm familiar with

"and in the boat there was a MAN"

it's total morning after playfulness here from her perspective

"secretly... oh, christine, no"

Please note: the "no" on the end there is another thing unique to ramin. and sierra plays it as being as confused as she is scared and that's unique too.

"come, we must return"
sierra's christine: "wait hang on aren't we going to talk about this let's work through it because i am STILL UNFUCKED"

horniest. christine. EVER.

yeah. i really do feel this is a weaker andre and firmin. see the current tour if you can.

"no one likes a debtor, so it's better if my orders are obeyed"

Look, the Phantom is a snarky bastard, it's total "they certainly seem skilled at committing high treason" vibe

oh, Raoul, you big dumb pouty puppy

i love this production, i do, but the whole notes/prima donna scene is weak. should be funnier, and carlotta is actually a very good actress and singer, just too over-affected for the phantom's tastes

Hux would sit in Box Five.

"a toad, madam?"

murdervirgin boyfriend does not accept people insulting his girl

side note: no one does a better post-first-croak laugh than Michael Crawford. I love Ramin but Crawford was next level on that.

oh, joseph buquet, we hardly knew ye

seriously we hardly knew ye i'm not sure why alw left you in at all

you know we're so used to thinking of the phantom as a murdervirgin boyfriend it's hard to remember that christine would be genuinely shocked and terrified to find out that her angel of music kills people

"there is no phantom of the opera!"

"but his voice filled my spirit with a strange sweet sound"
raoul: *subtly checks the size of his penis and starts to worry*

All I Ask is a much better when not a love song, but instead a slightly patronizing dude telling a girl to calm down and a girl ready to take the safety of a house in the suburbs and 2.5 kids and xanax before bed and a guy who thinks penetration always makes her come

"imma marry my childhood friend and get the FUCK OUT OF HERE and never make a decision for myself again"

phantom honeychild you know murder scares off the girls, you did this to yourself

btw during his "christine"s, with the whispers and look on his face ramin really sells a "shit i fucked up" vibe, which is also not standard for a phantom

Every writer of murdervirgin boyfriends fights their whole lives to achieve the feel of the last 3 minutes of act one

Ah, I forgot the chandelier doesn't actually fall in this production. Sadness.

Sigh. Just a disappointing Andre and Firmin. I know I'm overly complaining but once you've seen it done well you can never go back.

Madame Giry's here doing the dance moves while still dressed like a funeral director

"let's not argue, please pretend"

oh honey this is literally going to be the marriage from "1985" by Bowing for Soup

*Bowling

the mask of red death, of course

"have you missed me good monsieur?"

the phantom is SO extra

oh MAN i forgot that they cut out the necklace ripping moment from this production. damn.

Side note: I was shocked, SHOCKED to discover that POTO is Rian Johnson's favorite musical

So the Phantom got his heart broke so he hid at home for six months and wrote an entire opera of incomprehensible self-insert porn before emerging from isolation and throwing it at the world

it's a mood, is what i'm saying

One of my few complaints about Sierra is the "how dare you" line in Notes Reprise, the best deliveries are of someone finally roused out of shock into fury, it's literally the only time in the entire show that Christine goes OFF on someone

"and my managers must learn their place is in an office, not the arts"

ANOTHER MOOD

Had to pause briefly to remind myself of this pre-Broadway 1985 promo GOLD

"as for miss daae, no doubt she'll do her best"

now THAT is how you burn an ex

"we'll make certain the doors are barred! we'll make certain our men are there! we'll make certain they're armed!"

LIKE HE DOESN'T HAVE A WHOLE NETWORK OF BACK PASSAGES THROUGH THE ENTIRE OPERA HOUSE

LIKE THAT'S NOT LITERALLY HIS THING

"she's mad"

actually this is a great sell on this line, sad and genuinely pitying, too many carlottas do it as a dismissive throwaway

"i know I can't refuse and yet I wish I could"

I've seen this done angrily and in a very "I'm breaking up with you BOTH and moving to los angeles to sell pot brownies"

the solo violin leading into Wishing You Were Somehow is one of the best single moments of act 2

Sierra does the absolute best Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again that I've ever seen/heard. I never cared for the song until I saw this, because she's the only one I've seen use it as an angry, empowering, character development "let the past die kill it if you have to" turn

"no more memories, no more silent tears"

THAT, folks, is how you show a character growing up on stage

"hey christine do you like my new hat not that i care"

"wandering child so lost so helpless"

the look on sierra's face here, totally unsurprised and still like, shit, i just had a whole thing about how i'm going my own way now and yet HERE YOU ARE EXMURDERVIRGINBOYFRIEND, READY TO FUCK IT ALL UP

uhoh, might have to pause for a few

okay, restarted.

"angel or father, friend or phantom"

god this girl is so there for daddykink, horniest christine ever

"wildly my soul beats against you / you resist / yet your soul obeys"

emotional peak of act 2, i don't argue with me

Raoul needs a good night of sleep

"AAAAAAARE THE DOORS SECURE?!!"

yeah he's not gonna notice that, you total idiots

Look this opera isn't the genius he's capable of and we all know it, it's DEFINITELY post-breakup self-insert

"Don Juan Triumphant" < "Jagged Little Pill", is what i'm saying i guess

one of the biggest choices any actress can make is when her Christine realizes it's the Phantom during "Past the Point of No Return"

I've seen it where she knows the moment he speaks and where she doesn't until the hood comes down

sierra went for the end of the phantom's solo

and then she takes a "the show must go on" approach, and then plays it up because the don juan script gives her the excuse to take power back from him

then the last verse is the both of them fighting over control and it's just a really good sell

how to play the all i ask reprise and unmasking is also a hugely varying decision, and this version -- the phantom using all i ask as a very human proposal, lowering himself to raoul's level because that's what christine seems to want, christine being stunned by it --

-- and the unmasking being done in anger isn't my fave, but it's done very well here.

(Fave version is christine being so frustrated by all his pagentry that she forgets they're on stage and takes the mask so he HAS to face her, then they both remember FUCK THERE'S AN AUDIENCE)

Ramin loses his SHIT in the finale and it's maybe his strongest of the whole show

also Sierra looking just EXHAUSTED by him is great

christine: "so you're going to rape me now i assume"
phantom: *genuinely stunned*

my dude. just.

"it's in your soul that the true distortion lies"

ramin just shaking his head here and sierra looking both pitying and frustrated as hell really works. sweetie, it's not the face, it's the murder

"wait, i think my dear, we have a guest"

christine is 40% scared for raoul, 60% pissed as hell because she had this under control until he came in like an idiot wrecking ball

"i love her! does that mean nothing? i love her!"

the way ramin points and gives a "shut your stupid face i don't want to hear it" look is great

the phantom not realizing he's choking the life out of christine is another not-standard-to-the-show choice and WHAT a choice

"this is the point of no return!" the phantom running to the organ to make it extra-like-his-opera is also not standard.

ramin's reactions to sierra's anger are so confused w/lots of "i made a wrong move there and i'm not sure what it was" because he thought he was dead in the water with her WAY before he actually was, and him slowly realizing that he's made it a self-fulfilling prophesy is brutal

"angel of music, you deceived me"

sierra is the only one i've seen play this line as christine trying to EXPLAIN to phantom what he's doing, and while it wouldn't work in a vacuum it's a great culmination of her interp throughout the show

ramin added the "blindly?" response.

good decision to go quiet with the "make your choice" line, lots of phantoms go shouty and it rarely works.

Ramin twitching his fingers through the "pitiful creature of darkness" line is a good choice too, looks like he's trying to dissociate by playing music in his head

christine: *makes out*
phantom: *eyes wide open*
raoul: *eyes squeezed shut*

uhhuh

the big turning moments in this production are all about christine realizing she has all the power in this situation, and therein lies the crux of appeal in this trope

the extended post-kiss drums are good too, this usually goes much faster. smart move to give ramin an extra 45 seconds to sell the "i am looking at my life, i am looking at my choices" shellshock

also the look he shoots back at christine right before he cuts raoul down is hilarious. "really? HIM?"

also the "leave me alone!" line is meant for christine and raoul, so ramin choosing to shout it up the stairs at the mob is a big change and really awesome

that fucking monkey makes me cry in every production

"christine, i love you"

okay, i need to take several tweets to deconstruct how ramin and sierra presented this moment, bear with me

because what they did is totally unique to any version i've seen.

when sierra walks back in ramin is embarrassed, he straightens himself up and dusts himself off. he is by far the most human and in control during these next 90 seconds than he is at any other point in the show.

and he's doing it FOR her. he's realizing for the first time that he has to be the adult here, that that's the kindness he owes her. *this* is where the phantom's mask drops for real.

which is why when he smiles sadly and is very calm in the "christine i love you" line, sierra completely breaks down, also for the first time in the show

this is 100% not how it's usually done, btw. this is usually the phantom at his MOST broken and christine at her peak control

she bends over and kisses his hand and he's very gentle and she's a wreck because this COULD HAVE BEEN, if he'd just done this from the beginning it could have WORKED, ramin and sierra's phantom and christine's ending wasn't star-crossed inevitability, it's a revenger's tragedy

and she staggers up and looks back and can't quite form words and he nods at her and it's 100% an "i love you" "i know" moment

then she starts the all i ask reprise STILL IN THE ROOM, IMPLYING SHE'S SINGING IT TO HIM

this is NOT standard. never seen it done that way.

The entire reprise is usually done with the two of them offstage. Whereas here Raoul has to come back for her and lead her out because she CAN'T on her own.

This is THE shipper's ending. It doesn't usually go down like this.

Seriously, this is the closest thing to a happy ending interp that this show gets. And it's a big big big deal.

company bow. jesus CHRIST they had a huge cast for this one.

Moral of the story? Don't do the murder. You might think you've lost your chance before then, but you maybe really didn't, it might just be your low self-esteem talking, but you are definitely doomed AFTER the murder.

Again, the murder? DON'T.

ALW looks like a gnome.

(fwiw i don't think phantom is even in alw's top three shows, but none other mashes the trope buttons quite like this)

And with the awkwardness of ALW calling Sarah Brightman his "angel of music" after their cringey marriage and cringey divorce, I'm done.

Ahh, trope-mashing. It's the best of all things.