So after putting it off for 23 years, I finally hauled my ass over to the Majestic Theater to see the longest running Broadway musical of all time, The Phantom of the Opera. I can see why the show has been running for as long as it has, it's a convoluted story in which the audience is blinded by sparkles, flashes, and a slow moving chandelier. The story: Christine Daaé is a young dancer in the core of the Paris Opera, who has secretly been taking voice lessons with Erik (although we never learn that that's his real name) aka the Phantom, and guess what? She gets a chance to show her chops when the Opera's leading lady Carlotta gets all freaked out when a piece of scenery drops unexpectedly. So Christine sings some song about thinking of her when a guy is off to war or something. During her cray-cray performance her old friend Raoul is there, and guess what? He's a millionaire who has decided to finance the Paris Opera! Whaaaaat?! Crazy!
Anyway, Raoul goes back to Christine's dressing room and is all like "Oh child you were great" then the Phantom is all, who is that trying to get my girl, so while Raoul goes to get his coat or something, the Phantom takes Christine to his lair, under the opera house. She passes out when she sees a wedding dress on a mannequin, and the Phantom is all like "Whoops, didn't mean to freak you out" so he plays the organ horribly and continues to compose his opera and everyone is looking for Christine.
Anyway, everyone gets notes from the Phantom about how respect and his salary must be paid, and then Carlotta is all "Oh hell no! This is my opera fool! I am the star, not Christine!" and then convinces everyone that this is a all a ploy to help Christine become a star.
Long story short, the Phantom kills a bunch of people, shows us his monster face, kidnaps Christine, tries to kill Raoul, then at the end vanishes. Look up the real plot if you're so inclined.
So the production, after having run for 23 years, it is not tired at all. The actors are all really into in. They are also all horrible singers, for the most part. The phrasing of certain notes is completely off and makes Lloyd Webber's score sound weird. I was impressed with the fact that these people some of whom have been doing the show since it opened are still giving it 100%.
The main thing I have a problem with was all the canned music, it was like half the music was canned and the other half was live? Makes no sense. They even managed to have one song that was fully prerecorded and Christine just lip synced the whole thing? Really? I did not pay money to go see a show where the cast lip-syncs! This is Broadway, sing live! That's the point!
All the acting was like community theater acting, you can't schmact the whole show like you're a recent college grad doing summer stock in Kansas. I wonder if the original cast played the show serious, it would have been a lot better if the whole cast was like "This is legit theater, let's all play it as real as possible."
I guess you can't fault the stage managers for instructing their new casts to play it big since most of the people in the audience do not speak English.
The special effects were also pretty crazy, I am sure in 1988 when Christine sat on her half-boat and floated in the lake under the opera house (side note, who builds an opera house on top of a lake!?!!!!), and the "crashing" chandelier (it didn't so much as crash as glide gently towards the stage) were awesome, but now they just seem tired and dated.
Overall the show was alright, I probably wouldn't go back unless someone totally amazing was playing the Phantom and they cast Britney Spears as Christine (since most her part is lip-synced anyway)
The Phantom of the Opera is currently playing an open-ended run at the Majestic Theater which is located on 245 W. 44th Street (btwn 7th and 8th Avenue) tickets may be purchased via Telecharge.
