We saw PHANTOM OF THE OPERA in Toronto in 1989 at the Pantages theater. The theater, dating from the 1920s, had just been redone and it was gorgeous.
PHANTOM is not one of my favorite musicals, but the staging was spectacular. Was this the first musical to make staging an essential part of the experience?
And any trip to Toronto is wonderful.
8 comments:
Les Mis, for sure. Sweeney Todd before that.
Les Mis is much better. I have never seen Sweeney Todd.
Sweeney Todd was one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen, and I've seen everything from 1949 on. But there are many others that were stunning to a little girl and a teen and a new New Yorker...well, you get the point.
I saw Phantom in Toronto, too, in 1993. Not a favorite of mine either. The only thing I remember about it is the falling chandelier. And how the hotel lost my dressy clothes so that I had to attend in jeans and t.
I think I could give you a huge lecture on "staging" in the American musical. Harold Prince and Trevor Nunn get too much credit for innovation and being the "first" to do a lot that really came long before them. I think the earliest was probably West Side Story and to a certain extent Oklahoma! probably was even more innovative. Both used dance in a way that no one else had prior to those productions.
There's also Lady in the Dark (first musical to be inspired by the surreal art movement), Company (no chorus members, no real set), and of course A Chorus Line a musical that originated in an off-Broadway theater company (Joe Papp's Public Theater) that made history by running for over 20 years on Broadway.
End of mini-lecture. Now please read the first three chapters of FINISHING THE HAT by Stephen Sondheim and be prepared to discuss the evolution of musical theater lyrics for next class. And - Happy Gay Pride Weekend!
The Gay Pride parade was last week in Columbus. Huge.
Now everyone wears jeans to shows, Naomi. A bit of a shame.
Phil and my son saw Sweeney on a fifth grade trip but not me.
I agree with you on PHANTOM, surely one of the most overrated shows ever. We only went because Jackie got tickets through the union and we sat in the second row of the audience, in FRONT of the chandelier!
I agree with a lot of the previous comments: SWEENEY TODD's original staging was indeed great. We saw A CHORUS LINE downtown at the Public the first time and the tiny stage and theater made it really intimate.
I know it's easy to make fun of CATS but we saw it in a theater in London where the theater revolved so the audience was behind the stage and the "cats" were right on top of us.
We just saw LES MIS in London again, nearly 25 years after first seeing it, and it still has power. The helicopter "crash" in MISS SAIGON didn't make the show come up to its predecessor's standards.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned THE LION KING, whose staging made the show.
Jeff M.
I've seen A CHORUS LINE about three times in various places. That's a favorite. My parents loved THE LION KING but I never saw that one nor CATS. It is not easy to get Phil to see musicals unless they are operas. I don't know how I convinced him to see two this summer.
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