PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - "Poor Fool" THRU End of Act 1 [UNEDITED]
Added 2025-02-26 16:25:39 +0000 UTCAct 1 DONE!
Comments
this comment is irrelevant but like you are here in czechia? crazy it's been a while someone mentioned our country xDD it surprised me haha anywayyy back to watching byeee
€lie
2025-03-31 13:19:17 +0000 UTCI think you’re right, Christine and Raoul aren’t on the same page yet. All I Ask of You is them singing as individuals about what they need from the relationship. Even when they share lyrics, each character is reading them differently. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t in love or that it’s a doomed relationship but they aren’t really listening to each other.
Julie Lyles
2025-03-04 00:22:34 +0000 UTCI believe the couldn’t set up the same rig in the concert hall for this performance, but the chandelier falling before the intermission is my favourite part!
Sydney LaRocque
2025-03-03 00:12:02 +0000 UTCThe funniest thing about Raoul saying "You know I do" and not I love you is that not even 2 minutes later he says "Christine, I love"
Tyler Cloar
2025-03-02 03:05:17 +0000 UTCTo answer your question, yes the chandelier does indeed fall! I went to go see this musical live back in 2018 and watching the chandelier rise up and over the audience to hang on the ceiling is one of the most magical experiences I've ever seen. But the fall is completely different. I haven't had the chance to be in the orchestra for when the chandelier falls but I hear you can feel the displaced air as it falls towards you. Many people are known to flinch and get up from their seats to escape it purely on instinct lmao. It's pretty spooky.
PhoenixWing513
2025-03-02 01:17:49 +0000 UTCI mean I love majority of the songs .. but definitely feels like a fanfic storyline overall - saying this I do own it on dvd still haha
Danika Wolfbaine
2025-03-01 22:31:35 +0000 UTCCurious if you’re going to check out the unhinged phantom of the opera sequel since you’re loving this one so much? There’s a full proshoot of that one too!
playing-the-Lady-Rebel
2025-03-01 06:59:15 +0000 UTC30:30 to answer your question, no she's not scared of him. She's terrified of him. For most of her life, she has known him only as a voice, who taught her how to have her own, who she eventually meets and gets even more of an allure from him. But she gets too curious, and removes his mask, and suddenly that picture of him she has in her head is now permanently (for the time period it takes place) tainted by the deformity beneath. So she's not making fun of him his face, she's just finally letting it all out to someone else about what she'd seen. Her image is further distorted after she witnesses him kill. "My Angel of Music, my teacher, is not only the Phantom of the Opera, but has a deformed face and is a murderer." She's been through a lot in the last few days
Ryan Torres
2025-03-01 06:07:53 +0000 UTCI'm so glad you appreciate Carlotta. She's amazing and it's a very difficult role to sing. (also afaik the frog in her throat was entirely nerves, not anything supernatural.) I don't know what's up with Raoul's actor, I've literally never seen anyone play him so intensely XD. But like. Yeah, Erik (the Phantom) is remarkably sympathetic despite the kidnapping, stalking, murder, extortion, etc. It's just... you can tell there has been so little love in his life, and you feel for him... but then also like BRUH. That's not how you go about getting it. also in most productions, the chandelier actually starts covered in sheets on the stage, and during the overature slowly rises to the ceiling above the audience, then at the end of act 1, instead of just sparking, it actually follows the same track it took up and falls to the stage at Christine's feet. I was lucky enough as a kid to see Phantom a number of times, both on tours and on Broadway (it was and is my favorite musical, it came out the year I was born and my parents saw it in London in 1987 and got the 2-Disc cast recording, and some of my earliest memories are listening to it over and over again), and the first time especially, I was about 8 or so and my Dad scored middle orchestra tickets for us, and that chandelier falling was BREATHTAKING.
Magnus Taliesin
2025-02-28 18:01:48 +0000 UTC30 seconds of Music of the Night, *gorgeous*. gosh!
Magnus Taliesin
2025-02-28 17:47:37 +0000 UTC"Ugly ass... haha just kidding I'm pretty" Damn right you are ;)
Bub
2025-02-28 02:30:55 +0000 UTCYESSS finally!!
Bub
2025-02-28 02:05:46 +0000 UTCAs for my favorite act one song... Mhm, I like Prima Donna. But I also love Christine's Think of Me
Nahi
2025-02-27 20:32:15 +0000 UTCJust starting this reaction but I gotta say that I love the fact you appreciate Carlotta. I love her so much. She's a fantastic character and singer Also, as per the finishing the "addio" or whatever at the same time, they are holding hands. A singing teacher once taught me this in a duet I had to present: usually holding hands is used to finish notes at the same time. You talk about it beforehand, squeeze the others' hand to indicate you are finishing the note soon. Dunno if this happened here but it could be
Nahi
2025-02-27 19:50:57 +0000 UTCHadley is fantastic. Does around 90% of the job. The guy liner does the rest. I love Raoul in here
Nahi
2025-02-27 19:45:44 +0000 UTCI love this version not only because this is my favorite phantom but raol is played in a very grey area. In the film version he is the white knight who will rescue her but a non entity.. here he not only has the friendship but in seeing her reach stardom he wants to be a part of that. That's why the love doesn't feel real romantic love from him. From her at this stage she is scared and wants to get away from the phantom even though she is lusting for him, he awakens that side of her. She is also a bit attached to him as a father role so very conflicted. She is in grief for her father and he told her that the angel of music would be there for her after he goes so she is tied to that side of the phantom. I believe and only my theory is that the phantom feel for Christine and heard her talk about the angel of the music and that is why he uses that to get her to trust him. She is very conflicted and doesn't know where to go and wants to feel safe raol is that childhood happy days with father link. Also as people say in the real version the chandelier does fall. Apparently the fastest fall is in Australia as they don't have so many health and safety rules.
Liz Lilliman
2025-02-27 15:02:05 +0000 UTCI think the title song in act one is my favorite! But it isn’t my favorite song in the whole musical but we have to wait for act 2 for my favorite
Caitlin Dunham
2025-02-27 13:44:38 +0000 UTCSo nice to enjoy Phantom of the Opera with you all once more! While sitting down, and while in that corset, wow. Phantom switched out Carlotta's throat spray to sabotage her, hehehe! Christine is not only scared for her life, but Raoul's, so she'd push him away for his own safety at first. I believe the hesitance during All I Ask of You is because this couple is going from childhood friends and students, to something long-lasting and a lot more mature. These are their first purely romantic moments, and first kiss, which is why it felt a little weird. Raoul is most likely thinking 'She's torn between /him/ and me. I cannot mess this kiss up.'
Kory Misun
2025-02-27 08:58:38 +0000 UTCI love your reactions. Unfortunately you seem to have missed a little part in "All I ask of you" when you accidentally clicked forward. After the kiss between Raoul and Christine, Raoul sings: Christine, I love you. (In the first part of the song, he only says: You know I do). This is a part which comes back later again. Christine then says: Order your fine horses, which also comes back later in a cool sarcastic way.
Sabrina Qunaj
2025-02-27 07:51:58 +0000 UTCI think Raoul says: "Isn't there". Christine says the phantom of the opera is here, but Raoul denies it and often says there is no phantom, it's all a dream and so on.
Sabrina Qunaj
2025-02-27 07:49:20 +0000 UTCI love "Love Never Dies" although it got a little hate from the Phandom. Personally, hearing Caspers insight to what was happening at the end of Act 1, makes Love Never Dies even more relevant and appropriate.
SeeJay
2025-02-27 06:31:43 +0000 UTCI very much prefer this interpretation of the characters in the show. My one lament is that due to the nature of the Royal Prince Albert Hall, one of the actors from the original show was not able to play their part -- the Chandelier. As many have said, the Chandelier is indeed supposed to fall at the end of the First Act. When Carlotta is croaking about on stage, Phantom sings, "BEHOLD! She is singing to bring down the chandelier!" In the original stage production, the Chandelier at this point begins to rock and swing wildly back and forth above Carlotta, which is why they bring on the ballet and then Buquet dies. Buquet was the master of the flies (being the ropes and hanging catwalk that allows all of the decor and midstage curtains to be set) and he regularly worked on the pathway that the Phantom takes to his underground lair. As a result, Buquet was one of two people in the entire cast and crew who knew where Phantom lives. The reason he used the Punjab Lasso (as it is called in the book -- the Phantom learned the magic of the Hindu fakirs as the source of his powers) was because Raoul and his new managers disobeyed him and sat in Box 5. So he grabbed the nearest crew member and made an example of him in front of the whole audience as a warning for what would happen should the managers and Raoul continue to disobey Phantom. One point for consideration with how Raoul was played in this one, and the reason that I adore this version even though when you take the Chandelier effects away, it guts the horror element. On Broadway and in the West End, the Chandelier drops in apparent freefall right over the orchestra seating of the public. They are the most expensive seats in the house, because when the Phantom drops that Chandelier, it falls and only stops inches above your heads. In the book, the fallen Chandelier kills dozens of audience members. But with Raoul playing a male nobleman with the correct patriarchal and condescending attitude toward women, it is 100% proper for the time period, and you can watch as Raoul struggles to understand how a woman HE desires would be drawn away by the Phantom at all. I agree with you - he doesn't love Christine. He loves the idea of Christine as his perfect wife. This means, of course, that this particular staging makes the relationship between all three of them that much more twisted. Raoul and Phantom having a d*ck measuring contest, Phantom hating Raoul from trying to break out of his narrow social role of the Noble Patron whose job it is to show up and clap and shower the theater with money so that Phantom can continue to teach Christine. Christine is stuck between two men who are really no choices at all. And while Society demands that she choose Raoul, she, like the Phantom, is very much a minority outcast, being a woman in that time. Suddenly, the triangle relationship between them becomes very complicated, and Christine is set in a trap between the man who wants to possess her for himself, and the man who wants to share her music with the world. In neither case do either one of them allow her any kind of clear choice or agency, or true self-determination. Act II is insanely good, and incredibly dark. And since this is an Opera, you should know what to expect from the ending. But... how?
Adam Pacio
2025-02-26 22:33:46 +0000 UTCI'm so glad you're enjoying this. This is my absolute favorite musical, and traveling to see it on Broadway before it closed is also one of my best memories.
Katelyn Stewart
2025-02-26 22:30:31 +0000 UTCAnd that right there is the dilemma of phantom of the opera. He’s an objectively bad person, but his voice is so good!! And of course you also feel for him and that’s why ramin karimloo is my favourite, because he portrays those emotions so impeccably in a way that I haven’t seen any other phantom do
Sarah Handberg
2025-02-26 22:29:15 +0000 UTCSo from my understanding (and listed in the wiki for this anniversary show), the Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall not a traditional theatre. Therefore a lot of things had to be altered/adjusted to fit on the stage. Such as the digital screens vs practical stage setting and the chandelier not falling. Another example is when the Phantom and Christine descend in the main theme song the stage version I saw had an incredible rotating set that stairs popped out from as they descended! Also, as others have said I would love to see you react to/analyze the pro shot of the sequel Love Never Dies and if you ever considered it even the 2004 movie version of Phantom of the Opera!
geekygiraffe
2025-02-26 22:22:55 +0000 UTCOf course, in the book Raoul is kind of an idiot. He’s been sheltered and grown up with wealth, but he’s not very bright. In that sense, he’s a safe choice for Christine. One thing the musical did was give him actual character depth, and that lends more weight to their developing relationship. This is a more mature, complicated Raoul, and I actually appreciate that. At the same time it does make him come off kind of patronizing at times. And that’s actually probably down to Andrew Lloyd Weber being kind of manosphere-y. He made the show for his wife at the time, and then after the divorce he wrote a sequel that lionizes the Phantom without changing anything about him. Erik is a very popular character, but it can’t be denied that he is dangerous, obsessive, possessive, and manipulative. His dynamic with Christine is not healthy. It is pretty clear (from interviews) that Erik is ALW’s avatar in this show, not Raoul. ALW is not horribly disfigured or anything, but he thinks of himself in a way that lends itself to that very incel-y possessive thinking. In his own head he’s the not-very-attractive nerd that doesn’t get the girl, and he wrote Love Never Dies to change that narrative.
Tessara Dudley
2025-02-26 21:31:48 +0000 UTCI think Raoul shaking his head wasn’t him denying anything, but rather being surprised and awed that she was essentially professing her love for him here. Sure, he’s been wooing her and they were childhood friends, but she is still such a beautiful+talented+giving person that I think he’s awed and grateful that she is choosing him in this moment.
Tessara Dudley
2025-02-26 21:26:05 +0000 UTCAfter you finish Phantom of the Opera, there's another musical related to the story called Love Never Dies, that was also Andrew Lloyd Webber's The vocal performances are so beautiful
Camila Rokiski
2025-02-26 21:25:30 +0000 UTCUpcoming Casper cover of Music of the Night? Edit: in Why Have You Brought Me Here, she says "is here" and Raoul says "is there"
Eleonora Witzky
2025-02-26 19:42:13 +0000 UTCThat's the only thing I don't like about the proshot, the Chandelier usually does "fall' , swings safely, onto the stage. Highly recommend looking up a clip from a live performance. Would tag you in one but wont as it might be something you'd want to react to for this?
Heather M
2025-02-26 19:42:01 +0000 UTCOh man, I think your take on Raoul is so interesting. Phantom was never my favourite musical (I appreciate it, but I didn't connect to it on the level that so many others did), and one thing that I am always on the lookout for is the person who plays Raoul. It's a character that can so easily be this... wet blanket. One reason (of many) that I enjoy this proshot so much is that Hadley Fraser's take on Raoul is unlike many others I've seen - he gives him a backbone and an intensity that so many others don't. That can make him less sympathetic to some, but it really works for me. I think it makes him a much more threedimensional character instead of just a foil - and a much more believable threat to the Phantom. This Raoul makes me *feel* something, you know?
Yara Kaas
2025-02-26 19:41:46 +0000 UTCAlso the part when the phantom starts choking Buquet, there’s the motif from the film Psycho in that shower scene that signifies a murder! So cool😆
Harace Fynch
2025-02-26 19:35:35 +0000 UTCIt kinda cracks me up that you're super suspicious of every minute expression of Raoul, but ignore all the phantoms red flags 😂 But yeah, I think Christine is very conflicted! She knows what the phantom is capable of (and he just killed a man), but she's also gaslit to revere him as her angel of music. I mean I might be biased, but everything she says in "Why have you brought me here/Raoul I've been there" sounds like an abuse victim excusing the abuser to me. "Those pleading eyes that both threaten and adore"? Yikes!
PumpkinSparks
2025-02-26 18:35:51 +0000 UTCSo I think what you are seeing in Raoul is that the three main cast played in the short lived sequel to Phantom, Love Never Dies. And in that they are almost ten years older and a lot of things have changed. So I think Hadley Fraser is channeling his more mature character for this as he is used to playing the role as a certain way. I would recommend watching the taped stage version of love never dies (not the same cast) for context later. No where near as good as phantom but the songs are spectacular.
Emma
2025-02-26 18:09:20 +0000 UTCOh Casper I am so happy you are enjoying Phantom! It is such a classic! FUN NOTE: In most productions the chandelier does indeed fall onto the stage (Obviously with some safety rigging to give it a safe path.) and it is very impactful. When I saw an off-broadway production of it some years ago I was sat directly below it and it scared the crud out of me! So hyped to see you react to part 2! No spoilers, just saying it is INTENSE.
Thistle
2025-02-26 18:05:39 +0000 UTCsame! I went blind into the show. I didn't know a chandelier will go up the stage at the start and then will crash back down at interval.
c0d3rb4b4
2025-02-26 17:59:38 +0000 UTCMme. Giry warned you, Buquet, don't talk shit about the Phantom! XD The Phantom really is an interesting character; someone we're invited to feel sympathetic toward but who we also can see is very dangerous and perhaps not someone we should fully root for. I kind of love his line "he was bound to love you when he heard you sing"--we know from earlier that Christine and Raoul were childhood friends and that their feelings likely come from that. This feels like the Phantom projecting into Raoul what made him fall in love with her, because we know what music means to him. As others have mentioned, in regular productions, the chandelier gets raised to the top of the auditorium during the Overture, then falls to the stage at the end of Act 1. When you're sitting in the first few rows and the chandelier goes flying over your head, it's quite the ending to the first act! I remember ages ago in the 1990s when there were more productions in fixed locations, I read that there was a bit of a competition between productions to see which could have the chandelier fall the fastest (while still being safe of course). At the time the Toronto production had the record, but I can't remember their time.
Karen S.
2025-02-26 17:56:22 +0000 UTCHadley Fraser, the actor who plays Raoul, has a unique approach to the character and plays him to be this condescending aggressive-at-times guy unlike a lot of other actors. It’s so interesting to see the actor interpret the same script in a different way and I personally think his interpretation makes the story more interesting because he doesn’t become the obvious choice for Christine and it makes it a little harder for the audience to root for him completely. Also, Carlotta making toad croaks is explained in the book as the Phantom actually using ventriloquism to make it seem like she’s croaking (no idea how that works but he’s THE phantom)
Harace Fynch
2025-02-26 17:36:48 +0000 UTCIn the normal play, the chandelier does crash. Also, I still love Christine and Phantom❤️❤️❤️
Jeqspel
2025-02-26 17:35:38 +0000 UTC“He killed ppl? But he has such a beautiful voice!” That’s it that’s the show hahaha 😂
Broody Gaming
2025-02-26 17:26:47 +0000 UTCThe chandelier actually is supposed to fall on stage at the end of act 1. This pro-shot was a special performance at a venue that doesn't usually stage musicals so they couldn't do it here.
scarlett
2025-02-26 17:18:15 +0000 UTCI love this proshot HOWEVER I will never forgive it for the chandelier thing. Its MEANT TO FALL OVER THE AUDIENCE AND CRASH ONTO THE STAGE. It looks impressive for those who haven't seen it live but like I've seen it live atlwast 5 times and the first time I saw it my heart legit jumped as I saw that giant thing swoop over me and crash. This isn't a spoiler Btw, its what happens but for some reason this theater decided to not which is very sad
AceOfTheDeck
2025-02-26 16:59:04 +0000 UTC" I don't know. I'm bad at planning. " .. call me out, why don't you. Lol. Love your reaction to this musical! Looking forward to more.
Spidergirls Mama
2025-02-26 16:45:41 +0000 UTCCasper of the Opera ^_^ Who's side should you be on? Christine's.
logicaldreamer
2025-02-26 16:32:32 +0000 UTC
