A wild decision way back in November 2011 to visit the
Phantom of The Opera Redux 9 of the 2004 Movie in LA in the following November 2012 set the stage for a phabulous journey in the coming year for me.
This movie being my all time favourite Phantom piece, it was an easy choice, so my Opera began and immediately my choice was made, events took some surprising twists that made me sure I have my own Angel of Music watching over me.
I love the colours, the music, the sexiness of the singing, the
romance, the whole movie package of this 2004 film and was single minded
that this was my love forever...until I met him 10 years later on Coney
Island in
Love Never Dies via a video on You Tube in April 2011...after I had walked past the theatre with it showing in London in March, because I never knew there was a sequel!
I am a lover of Phantom and the ALWebber music, but I am not very up to
date with all the goings on, as I like to love the shows for themselves
and not get too tangled up in the politics of phandom, if you know what I
mean. So, I am usually one of the last to find out info!
So, now, twisted every way, I thought two loves are better than one and decided to add to the idea and make a full blown Phantom Chasing Year of it and as luck would have it...
Love Never Dies, the Phantom sequel stage show, came to Sydney in February 2012 and I was given a free front row ticket to it. Thank-you forever, Kym Evans.
This sequel show is in a class of
it's own and I believe can only be appreciated by those people who are full on
romantics, as indeed Andrew Lloyd Webber himself confessed to being a
hopeless romantic.
So what else could one hope for from the master
of romance himself!
My kids had also given me money for Xmas for a trip down to Sydney from Brisbane to see the show, so I had a double dose of awesomeness!
I attended the breathtaking
Sydney Premier of Love Never Dies, a red carpet event and met the cast afterwards when I was accidentally invited into the after party.
Look at this picture above, the costumes, the sets...How classy is this? the whole Aussie production is way above anything I've seen yet...
The amazing (and very hunky)
Ben Lewis as Phantom...
What a voice. I have never heard anyone belt it out like he did. He made me sob every time he hit those high notes. WOW!
Hint...do not attend
Love Never Dies on stage unless you have a box of tissues and your make up handy to re-apply!
And the beautiful Christine is Anna O'Byrne...
Anna is so beautiful, I think this role was designed for her.
So elegant, so French, so turn of the century, so pitch perfect a song bird and the most beautiful porcelain skin imaginable...and again, although very tall, she is tiny.
I wonder how these tiny framed girls can produce
such powerful voices!
Then, being all Phantom loved up, I began planning this full on
Phantom themed year which suddenly included a unplanned trip to Manila
in September to see the wonderful newcomer Jonathan Roxmouth, from SA and the
Aussie actress, Claire Lyon as Phantom and Christine.
Totally left field that one, as I only found out about the Manila
Phantom of the Opera in July, so that sort of blew a hole in my budget
for my coming Phantom chase, but it was worth it for sure.
"Can't get too
much Phantom", as one friend told me, especially when they are as cuddly as this Phantom was/is!
We also took the cast 8 packets of mixed varieties of TimTams, as they are pretty rare in South Africa.
They said they enjoyed eating them in the bus on the way back to the hotel after the show.
The very petite Claire Lyon, as Christine.
But don't be fooled by this tiny slip of a girl, she has one powerfully strong and beautifully clear voice...
That's the ever smiling Kym Evans making up the threesome here.
So, after both of us coming home with the Asian flu, it took a while for me to get back to planning the rest of the trip again.
Kym lives in Melbourne and we met up over in Manila, which was a great experience for me, as I have tended to travel alone now my kids are all grown up.
Now the next stage of the Phantom hunt is in count-down mode.
Off to NYC with a brand new Phantom fan on 29th Oct for 3 days to see Phantom on Broadway, then out to Coney Island to do some research on the setting for the Phantom sequel,
Love Never Dies.
Then we fly back to LA for 11 days and meet another fan in Disneyland before she flies back to Australia on 1st November. We'll do some sightseeing before attending the awesome showing as my friend has never been to Disneyland or places like that.
This will be the 9th annual Midnight Masquerade for the Redux showing of the 2004 Phantom movie starring the ever delicious Gerry Butler and the beautiful Emmy Rossum at Midnight on Saturday night, 10th November in LA.
I have my "red deathess" dress to wear as my costume, which you can see a bit of in the picture above. Still have to find a mask yet...almost forgot that in the rush!
Can't wait to see the film in this almost 100 year old theatre in Hollywood.
There is a a great 4 course pheast before hand at 8.00pm in a restaurant close by with all sorts of surprises and even raffles for themed prizes and proceeds going to buy trees for a phorest in Scotland, I believe!
Then at 11.30 pm we head to the theatre from the restaurant where we have 30 mins to check out real memorabilia from the 2004 movie.
Even Joel Schumacher's original script with all his notes inside will be on show, along with one of a limited edition of Christine's engagement ring, pieces of silk from renovations inside the real Box5, curtains that were damaged in the Opera House fire and much, much more!
This script would have to be a collectors piece for sure.
Just found out who owns all these amazing things and she said I can pore over it and find out what words they all sing in those pieces where 3 or 4 of the cast all sing together in various scenes throughout the movie.
The words are very clever and it's a shame they are not printed out for everyone to really enjoy.
OK...so that's the drill for now.
Will add to this in a week as we are about to leave and then I'll post my pics and give updates every day to keep you Phantomed up!
HINT....If you click on a picture you will see a slide show with all the pictures enlarged.
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| Sunrise at Surfers before leaving... |
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| Everyone out for a morning stroll... |
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| We had Xmas dinner before I left...This picture is of a blue Xmas decoration | taken by covering the flash with a finger! |
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| Here is same pic, taken with the flash... |
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| My sister, a friend and I having a farewell coffee at Landsborough... |
Leaving on Monday morning at 10am from Brisbane.
Should be OK even if Hurricane Sandy goes crazy over on the other side of USA, as we stop in LA for 3 hrs and they said they can re-schedule us for up to a week if necessary, so things should be fine.
Jeepers, I don't think the USA likes me as last time we were in USA, Mt St Helen's blew up as we went past it in a Greyhound bus!
Speak to you in a day or so...from LA.
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