One of the posters outside the theatre

We didn't really have any intention of going to see the show this day, but there aren't very many shows in London that have a Wednesday matinee! So, when faced with the available options, Phantom seemed the best of the bunch! Plus, Jörn had never seen the show in English before, so we went! We ended up sitting in the back of the stalls, behind a pillar. It was really not a very good view at all - the upper half of the stage was cut off (we couldn't see Raoul in the box, or the Phantom on the angel, or the first half of "Phantom of the Opera", or the chandelier coming down, etc.), and you were constantly looking around the pillar. I would definitely *not* recommend it if you hadn't seen the show before, but we managed to live through it. :-) We had a mostly new cast from when I saw it the previous year, with the obvious exception of John Owen-Jones. I really liked Celia Graham as Christine - she had some really excellent moments, and was overall very good. Robert Finlayson actually impressed me quite a bit as Raoul - he was as good as most. AND, most importantly, he kept that change that I was so thrilled that Matt Cammelle did, of leaving off the word "Christine" in the exchange with Madame Giry (see my Sixteenth Experience for more details). We had a new Madame Giry, who was a big improvement over the one last year, and I also really liked M. André.

The different verse in "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" that I had noticed last year was not there this time around. If it hadn't stuck out at me so much, I might begin to wonder if I had imagined it. :-) I think that John Owen-Jones has really grown in the role in the year since I'd last seen him, and I really enjoyed his performance! His Music of the Night was beautiful, and the final scene was really touching. I must admit, though, that I was distracted by the group of school children who were sitting around me, fighting with each other over the binoculars to try to get a better view of his face, so I can't remember anything in particular that got to me, but there were some things! All in all, it was a really great performance of the show, and we didn't regret at all making the decision to see it!

Another poster