Run and Tell That: The Phantom of the Opera

Note: By now ya'll know that I'm a terrible editor. So be prepared for me to be editing this AFTER I upload it. Also, I'm not a professional reviewer nor do I try to be in these. I'm simply stating what I thought.

"It truly amazes me how the original production has held up after 33 years!"

Picture it: New Jersey 2021. I am sitting on my bed scrolling through Instagram, but suddenly, I see an announcement, The Phantom of the Opera announced that Emilie Kouatchou and Sara Esty would be the new Christine Daaé alternate and Meg Giry. Literally the first thing I

Corps de Ballet

thought was "Can't wait to see these white people" but when I swiped to see their pictures, I was stunningly surprised to see that both are women of color (Kouatchou is black and Esty is Latina). I was so excited that in one year Phantom had cast three black women as Christine. The first thing I did was look up Kouatchou on YouTube and she has an absolutely GORGEOUS voice. I knew right then and their I had to see her in the role. I was not planning to see Kouatchou's debut, but life had other plans for me. As soon as I heard about Kouatchou's debut, I immediately bought tickets and I planned my day. However, my day did not go as I planned. My car's battery decided to die so I had to get a Lyft to the train station and got to NYC thirty minutes later than I had planned. As I started walking up the stairs of Penn Station and saw the lights of the city, my heart was in my chest. It felt amazing to be back in the city and knowing I would be seeing a Broadway show. My entire walk to the theatre I was filled with ecstasy, I was so excited. The feeling inside the theatre was absolutely ELECTRIC. There was applause, whistling and cheering for everything! When the pre-show announcement came on, there was applause,

Raquel Suarez Groen and Carlton Moe

when the chandelier rose their was applause, for Carlotta's entrance there was applause, for Christine's entrance there was applause, it felt so great to be back in a theatre. As I am sure many of you have heard there were some changes made to the production. Don't be alarmed, it is still the same production, there was just a few lyrical changes and blocking changes. The first change that I noticed was during "Hannibal Rehearsal", specifically with the corps de ballet, Christine was not with them when they entered. At first, I did not like this change because it just felt like a weird change to make, but when Kouatchou she looked worried, concerned and a little shaken. I knew as soon as she entered she had just come from a singing lesson with the Phantom. Then I really enjoyed this small change because it added a lot of nuance to the role of Christine. There was also some lyrical changes which I really did not like, because I felt that the new lyrics did not enhance the story. (Except for the exchange during the end of "Angel of Music" where they removed, "Your

John Riddle and Maree Johnson

face Christine it's white" to adjust it so anybody no matter ethnicity could play the role.) While there were some changes, it truly amazes me how the original production has held up after 33 years! This accomplishment is a testament to the brilliance of the original creative team. Hal Prince's breathtaking direction still holds up and Gillian Lynne's choreograph is brilliant as always. The sets and costumes designed by Maria Björnson are utterly breathtaking and groundbreaking. The lighting design by Andrew Bridge perfectly compliments the production adding mystery and illusion to the show. Last, but not least Martin Levan and Mick Potter's wonderful sound design that echoes throughout the theatre. In addition to the stunning production, there was also some stunning performances. The ensemble was stunning and I want to give shout outs to Satomi Hoffman as the Confidante and Jeremy Stolle as Passarino. In addition, Sara Esty who joined the production along with Kouatchou delivered a wonderful Meg, Etsy is a beautiful dancer and has a great voice. Carlton Moe as Piangi delivered some stellar comedic moments with a gorgeous tenor voice to boot. Another stunning performance was given by Maree Johnson (Who happens to be a former Christine from Australia) as Madame Giry. She gives a haunting Madame Giry who is not only scared,

Emilie Kouatchou

but enamored by the Phantom. There were two moments that I really loved with Madame Giry, the first is during "Think of Me" when Christine begins to sing she gestures to Christine, reminding her of the things she has been taught by the Phantom. The second moment is during "Magical Lasso" when Giry enters she sees the Phantom bringing Christine back from his lair. The managers played by Craig Bennett, Firmin, and Bradley Dean, André, were absolutely hysterical. They worked so well together and played off each other nicely. They both created two very distinct characters who are complete foils of each other, but still manage to work together. Unfortunately, not all of the performances were stunning though... Raquel Suarez Groen was a huge let down. This was my second time seeing Groen as Carlotta Giudicelli and both times she was disappointing. Her voice was not as powerful as I like in my Carlotta's. While she did deliver some nice comedic moments, overall I found her acting to be weak. I like my Carlotta's to be these big caricatures of a woman and Groen just did not deliver in my eyes. John Riddle as Raoul was great. He has a gorgeous voice and was a wonderful actor. I especially loved his chemistry with Kouatchou during "All I Ask of You" their voices fit so well together. Onto the lady of the evening, Emilie Kouatchou who delivered a stunning debut performance of Christine Daaé. She delivered a strong performance with absolutely killer vocals. There were so many moments that I loved. I loved the difference in volume that Kouatchou had during "Think of Me" when she is very quiet and scared at first, but then gradually becomes more confidant and serves strong vocals. I also loved how in "I Remember.../Stranger Than You Dreamt It" Kouatchou's Christine was not scared of the Phantom's deformity, but was scared when he started yelling and chasing after her. Some other great moments were her Serafimo in "Il Muto" and her facial expressions and

Ben Crawford and Emilie Kouatchou

varying degrees of emotion during "Masquerade". My favorite moment of hers was during "The Point of No Return" when she realized the Phantom was there in place of Piangi. Kouatchou delivered a strong performance and she has so much room to grow. If this was her debut performance I cannot wait to see her after a month or so in the role. I would not be at all surprised if after Meghan leaves Kouatchou takes over the role of full time. While I loved Kouatchou, I have to be quite honest, I was rather disappointed in Ben Crawford as the Phantom. I was not a fan of some of his acting choices, they felt rather silly at times. For example, during "I Remember.../Stranger Than You Dreamt It" when he was crawling on the floor it was this weird scooting thing that made several audience members laugh. I also did not like how his vocal tone kept changing throughout the performance. There would be times he would have a clear tone and it would then switch to this full/deep tone. It was kind of jarring. I much preferred his full/deep tone in the role because it worked well with Kouatchou's strong voice. The Phantom of the Opera is a stunning show and it has stood against the test of time. I definitely plan on seeing Kouatchou again sometime soon. I think she is stunning. I highly recommend you buy tickets and see her.

"Masquerade! Paper faces on parade... Masquerade! Hide your face, so the world will never find you!"

Dear Diary Episodes

Just a quick podcast update! There will not be new episodes for a while because I've currently got a lot going on (All good stuff!) and I am a bit behind on podcast episodes. There will be no new releases for rest of October. New episodes will start releasing on Friday November, 5th.

Run and Tell That: Diana The Musical

Note: By now ya'll know that I'm a terrible editor. So be prepared for me to be editing this AFTER I upload it. Also, I'm not a professional reviewer nor do I try to be in these. I'm simply stating what I thought.

Erin Davie as Camilla... is phenomenal. I found myself captivated by her performance.

"Sometimes though it's best to be underestimated." These are the final words spoken by Princess Diana, Jeanna de Waal, in the opening number of Diana The Musical. I find this line ironic because I underestimated this musical. When I first heard that Princess Diana was getting the bio musical treatment I rolled my eyes and said "UGH! Again? Does this really need to be made? We already have The Crown... and I don't need a musical version." I

Jeanna de Waal and Ensemble

honestly did not pay much attention to the musical afterwards and when Broadway closed down because of the pandemic, I truly expected this show to be one of the casualties. However, to my surprise, it not only announced it would be returning, but it would also be professionally recorded for Netflix. Flash forward to over a year later and I opened my Netflix account to a notification about Diana being available for streaming... So I figured "What the hell?" This brings me back to that line "Sometimes though it's best to be underestimated" because I was thoroughly surprised at how much I enjoyed watching the musical. Now just to be clear, Diana is by no means a perfect musical, but it does have its moments. Diana was stunningly captured by cinematographer, Declan Quinn, who didn't just hit record. Quinn made sure to capture it artistically and not just straight on. The rest of the creative team has a collective 17 Tony Awards with an additional 36 nominations to boot, but yet so much went wrong creative wise with Diana. The book scribed by, two time Tony winner for Memphis, Joe DiPietro is overall rather a mess at times, but it does get one thing right, and that is the portrayal of Diana. You see her struggle with her mental health and you fall for her because she is endearing and kind (Which is also due in no small part to actress Jeanna de Waal, but we'll talk about her later). This musical actually changed my perception of Diana because my first major introduction to her was in The Crown where she is written/portrayed as a conniving, manipulative and whiny little brat) you can actually root for Diana and want to support her in the musical. Unfortunately this is where my positive feedback for the book ends. The book is not only rushed, but also somehow slow all at

Roe Hartrampf, Judy Kaye and Jeanna de Waal

the same time. They took a bit of time to explore the beginning of the relationship between Diana and Charles, but then as soon as the wedding came they rushed through her pregnancies giving them an "It's a boy!" moment, but then we don't hear about them for a while. Another thing about DiPietro's book is that he featured, in my opinion, some unnecessary characters such as Barbara Cartland, Judy Kaye (who pulls double duty as Queen Elizabeth II), the step-grandmother to Diana and Andrew Parker Bowles, Zach Adkins, the husband of Camilla. There is also an entire song in Act II dedicated to James Hewitt, Gareth Keegan, about Diana's brief affair with him. While we're on the topic of songs, let's talk about the score written by DiPietro and David Bryan, of Bon Jovi fame. The score is composed mostly of pop rock ballads and power songs featuring some high belting that makes the show come across as a cheap imitation of Evita. Even though there are some catchy tunes that might have you toe tapping in your seat, the generic sounding songs and rather messy lyrics do not leave an everlasting impression. The score sounds very generic and the lyrics are rather a mess at times. Some of the songs in the musical were just plain odd, "The Dress" and "This Is How Your People Dance" or featured obnoxiously expositional lyrics, "The Worst Job in England" and "Snap, Click". I also felt that the score was lacking by not giving Diana a heavy hitting solo. I was waiting for a "Don't Forget Me" or "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" moment from Diana, but I never got it. Meanwhile, at the helm of Diana is Tony Award winning director Christopher Ashley who is known for his extraordinary work on shows such as Come From Away and Memphis, but the work he did for Diana is uninspired and almost lazy compared to his previous work. The only part of his direction that I liked was how the show both began and ended with the flash of bulbs from a camera with Diana standing upstage center. I found this staging to be very significant with how much the paparazzi played a role in Diana's life. Meanwhile the choreography by Kelly Devine features some bold choices (not a compliment) and those choices do nothing to serve 

Erin Davie and Roe Hartrampf

or enhance the story being told. Instead the ensemble danced just to dance not because it was an extension of the story being told. While the book and score were disappointing I really enjoyed the set design by Tony Award winning David Zinn. The stage is surrounded by the gates of Buckingham Palace which I found to be metaphorical to how Diana becomes, essentially, trapped within the palace due to her royal duties and the rules she has to follow. The costumes by William Ivey Long  (#TimesUp) recreated some of Diana's most iconic outfits, but other than those select few they really were nothing special. The lighting design by Natasha Katz was stunning and vibrant and really aided the story telling by featuring different colors depending on the tone of the scene. She featured reds for the fight between Camilla and Diana, while dark blues were often featured in Diana's hardest moments and for the moment when Queen Elizabeth II grants Charles and Diana to have a divorce. The sound design by Gareth Owen is something that I really have no opinion on. I thought it was nice that's it really. Just like the creatives the actors are also a bit over the place. Bruce Dow plays Paul Burrell, who is the butler of Diana and acts as her confidante throughout the show. While Dow is a talented actor, his performance never rises above the likes of "Look at me, I'm the fat, funny, effeminate sidekick of the main character who sings one major song in the entire show." Meanwhile two time Tony Award winning Judy Kaye pulls double duty as both Queen Elizabeth II and Barbara Cartland. When it comes to Kaye as Queen Elizabeth II it is nicely acted, but nothing about her reads "Queen of England" I just get a very posh or

Jeanna de Waal

dignified elderly woman. However, when Kaye is Barbara Cartland she really comes to life, especially with her rowdy, sensual Act II opener "Here Comes James Hewitt". This number is thoroughly entertaining, even if it overall serves no purpose, but I found Kaye to be extremely funny and entertaining throughout the number. Meanwhile Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles is truly phenomenal. I found myself captivated by her performance as Charles' mistress. Davie delivered a stunning rendition of "I Miss You Most on Sundays" that made me hate her only slightly less for the role she played in Diana's life. The male lead is none other than Prince Charles portrayed by the talented Roe Hartrampf. Hartrampf delivered a strong performance as Charles and attempted to add a few layers to this one dimensional character. The title role of Diana is portrayed by the underrated Jeanna de Waal. De Waal is a star and delivers an incredibly strong performance, even if she sounds nothing like Diana. With strong and brilliant acting choices and a stellar voice de Waal definitely has a Tony nomination in her future. Overall, Diana has its problems, but it's a fun musical (that your mom will definitely love) that is great if you just want a night out. You can currently watch Diana on Netflix, or you can watch it live at the Longacre theatre where it starts previews November 2 with an opening night of November 17. See ya'll next time!

My future's my design. My story's finally mine and I'll light the world. I'll light the world.