LONDON – The Phantom of the Opera, now playing at His Majesty’s Theatre, is an exceptional musical which focuses on Christine Daae whose voice bewitches a musical masked being called the Phantom.
Listen to the author read this review:
The Phantom [Dean Chisnall] wreaks havoc across the Parisian opera house at anyone who goes against his ideas. He believes through Christine’s talent he could bring his musical dreams alive and develops obsessive feelings for her.
But during this time when he mentors Christine [Colleen Rose Curran], she reconnects with her childhood sweetheart Raoul, leading to The Phantom becoming more enraged and creating catastrophe and drama in the opera house.
It was unfortunate that a lot of the audience failed to turn off their phones, as throughout the musical you could hear their alarms going off. This even continued after staff asked during the interval to turn off phones. This was really distracting.
I paid around £47 (about $63 USD) for my ticket, which came with a restricted view at some moments but I was able to see around 90% of the performance, which in today’ s economy was quite good.
The acting and singing from all of the cast was exceptional. Chisnall really expressed how obsessed and enraged The Phantom was throughout the musical.
Even though his facial expression couldn’t be seen due to the mask, he expressed his characters emotions through his gestures and his voice.
The ensemble was strong as well and did an incredible job supporting the main cast through their singing and dancing.
My favorite song from the first act was “Think of Me” sung by Curran in her role as Christine. It was a beautiful piece which showed why The Phantom had such an infatuation for Christine and her voice.
In Act Two, “Wandering Child…/Bravo, Monsieur” stood out. The first part of the song expresses the tension and the love triangle between Christine, the Phantom and Raoul, which I especially loved.
The costume design in every scene brought something new. This was especially seen with every opera performance in the musical.
Carlotta [Sierra Boggess] a singer who had held the lead role until being scared off by The Phantom and replaced by Christine, delivered an incredible opera performance in her Rocco-era styled gown. Not only were the costumes accurate and detailed, but the makeup was vibrant and visible even from where I sat.
The set design is one of the most iconic things about The Phantom of the Opera. The chandelier drop was executed perfectly. I could see the total excitement in many of the viewers’ faces during this scene. It wasn’t just the chandelier that was eye-catching. Each scene had some sort of prop that expressed a certain emotion.
The Phantom of the Opera is an amazing musical. I encourage anyone who loves dramatic theater to see it.
Dezlene Akua Erza-Essien is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
