Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Different Company, Same Dinner

Last night did Pereddies once again in Holland with Momcat and Joe -- and I had my usual lasagna with meatballs. And I had the lovely key lime pie. Because we had a play, we had an early 5:30 reservation which was just lovely. Before we left the house, the weather map showed that Chicago was about to get clobbered by heavy storms -- I guess Lolapalooza down in Grant Park was suspended for a time as they had to evacuate -- and by the time we were done the thunder was rumbling on the way over to Hope College. But we didn't get wet.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Hope College, DeWitt Theatre, 8:00pm

This is actually our second Hope Summer Repertory Theatre show for 2012. And such a fine show. The kids who make it to Washington DC for real seem very nice on TV, but this is a comedic musical, so everyone is major geeky. Best character was actually Mitch, a black man in dreadlocks and jeans riding low, who was serving as The Comfort Councillor to the losers as part of his community service on parole. He did much more than hand out hugs and juice boxes. Longtime HSRT Equity actor Chip Duford was perfect as the assistant principal running the event.

Going back to the play's roots in improv, they had some ringers from the audience. One guy turned out afterward to be the dad of one of the cast members, and when he got the word he was scheduled to go out on, he was immediately called back to spell some impossible Welsh town name. (wicked g-r-i-n)

The show seemed to have a lot of heart when we saw bits on the Tony awards a few years ago, and I haven't laughed out loud so much in years.

Good show!

S-A-M-A-R-I-T-A-N

Funny how things work out. When we got to the parking lot there was a distraught older woman who'd left the lights of her minivan on and her cellphone at home where her husband has Alzheimer's and now she needed a jump... The good well-scrubbed family values Hollanders were more interested in jockeying to get out of the lot faster, than to either help this woman or even be prepared and have jumper cables. Thankfully the storm had hit while we were all at the play.

Guess who stayed behind to help.

I'd run into this trick before -- after the battery is low the car alarm goes off and you can't start the vehicle until the battery is charged enough above dead to allow the alarm to shut off. Added only time and to the level of distraughtness on the part of the woman. But, we got it done and I think she was able to get home okay. The battery seemed to work adequately once we got it started again.

Oh, and 18-foot jumper cables are so much better than the 6-footers I had years ago. (third-rail-grin)

Dr. Phil

Royal Albert Hall, London, England

One of the finest theatres in the world, we were there Sunday afternoon-- via technology. (grin) The other year we saw one of the New York Metropolitan Opera in HD broadcasts with Madame Butterfly and it was glorious and well-attended at the Holland 7. This show? We had great seats along the centerline (no center aisle) in the back with plenty of legroom for my leg, along with about 40 other people.

Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary LIVE

Holland 7, Theatre 3, 2pm (7pm London), 2×$20.00

We've seen Phantom of the Opera twice -- once in Toronto in a theatre specially rebuilt just for Phantom and once at MSU's Wharton Center with a touring company. We also once saw Sarah Brightman in concert here in Grand Rapids. Phantom is a glorious musical, and though not quite as compelling a story as Les Miserables IMHO, it's full of theatre magic in both story and performance, as well as deep resonant emotions. So when we realized that a couple of movie theatres in West Michigan were doing the satellite live broadcast of the 25th Anniversary performance from the Royal Albert Hall in London, we figured we had to go.

This is also a difficult musical to cast. Carlotta, the overblown diva, was wonderfully overportrayed with great gusto -- a true delight -- and her tenor was equally good. The Mutt-and-Jeff team of the two new owners, Monsieurs Firmin and Andre, were perfectly stupidly out of their league. The Ballet Mistress Madame Giry played it much more in sympathy, if not partially in league, with the Phantom that I recall, which was very effective. And Raoul, Christine's former childhood friend and now patron and love interest was very strongly played.

But Phantom is about Christine and the Opera Ghost. Back when they were casting the movie, there was some talk of using Kate Winslet, which of course I would've applauded. No question after Titanic that she looks good in long red hair, though most people don't know how well she can sing. Well, Sierra Boggess was perfect this afternoon. She has the full range of voice from strong low to melodic sustained highs. And while we had the advantage of closeup camera work in HD, when under the Phantom's spell, this Christine managed to drain all the movement and emotion out of her face and still sing like an angel. Svengali never had it so good.

And then there was Ramin Karimloo's Phantom. Played, methinks, with more cruelty and meanness than we'd seen before. You really feel his control of his young protege. His mask was different than the ones we'd seen before. Larger and smoother, covering more of the forehead, but with a curved outward facing edge, making it easier to remove -- and also hide a second mike. The color was more platinum than white. Indeed, given its smooth impassive features and color, it reminded me so much as if Brent Spiner's Data was playing the Phantom. Or perhaps Lore. (evil grin)

This was an enormous cast -- there were probably a hundred people on stage for the masquerade and other big scenes. The sets were cleverly done. Two large broad curved staircases on both sides, the orchestra was not in the pit, but partially hidden on a bridge covering the whole width of the back of the stage, forming the top of a series of arches. From the latter they could hang screens which they could project video images -- the mirror in the dressing room, for example. And they had video projection behind the orchestra as well. Indeed, the actual audience was projected for Christine's triumphant debut curtain call so that the curtain in the rear could close over them and we were "backstage". Clever.

What was left of a thin crescent of orchestra pit I eventually saw served two functions. First, there were several video monitors so that the cast could see the conductor, who was otherwise hidden behind them on stage. Second, there were remote control HD video cameras which could move for closeups without interfering with the audience's view.

Having seen the show twice, I was a little disappointed in two bits of stagecraft. One, the chandelier, which hung over the audience in the Royal Albert Hall, was not rigged to slide down and crash on the stage, but merely blew up pyrotechnically. Second, they used thrown or wirerigged fireballs as the Phantom's means of attack or intimidation before. This performance used a hand gesture followed by flames shooting out of the floor. It was effective, I'm sure, but less so if you'd seen the previous staging. On the way home, Mrs. Dr. Phil and I figured that both of these may have had to do with accommodations for the old hall.

But that's picking nits. We had a marvelous time. It'd been some time since I've heard the whole soundtrack CD and so it was a delight to revisit all the lines and the music when done by a first-rate company.

The Encore

Those people -- and there are always those people -- who got up and left while the cast took their bows wasted a big chunk of their $20 tickets. Because they brought out Andrew Lloyd Webber, who talked graciously for a couple of minutes, and then introduced the surviving cast members of the original London company. Including Sarah Brightman. Including Michael Crawford, who apparently had to race over from the Palladium Theatre. And then Andrew said that Sarah would sing for us.

But not just Sarah Brightman. Or Michael Crawford. There were FOUR former Phantoms on the stage. And later, the current Phantom, back in elegant dress and mask, came in. And they were backed up by the full casts of the original and current London casts. And later the current Christine.

It was stupendous and overblown and everything you wanted in an Andrew Lloyd Webber 25th Anniversary party. Epic along the scale of having nineteen Jean Valjeans in concert.

If you've missed this and still would like to see this production, there are encore performances at many movie theatres this week, although I'm not sure all 500-some theatres doing the live show today are doing all the rebroadcasts. And I guess in November this performance will come out in DVD and Blu-Ray. But it's not quite the same as going to the theatre -- even a movie theatre.

Dr. Phil

Links To Finland

As many of you know, in 2003 Mrs. Dr. Phil was invited to a library automation conference in Helsinki, Finland, and we took the opportunity to spend a week in Finland (and enough time for lunch in Tallinn, Estonia) -- and we really want to be able to go back. Finncon is a pretty big event, and as part of the arts, is free -- and we'd like to go to that, too. Lots of Finns speak better English than a lot of Americans and they invite English-speaking authors as GoH's, too.

worldsf worldsf's Journal is a blog connected with the publication of The Apex Book of World SF from Apex Books. The other day they ran a link to a blog about Finnish SF fandom, which I've added to my Blogger Dashboard. Already I've read a cool history of Animecon by Jussi Nikander, including that it will end its run with Finncon in the future. (sigh)

Ender In Tampere
For years there have been stories of Orson Scott Card's seminal SF novel Ender's Game being made into a movie, but it never happens. A theatre in Tampere, Finland, may be trumping them all by doing Ender as a play.

Legioonateatteri, an indie theater group from Tampere, is performing a play based on Ender’s Game. The play ENDER—kuolleiden puolustaja (“Ender, speaker for the dead”) will, despite the peculiar naming, be based on the first Ender book. The première will be on September 6 at Legioonateatteri in Nekala, Tampere.

Mystinen tieteisnäytelmä Ender pohjaa Orson Scott Cardin science-fiktion kulttiklassikkoon Enders game, ja se nähdään nyt ensimmäistä kertaa teatterilavalla uusissa Legioonateatterin tiloissa, Nekalassa.

Mystical science fiction drama Ender Orson Scott Card's base of science-fiction cult classic Enders game, and it is now seen as the first theater on the stage in the new premises Legioonateatterin, Nekalassa. (Google translation) From the theatre's website.

Very cool -- and sorry I'll miss it, even if it's in Finnish. Hey, I've been to Italian, French, etc. operas... (grin)

Dr. Phil