Down Once More...

...to the dungeon of my black despair!  Down we plunge to the prison of my mind!  Down that path into darkness deep as Hell!

For twenty-five years those lyrics have started the culmination of my favorite piece of entertainment (and if box office receipts mean anything, the World's as well), The Phantom of the Opera.  For those of you who know me well and those who don't I am what you would call a theatre junkie.  I honestly can't get enough of the stuff and Phantom is the bug that bit me to start it all.  I was 9 when my family took a trip to the west coast in the summer of 1989 and went to see Phantom starring original cast members Michael Crawford and the late Steve Barton at the Ahmanson Theatre.  Even from the back of the theatre I was hooked, and over the following 22 years I have seen Phantom 11 times (and the sequel once).  Shortly after I moved to Germany in April it was announced that for the 25th anniversary of the show there would be a special staging of the production at London's Royal Albert Hall (I have a slight obsession w/ this venue too based on my Killers DVD), and from the moment it was announced I knew I was going, this is one of those things where price was not going to be of issue (like a Buckeyes title game, or that glorious day in the future when the Browns play in the Super Bowl).  Luckily I was able to hop online the day tickets went on sale and secured a ticket for the show at face value, in the 10th row no less.

After the flight and hotel were secured (seriously London, is there a hotel in the center city area under 150 pounds a night?) it was all a matter of time before I was winging my way to London for this epic (in my mind) event.  I got into London pretty late on Friday and really didn't have time to do much other than grab a quick bite and a pint at a pub and then call it a night (also, the pubs closing at 11:30...unacceptable).  On Saturday, after walking around the center of London during the day checking out sites I had seen before and having an internal monologue on how this city is going to be a zoo during the Olympics (seriously, London is crazy packed on a random weekend in October, those 2 weeks are going to be psycho) it was time to head back and suit up for the show.  Changed and ready I set off on the mile or so walk from my hotel to the Albert Hall and the show...let's just say as soon as I saw the Albert Hall, I knew this would be an awesome event.

Yep, super cool.

As I arrived a little early there was plenty of time for a couple of cocktails before, so I headed to the bar nearest to my seat and had a few beers and made sure I pre-ordered a cocktail for intermission (OK, so this is a brilliant idea, you buy your intermission drink before the show then at intermission your drink is just sitting there waiting for you...amazing!  This needs to catch on more).  One quick point here, the only beer they had at the Albert Hall was Asahi.  I found this slightly weird as I don't think I have ever had one when I wasn't enjoying sushi as well (although Asahi is my go to beer with sushi).  Anyway, after my tasty beverages it was time to find my seat...and as I showed my ticket to the usher, he just politely says, yes just head toward the front...so I do and wouldn't you know it, row 10 was actually the 4th row of my section!

Now that's what I call close!

Show time...the principles for the performance were: The Phantom - Ramin Karimloo (Phantom - London, original Phantom - Love Never Dies); Christine - Sierra Boggess (original Christine - Las Vegas, original Christine - Love Never Dies); Raoul - Hadley Frasier (Javert - Les Mis, London).  The cast was Phantastic (ok, that was cheap), but honestly it was just a tremendous cast top to bottom.  The staging was impeccable given the challenges of staging a full production on the scale of Phantom in the Albert Hall including a full orchestra that was elevated above the main stage.  

From the very first strike of the auctioneer's gavel "Sold!  Your number sir...thank you" I was gripped in this performance.  I had seen Ramin and Sierra in the sequel a year prior when I was in London and although that show had its faults, the performers were not one of them, and they did not disappoint on this evening either.  Ramin Karimloo has a tremendous voice that powers through the songs and gives a bit of a rock star flair to the role (it is well documented that ALW views the show as a "rock opera") that doesn't detract from the emotion that the character of the Phantom needs to evoke.  Where a lot of the performers you see in the role have what I would call a more classic voice that brings out the sadness of the character, the performance that Ramin gave brought out a certain edge to the role (he really is a bad guy...I mean he kills two people) while also enabling the audience to feel that vulnerability that hides beneath the surface.  Sierra Boggess, I don't know that words could do her performance justice...flat out amazing.  I generally don't care for the character of Christine all that much, I mean yes it is an incredibly difficult part to sing but most of the time she is this sort of blah character that you don't feel a lot of emotion from.  Not this night, she brought a new energy to the role and a level of independence and empowerment that I had never really seen from this part (maybe Christine is bumpin' Beyonce now).  During Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (my least favorite song in the show) I literally had goosebumps from the delivery...it brought the house down, I think the applause had to have lasted for 2-3 minutes (I really thought an impromptu standing ovation was about to occur).  Even Hadley Frasier brought some new nads to Raoul, usually he is kind of a wuss just taking Christine away at the end but this guy was still pissed at the Phantom and looked like he wanted to go back for a fight at the end.

Other highlights of the show included Masquerade, with an increased number of cast on the stage this normally big number took on a new life and exploded.  The first trip to The Phantom's layer lair, Phantom of the Opera/Music of the Night was as always incredible.  There is something about the first time the boat appears on stage that always amps this show up a notch for me, and Ramin handled Music of the Night in an effortless manner that was perfect.  Finally, the finale...the final decent to the layer, always my favorite scene in the show...and this was not a disappointment.  As I stated before, Ramin balanced the pure psychopath / broken man sides of the Phantom better than anyone I can remember, Hadley Fraser really bringing some fight to Raoul and Sierra's Christine in the middle of it all...it was really gritty, sexy, and passionate...everything you want out of this show.  Easily the best collective casting I have ever witnessed to take on Phantom.

For as special as the actual performance was, after the curtain calls (as with any of these anniversary type things) Andrew Lloyd Webber came out and gave a couple of words to the crowd then brought out the original creative team for Phantom, the original London cast (sans Michael Crawford...which was disappointing, but he is currently starring in The Wizard of Oz in the West End) and Sarah Brightman who sang the title song with a quintet of Phantoms: Colm Wilkenson (original Toronto), John Owen-Jones (current London), Anthony Wardlow (original Australia), Peter Joback (taking over in London next year I guess...sort of unfortunate, he was the weak link), and Ramin.  The Phantom's then used the bridge into Music of the Night to serenade ALW while they played a video montage of his career above the stage before going into Music of the Night to close out the show.  As I was at the first of three performances that weekend and given ALW's reaction to the little serenade, he had no idea it was coming and was truly taken back by it.  It was really cool being there for the first of the performances as you really just saw all of the emotion from everyone on that stage who was involved in the original and in the evening's cast.  A few quick thoughts on the encores, Colm has still got it.  Really impressed for someone who is 67 to get out there and not just be a nice add to the mix, he really nailed it.  John Owen-Jones, would really like to see him in the role someday and may have to make a trip to London before he leaves the show...that dude can flat out sing.  Anthony Wardlow as well was tremendous and if this Peter Joback dude is the next Phantom then I will be in no rush to catch it, wasn't impressed at all.

Sarah and Andrew

Sarah and the 5 Phantoms

The performance was not without a few flaws in presentation, but this is mostly due to the limited size of the stage and technical aspects of the RAH.  The chandelier doesn't crash (they shot fireworks out of it instead), the elephant doesn't make an appearance in Hannibal, the use of the moveable video screens (although, I imagine these looked good for the cameras), and the managers weren't all that funny.  The lack of Michael Crawford in the encore was a disappointment as well, he did make an appearance at the Sunday encore that was beamed live to movie theaters but didn't sing...so I wasn't totally jipped on that.  Overall, just a tremendous performance and if you have the chance to see it in a theater or can rent the DVD when it comes out, I totally encourage you to do that especially if you haven't seen the show before.  The 2004 movie didn't do the stage production of Phantom any justice and I have a feeling that once you see this version you will agree.  Plus kudos to the people I was sitting next to who were personal friends of Michael Crawford, you guys rocked and were fun to chat with!

As always, see you on the flip.

Frankfurt...where 5am happens.

So first of all I apologize for the lack of my blogability or something like that over the past few months.  I haven't been a wallflower or anything, just too damn lazy to blog which is disappointing to like the 5 of you who read this.  So sorry my peeps, but I will try to do better, I swear...just yell and badger me and guilt me into posting (Wade Stick excels at this).

So in thinking about what to discuss on this, my glorious return to the blog, I figured giving a little insight into my rambling text messages from the middle of the night may be a good thing...or at least a look into the weird that happens in the early Frankfurt AM.  First let me preface that I was no stranger to closing down bars back in the native land of Cleveland or my adopted home of the hotness that is Atlanta.  However, as all of my fellow friends of the bottle know, the bars close at a somewhat reasonable 2-2:30 AM back in the majority of the USA.  Let me tell you, this is a good thing...seriously.  I know the lot of you who get after it may want the party to go on all night, and some of you who may have experienced NYC or Chicago and the magic of 4am may long to have that ability each and every day of your drinking career.  This is a slippery slope my friends, once you commit yourself to the long haul of a truly dangerous night out where the hallucinations of Jager kick in and the whiskey flows maybe a little too profusely, you may find yourself regretting decisions (the ones you recall at least) for weeks on end.  The loss of motor skill is not uncommon either.  Your legs may just give way to the pavement or you may find yourself wandering the streets in your socks wondering just what the hell is actually happening.  Yes this is the magic of 5am when only the truly hardcore are being removed from a bar and seeking refuge at the 24 hour saloon if only to sober up on beer.

If this is what it looks like when you walk home, you may be drunk

These nights in Frankfurt always seem to start on the same note, usually me stating to one of my fellow revelers that I don't want to make it a long night and will probably take off after the evening's first stop.  Then the rub happens, see in Frankfurt I get everywhere I go via the train system (and a mighty wonderful thing the U-Bahn is).  However, the train system takes a short nap in the early AM from 1 until 4:30, so if you miss that last train you find yourself reasoning with the fact that since you missed that train you might as well continue on until the trains start running again.  Yes Frankfurt has taxi cabs a plenty, but that would ruin the whole point of reasoning with yourself that it is OK to stay out a little while longer, I mean it is only 3 more hours and what is that when you have already been out for 3+ hours.  So then it is decided you have settled in for the long haul and the excitement that awaits for you at then bottom of your next glass of Pils.

The first two hours generally tick by in relatively normal fashion, I mean it is only 3 AM an hour I am accustomed to and at this point, unlike Rob Thomas, I am not lonely.  Nay, I am surrounded by my fellow man.  Hell this is the time when you are making life long connections with people (or so you think).  A 3 AM conversation with your new friends from Ireland (who's names you won't remember in 3 minutes, let alone the next day) regarding tomorrow's rugby match, a perfectly normal thing.  User beware as you may be convinced that you need to now power through the evening and watch rugby with you new friends at 7 AM...(yes this actually happened).  Then you are in, pulling for even the longer haul.  You may still realize that going home is the more acceptable answer at this point, but what fun would that be and you would never wake up in time for this all important rugby match (even if you have never watched the game before).  So there you find yourself, another bar, 4 AM...time ticking down, only 3 more hours to go, but wait where did your new friends go?  You remember something about a 24 hour bar near the train station so in a cab you ride trying to find this dive (and why you don't have them steer you home, it is a lost cause at this point) and by the grace of you cabbies ability to understand slured English you actually find this bar.  5 AM...6 AM...you know a few faces in the bar, but comprehension is not your strongest attribute at this point, you are just buying time and finally, 7 AM.  Luckily the 24 hour bar is around the corner from your rugby spot and somehow the Irish guys are there!  You settle in and watch about 10 minutes of rugby before you realize, you have no idea what is going on in this game and have a snowballs chance in hell of actually figuring it out...so to the cab you go (even though the trains are running...you reason that you just need to get home at this point) and find your way back to your bed to rest up until you can't fight the daylight anymore.

This is just one variation of the story, sometimes you find yourself drinking with a guy in his late 60s from Minnesota named Kurt (ok, so Kurt is probably my favorite person I have met in Frankfurt, he is the dirtiest old man ever).  Maybe you run into someone telling you to trust the alternative media that turns into an argument where you proclaim that the "alternative media" is just some fat kid sitting in his parents basement eating Cheetos.  Other times you are just singing Country Roads at the top of your lungs with the rest of the bar and pouring one out for Jani Lane (people thought I was nuts).  The key to making this all successful at the end of the day is finding people to employ the buddy system of drinking with.  At the end of the day, we all need someone who you can count on to tap you on your shoulder when you really need to go home, or at least is committed enough to see it through to the other side with you.  This is the one unequivocal fact that I have learned in my first 6 months living abroad, and something that is missed from time to time.  It is also a fact that I (along w/ most that I know) take for granted back in the US.  Your friends who are willing to belly up with you and from time to time send you on your way are the most important accessory to a successful night out.

To those of you who have been to this dark side with me I thank you and hope that I have or will return that favor to you in the near future.

See you on the flip.

Authors Note:  I sincerely apologize for quoting Matchbox 20 in this blog post.  I will do better with my pop-culture references next time.