OK. Let's be honest. There wasn't a whole lot of arm twisting that needed to happen to get me to go see the
Victoria Theatre Association's (VTA) production of The Phantom of the Opera. I did balk at the "parking downtown" and "writing a critical review of the performance" parts of this assignment. The parking issue is a subject for another post, but the critical review part of the assignment was intimidating. You see - I have the entire score (including stage directions) memorized, and I was worried about comparing the realities of a live performance to the music in my head.
The free tickets helped a lot. The VTA is starting a new program where they are inviting Dayton bloggers (and a guest) to watch this (!) and future (!) performances, in return for posting a blog or two about the experience. There was only one minor communication hitch in the execution of the blogging program, but Ms. Diane Schoeffler-Warren (Public Relations Manager, VTA) has note of the issue, and already has plans in the works to address it.
I hesitated about writing the review because Phantom has been in my cassette player, in my CD player, and finally - in my iPod for YEARS. We performed excerpts of it in high school show choir, and I distinctly remember squeeing (long before squeeing was cool) when Phantom was performed by various marching bands. My son has literally grown up with the music. (Confession to my ultimate geeky-dom: I clean house to Phantom and Cats.... yeah... I'm in therapy... it will all be good.) So, I had a VERY precise musical score in my head when I went to the show. I wanted to be fair and as impartial as possible, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to do that.
My son was my companion for the evening. While he had heard the music his whole life, he had never seen the live performance (and I won't taint my home with the film version). He was surprised because the show didn't match the story he had in his head. He was impressed with the pyrotechnics, and promised he could "feel the heat" of the flames. (I assured him it was just excellent theatrics.) He liked the "bigness" of the performance. When pressed for what "bigness" meant, he flapped his arms and said "It was bigger than Avatar in 3-D!" High praise indeed from a 12-year-old.
My greatest compliment of the evening has to go to the Phantom (Tim Martin Gleason). It is really very easy to overact this part, making the Phantom into an uber-villain. Mr. Gleason, however, portrayed the humanity and suffering of a person excluded from society because of a severe birth defect. The Phantom's pain was real. He had been ostracized from society and made to suffer rejection, humiliation, and loneliness because of something beyond his control. Combine the awareness of social stigma with high creativity and intelligence, and all of a sudden, his motives and behavior become more understandable. As a result of Mr. Gleason's portrayal of the Phantom's humanity, Christine's capitulation to his demands makes sense. Her character is a sweet girl, who - though naive - is basically a compassionate person. She could feel his pain. When the Phantom is portrayed as an uber-villain, that scene just doesn't make sense.
I was surprised mostly that the Phantom was still in town. I remember seeing some television ads beck at Christmas, but assumed that (1) it had been sold out - because - gosh - it is the Phantom! and (2) I hadn't really seen any other advertisements. A couple of people I spoke with about the performance expressed surprise as well. The contribution of the Victoria Theatre Association to the Dayton fine arts scene might be better served with a more diverse marketing effort, because performances like the Phantom deserve to be sold out.
Victoria Theatre Association - Phantom of The Opera (Review)
[Full disclosure: One of the blog's other contributors is receiving tickets from the Victoria's Theater Association; a review will follow. I have no idea if her review will be positive or negative; unlike me, she used to do theater, is a huge fan of Phantom, and is much ... pickier... than I.]
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