Go big or go home, as they say.īooking at Her Majesty’s theatre, London, until 13 February. But the late Maria Björnson’s maximalist designs, from vivid masquerade ball to Degas-style ballet dancers, set the tone for old-school fantasy. The show has a dedication to analogue theatrical effects, from trapdoors and smoke to a skull-topped cane shooting fireballs, and, sure, there’s something hokey about the Phantom playing gondolier in the boat to his subterranean lair. There’s a bit of Hugh Grant about him (the edgier real-life Grant, rather than foppish film version) and he’s rich-voiced in the soaringly romantic All I Ask of You. Rhys Whitfield plays Christine’s more trad love interest, the dashing Raoul. No room to interrogate his status as an abusive incel here, just a good yarn. He’s a Frankenstein’s monster, sinister yet vulnerable, whose eyes “both threaten and adore” and who tells Christine “fear can turn to love”. He handles a tricky role, a stalker and kidnapper who is also an alternative romantic lead. She’s beatific, her tone bright with no harsh glare, all delicate vibrato, fine control and escalating power.Īs the Phantom, Killian Donnelly (a former Jean Valjean in Les Mis) finds a range of colours from a whisper to a roar. Lucy St Louis (who played Diana Ross in Motown the Musical) is an enchanting Christine, the object of the Phantom’s obsession. Winning formulas, of course, still need a refresh, so post-pandemic the show has returned with a new cast. Lucy St Louis and Killian Donnelly in The Phantom of the Opera. Click here for more information, and click here for tickets.Old-school fantasy. That was a good lesson-best to hear a human play the music before you try it out in the room trying to get a job.Įwoldt will sing songs from her repertoire in her March 12 solo concert at Feinstein’s/54 Below. It didn’t work very well, at least not the way that I thought it would. They were like, “Just sing something… Make it up and move around.” And that was atrocious! there was a song that I had a friend transpose from a recording that I had done once-a song that wasn’t published that I tried to sing-but I never tested out the accompaniment that my friend had written. Any time I go to concert or showcase, I’ll steal those, too, but really trying to keep up with the new musicals and be exposed to as much happening in the business as possible.ĭo you have a terrible audition story, or was there a song you used that you’d never use again? The hardest thing that I ever had to do-and this happened somehow twice in one week-was they had me improv a song in the audition. She was amazing, and the music is really beautiful, so that gave me a lot of ideas. Actually, in my show this weekend, I’m singing “The Secret of Happiness” from Daddy Long Legs because I got to see my friend Megan McGinnis in that. How do you keep your book fresh? I like to see all of the shows-as many as I can. From that small list, whatever happens to have a complete phrase and feels like it has at least a tiny bit of character development in 32 bars or 16 bars-something where I can also show off who I am as a person as well as a singer. There are just songs that immediately speak to me, and I know I can sing no matter what time of day it is or how I am feeling, either physically or emotionally. But, yeah, when it gets down to eight bars: Pick your best high note!Īny advice on finding the perfect cut? Do you work with a rep coach? I have worked with a rep coach in the past, but it’s been a number of years. There are a lot of words you can fit in, so you can present one phrase-like eight bars at the end. Have you ever been asked at an audition to switch to an 8-bar cut? I have, and I feel like it’s the last note of “Home,” or sometimes that’s when “I Feel Pretty” works because it’s really short. If it’s something really soprano-y, I’ll do “The Hair Song” by Carner and Gregor from their musical Unlock’d because it shows off a lot of fun coloratura kind of things, but it’s not “Glitter and Be Gay” that everybody else does.
I occasionally will throw in a little “I Feel Pretty” as an uptempo, which is fun. What are two other go-to audition songs you sing? “I Have Dreamed”, which is also in my show, and “Much More” I use sometimes. It speaks to me, so it’s become my standard. But what’s cool is that “Home” from that Phantom is opening my concert Sunday, it also has become my go-to song in my book because it’s just one of those songs that I viscerally and emotionally respond to, no matter what my day is like. Phantom of the Paradise (1974) A disfigured composer sells his soul for the woman he loves so that she will perform his music. The Phantom of the Opera (1925) A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer. What’s so funny is: That was the only thing I did as a child, and I didn’t have anything prepared, so I sang “Happy Birthday” for them. Here are 12 Phantom movies in the order I like them best.
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