Past the Point of No Return

I confess. I spent some time looking at that Phantom of the Opera fan page I posted a whole day ago. As a joke.

God help me, I think I'm starting to like Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I really have a lot of time on my hands. Could you tell? Initially, I hated the big British shows as a whole. I sort of eventually became indifferent about Phantom, though. The show was kind of cool. The Phans turned me off. I was lucky enough to be invited to an understudy dress rehearsal once and it completely changed my perspective on the show, because not only do the actors care fully about the work they’re doing, they care about the show itself. They really respond to it emotionally and artistically. And actors not only having work that is perfect for them, but having work that is also something they love is, well, perfect.

And, again, I feel like Lloyd Webber must be doing something right, but I just can’t figure out what it is, and it might just be a matter of taste for me. I think it’s morbidly appealing schlock.

Then I took a look at some of the people who have passed through the show during its entire run. And pretty much everyone who has put on the mask looks exactly the same as the last guy who played the Phantom before him…and so on.



But, after perusing that website? I’d have to say the cutest alum here is a direct tie between Jim Weitzer and Tim Martin Gleason. Mwrowrrrr.





Of course, I sent my mom the link to this website and she became addicted, too. She probably would also beg to differ with me. She knows damn well who I’m talking about. He’s under “L.”

Although, maybe Fabrizio over here’d be a close third. Maybe right behind an understudy I met a few years ago at the rehearsal, because…man, I really can’t believe I’m typing this. I used to be scared of this show. Like, really frightened of it up to and including just after I graduated college. I have the same problem with animatronics. So, by the time I got invited to that understudy rehearsal in the Broadway theatre in all of its bare-bones glory, and I couldn’t even let myself in through the stage door, I was still shivering uncontrollably. One of the understudies, Fred, was kind enough to hold my hand and walk me through that dark stage and just let me know it was all okay. And he even pulled me up onstage and stood next to me when we got to do vocal warm-ups with the actors. What a sweetie pie!

We talked and he’s subsequently left the show to get a real principal contract for a Broadway run. Because he plays an instrument, too, it's John Doyle's Broadway now, and the development is completely unsurprising to me.

So, my feelings about Phantom are decidedly changed. I’m happy about it becoming the longest running show on Broadway, because, man, at least it’s not Cats. Also, I always assumed that you couldn’t rock out that hard on the cello, but, Rasputina and said understudy aside, it is possible.

Where are they now? Tim’s in Vegas and Jim recently played…John Brooke in the Broadway musical of Little Women. Gaaah!

See? After getting over the Phantom? This is what scares me now.

That, and this creepy-cool photograph of Tim in The Rhythm Club.



Boogity!