In 1986, a young Andrew Lloyd Webber created a phenomenal musical; The Phantom Of The Opera. The story centres on Christine, a budding young Opera star who lures the admiration of childhood sweetheart Raoul and a mysterious figure who haunts the Opera house. Battling between the innocence of good and the passion of evil, Christine must decide her fate and whom she gives her heart to. The Phantom of The Opera is the longest running Broadway musical and the second longest running West End Musical (behind Les Miserable.)
In 2004 Webber and Joel Schumacher translated the show from the stage to the big screen and cast Emmy Rossum as Christine, Gerald Butler as Phantom and Patrick Wilson as Raoul. Starring other big names such as Miranda Richardson and Simon Callow (AN: If you don't know who either of them are, shame on you,) and with a few tweaks here and there set about bringing Phantom to a younger audience. Or those who previously couldn't afford tickets.
After growing up listening to my Nan's tapes of the tape and having seen the film a billion times over, I recently treated myself and a friend to watching the show.
But a lot of questions come to mind; does film have advantage over the stage? Does the original show hold the cards?
There's the only one way to find out...
FIGHT....
Well, no, but a compare and contrast post will do (so technically a fight.)
Sets
This is a difficult one to start with each have their own playground to recreate the famous Paris Opera House that has a vast number of crevices rooms and an underground lake. In the film, set designers managed successfully to create a scale model and many of the poetic rooms that are held within the grand building. But, a big but, a lot of the scenery and views were in putted with a lot of CGI. The show however, manages to recreate the inner labyrinth of the Opera house an a small smaller stage, with a stunning rooftop seen in "All I Ask Of You" a clearly painstakingly painted backdrop of Paris and it is beautiful.
But as previously stated, the stage is small and this have limitations. The fact the designers in the film had created a scale model of the Opera house is a lot of hard work and and despite CGI advantage, deserves the accolade.
The Special Effects
"The Phantom is a genius; her is a composer, an architect, a magician, a genius." As Madame Giry states in the film, The Phantom knows tricks and how to play them to his bidding. In the film, the Phantom can call upon candles and gold men to his will, appear magically in mirrors without, scare Raoul with mirrors and disappear (....down a trap door that we can see.) In the show, The Phantom does all this and then some; he appears out of thin air more than once, creates fire bolts out of nowhere, causes a chandelier trick and disappears without anyone seeing a trap door.
The winner of this round has to be the show because if you aren't working on the show or a magician, you'll be left spell-bound by staging of the Phantoms shows...
Costumes
A long with the brilliant sets and special effects, the Victorian age costumes are wonderful in both the show and the film. From the Rome-esque red and green of the Hannibal musical to the dark deep passion of Don Juan Triumphant, the costumes follow the same vein and don't tread to far from each other. However, there are many differences and fantastic exceptions. In the show, the Phantoms "Masquerade" attire is full on scary and creepy and in the film, Christine's "Think of Me" is simply delightful.
In this arena, though, I think the film trumps by making Christine's costume a mixture of innocence and passion without making her a caricature.
Singing and Acting.
With the singing and acting, I'm going straight into this one, there is no way a film that can digitally enhance and repeatedly record a scene or song if someone makes a mistake can top a show that is live, mistakes and all. Rossum and Wilson do have fantastic vocals especially in "All I Ask Of You," and even Butler has moments where his voice can sound o.k. (instead of sounding like someone you foolishly cheered at karaoke and now auditioning for X Factor.) But in the show that I went to see, professional theatre greats such as Sofia Escobar and John Owen-Jones (Christine and the Phantom) belt out their songs with rare wavering and causing goosebumps and a standing ovations. The acting in both films is on top form as well despite both having accents that go from American, French, English, Italian and god knows in just one character (and many of them.)
Of course, the film does have moments of singing above the show; in songs that mean characters have to sing different parts, in the show it can become cluttered but sound engineers in the film can pick out important lines and layer them in so they don't drown. But its the show that races past the film for sheer brilliance.
Overall....
The visuals and designs are definitely a high point in the film but since its released has been subject to many negative reviews and feedback due to the direction and poor casting choices (*cough*Butler*cough*.) There is heart and passion in both but the show takes the prize. The film is a great start if you want to get into the show but don't have the cash to fork out for seats (despite, special discounts you can get for top seats.) The show, however, strikes chords in all of us. The superior singing and incredible special effects means the show wins completely.
A haunting spectacle for all of us to see..
TTFN
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