Nearly a year ago I attended my very first musical, together with my brother, we watched the West End production of Wicked. While entering into the theatre with apprehension, I came out of it so much more than just contented completely mesmerised by the performers with their elaborate dance numbers and songs, serving as both a visual and audio feast.
Impatient for the next time I get to visit West End once more, I made sure to book a ticket to a show for my trip to London. With such a wide variety to choose from, it wasn't hard to decide upon The Phantom of the Opera housed in Her Majesty's Theatre. It is after all the second longest running production in West End with the iconic composition of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Her Majesty's Theatre's opulent interior serves well to transport its audience to the setting of the musical itself - Opera Garnier in Paris. The story follows Christine Daae of Swedish descent, an orphan child of a deceased violinist working as a ballet girl in the Opera. In a twisted tale of love and drama, she is taken under the wings of a mysterious Phantom rumoured to roam the opera. She believes him to be the "angel of music" her father once promised her about. The Phantom disturbs the operations of the opera in order to achieve what he wants, which is Christine to be the star of his production. With modern technology, the Phantom appears to be even more ghost like with sound effects and all!
I remember watching the movie version when I was much younger. I didn't understand the premise of the story, neither did the songs register too much in my head. Watching it now at 21 in the theatre proved to be a much more fruitful experience. I am now rummaging through the vast resources of the internet educating myself on all things Phantom of the Opera. It turns out that the part of Christine was written for Sarah Brightman, who was the then wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Upon surfing through many videos on youtube (which seems to be all gen Y kids can do), I find that I thoroughly enjoy Sierra Boggess's performance as the lead. There is a special performance of the show in Royal Albert Hall that is available to watch on youtube, currently playing in the background of my life.
It is hard to not find a reason to head down south to London with so much more theatre shows to watch.
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