Where: Broadway
When: January 8th, 2005

Heather McFadden was Meg. She wasn't bad...her acting was good, her voice was kind of off last night though. I watched her closely during the Hannibal ballet, you know, just to see if they do any evil stretchy moves that I can't do. Nope, none that I could see...with uber UBER training I might be able to do it someday. So Angel of Music passed and it was awesome.

Oooh...I forgot to say...scared my mom several times. The first time was when we got the programs. I opened it up, took one look at the insert, and squealed, "OMG YES JULIE HANSON IS PERFORMING TONIGHT WOOOO!" mom: WTF? people next to and behind me: WTF?

John Cudia and Julie Hanson. There's so much stage chemistry between them, I can't say that enough. "Little Lotte" passed awesome, I love how she says, "Oh Raoul, so it is you!" And throws herself into his arms and they're just so perfect in the parts. I love how John sort of runs off really happily after the "Two minutes, little Lotte!" and leaves with this happy run. It's so cute!

Bad thing-I was one week too early. If I had waited until next week to see it, I could have seen my beloved David Gaschen. I am a hopeless fan of his and really REALLY wanted to see him again.

Good thing-I still saw James Romick.

Now during Act I, he was not that bad an Erik. He was missing something though, I couldn't quite pinpoint it. Mirror scene good as always...good and proper. Door swings open, Raoul enters looking bewildered. Oh yeah. Go real Mirror scene.

Title song...oh I was so happy to see the properly done title song! No squoogley arms, no brightly lit passages...just Erik taking Christine down darkly lit passages with the lantern. Brilliant, yay, so glad to see it done right! Julie, excellent as always, even my mom was like, "Wow, she is good!" James, not bad, though he did have a lot of Howard McGillin moments, and even some Colm Wilkinson ones (he did the muffly cold singing a few times).

So MOTN. I really loved the way James sang when he did the second, "My music...my music..." and then lead into "Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation..." as I noticed, he sang better on the soft parts than the loud ones. His "soar" was so sweet sounding, he really hit that Ab right there on the quiet note and I went all "eeeee". His other notes were too back of the throat, though. And I think I squee every time I see any person who plays Erik take off the cloak...because Erik just has these hands and they are...omg the hands...*swoon* He also gave Christine an adorable look after she fainted and I liked that.

His Stranger was great! I loved how after she ripped the mask off he stood up with a look of total shock and alarm before launching into the "Damn you! You little prying pandora! You little demon, is this what you wanted to see?" and rounded on her furiously, and Julie ran away cowering on the other side of the stage. I loved how he kind of looked up during the last "Damn you!" and fell to the floor and covered his head with "Curse you!" just before going into the main theme. He didn't do the cute thing Gaschen did with the almost-kiss before "Come we must return..." But hey, everyone's got their own interpretations, right?

So Notes and Prima Donna...must say, best I've ever seen. Jeff Keller and George Lee Andrews, every time I see them they just keep impressing me more and more by showing me just how damn good their Firmin and Andre are. Each time I watch them and keep thinking, "Damn, these ARE the Managers. They are without a doubt the singularly best managers ever." I love them. They're just so perfect! Carlotta was great here too...made the faces and did the diva sniff, and Piangi's "You don't deserve her!" was great. Overall I loved this scene, it was just fantastic.

Il Muto...Julie and Anne=brilliant. Julie good as always, Anne gave the best faces when she croaked and did the totally freaking out Carlotta thing. Loved it! Fantastic! Oh, Erik's evil laughter was so great. So was the oboe solo even though I still don't know how to play it. Buquet fell dead...yay properly dead Buquet and no random chasing! Whee!

All I Ask of You...awww brilliant! John and Julie, everything they do together is brilliant. They are the ideal Raoul and Christine. So sweet, so in love, so protective. I love how he picks her up and spins her and they both give this joyous laugh after the song ends. It's so sweet! They're such a perfect couple together. James's AIAOY reprise was ehhh...he didn't do what David did (sorry, you're dealing with a hopeless Gaschen fangirl here) but it was good of course. Loved the evil laughter, and I liked how he went from, "noooOOOO YOU WILL CURSE..." ect ect. Really great crescendo. Look on Julie's face when she saw the chandelier fall was great.

Masquerade was all YAY and wonderful, every perfect. Why So Silent...goody! It's Why So Silent! Yay, it's Erik in his REAL Red Death costume, booya! Reveled in that. Next scene after that...Madame Giry, LOL Jade! I was grinning because as soon as she said, "Very well. It was years ago..." and I thought of you, Jade, and the fabulous stalker Madame Giry that you do. But here, Marilyn Caskey, she was proper Madame Giry who saw things ONCE and didn't know, like, the life history of Erik. Ahh, a proper Madame Giry, thank you once again!

Notes II. Great to see Notes II left in. John doesn't do the Enjolras walk anymore...I guess he somehow got out of it from last January to this. Julie awesome, love how she runs away and says, "No, NO!" Don Juan rehearsal great. Wishing...omg I love this song, omg I love Julie doing this song. So emotional and gorgeous, I totally understood. Wandering Child was PROPER! I was ecstatic! James's WC was fabulous...he really did that well, holding out his hand to her like that. From atop the cross. Oh it was so good, he did it all seductively that I was ready to jump out of my seat and wander trancelike to him. "Bravo, Monsieur" oh...yes...it was done right! With Erik and the fireball staff and NO SWORDFIGHT WOOT! I was so relieved. Damn this show is good.

PONR done properly too, I could dance with happiness. No random Aida-ish dancers, no flame thingies. Came out in the cowl and robe...*sigh* Love the cowl and robe. Loved Julie's PONR, she does it so fabulously! She did the caressing thing and you can tell when she did she was like, "Yeah, Erik, I know it's you." and seemed to play with him a bit. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it when she does that. Because usually you see Erik's power over her, but when Julie does Christine, you can tell right there during PONR that she's got power over him too and realizes it. Unmasking made me want to dance too because it was proper! He did the "Say you'll share with me..." and it was great. Then she took off the mask, coolly and calmly. I almost shouted "yay!" because it was properly done, back with Erik being the way he really is, back to a deformity that actually made the people behind me gasp (people behind me: GASP! Me: YAY PROPER DEFORMITY AGAIN WOOT!) and I was so glad to see that.

OMG FINAL LAIR. OMG. James Romick's final lair was OMG!!!!!! I mean mind bogglingly wow! I'd suffice to say his final lair was as good as David Gaschen's. My god he was so excellent! The whole time you were like, "This guy is SO messed up, but wow, I love him anyway." He was furious at first, there was a touch of angry, but it wasn't just that. When Raoul came he was so delightfully sarcastic...it was so in-character, I loved the sarcasm uber much. You could tell the exact moment when he thought, "She'll have to choose between me and him!" you could tell exactly when he decided to do that. He went over to the organ for "This is the point of no retuuuuuuurn!" and looked all angry, and then when Christine said, "The tears I might have shed for your dark fate, grow cold and turn to tears of hate!" and he turned away and like, lowered his head at the music, like you could tell the words really affected him.

"You try my patience!" he shouted...like that. "Make your choice!" he whispered that and then turned away...it was soooo good! Then of course it's Julie who does it wonderfully. "God gave me courage to show you, you are not alone!" I loved how she stood up slowly and resolutely and then grabbed his shoulders (he gave this absolute look of surprise) and kissed him. OMG the kiss was done UBERLY PERFECT! The first kiss he did the arm flail and you could tell he was like "!!!!!!????!!" and then she hugged him, and just before she did the second kiss he gave her this absolutely disbelieving shake of his head (me: *SOB*) before she did the second kiss. After that he kind of staggered back a few steps and did the head shake again...it was sooo perfect! He looked at her with surprise and disbelief and just this look of omg. Then he ran over, and he stood by the candle for a moment and touched his lips (me: *more sob*) before taking the candle and burning the lasso. Then John and Julie lingered while James ran to the other side and only had small glances at them..."Take the boat, leave me here, swear never to tell...the secret you know of the angel in hell!" he fully turned away at this point.

Then fell down beside the monkey and sang that part and it was SO heartbreaking, and by now I'm crying (mom: SHHH stop being so noisy!) and sobbing when Christine comes back. Omg he gave her THE most hopeful look! She came and was holding the ring and he turned around and gave her this look of surprise and sudden hope (me: *OMG SOB*) and then she gave the ring to him and he called after her, "I love you!" first loudly and then softly and then clutched the wedding veil and said it very, very softly while they were in the boat singing. I was sobbing like anything by the time he did the "You alone" part and vanished. Omg it was so beautiful. It's so hard to describe just how damn wonderful James Romick's final lair was. It was mind-boggling.

So as always, Crazy Girl [now] in the Fourth Row strikes again. Show's over, I'm up on my feet clapping and cheering and clapped insanely even as the little chorus girls came out. My mom was thoroughly scared of me. I left the theatre in a daze, went off to the stage door.

Overall, this was a great, GREAT show. I finally saw the proper stage show again and now feel glad because I was at the Majestic, smelling it and sitting there with the beautiful theatre ambiance around me. I saw actors who sang wonderfully and acted wonderfully and I feel all pure and clean now, I've been washed of the ugh movie by this GORGEOUS show. (yes, I really don't like the movie).