#phantom scheveningen

[operafantomet]

Hello. Can you make a photoset of Lina Mendes's Christine wardrobe, please? I love that she got to wear many vintage costumes

VERY MUCH THIS. I am still so pleasantly surprised about some of the choices made for principal Lina Mendes and alternate Giulia Nadruz. That they resurrected the old Dutch costumes instead of making lots of new stuff, OMG! My inner Phantom costume nerd exploded with happiness. So yes! As a general note, all costumes were flewn in from Germany, which is also where they had the Dutch one in stock. This is also why the mix is German/Dutch. Here goes:

Hannibal 'Slavegirl' costume: Looked like a fairly standard recent German (Essen era) bodice, complete with wristbands and the distinct German Christine tiara:

The Elissa skirt: OMG THE RED SKIRT. Red skirts originated in Stockholm and Scheveningen; I wanna say this is is one of the original Dutch skirts due to the specific tab decorations. But it has been used in Germany for many years too; first appearing on Janine Kitzen in Stuttgart, and last on Michelle van de Ven in Hamburg and Elizabeth Welch in Oberhausen. Still, a rare one so yipee hooray on another principal wearing it!

The dressing gown: A very big-patterned skirt and fitted look. Another Essen costume that's been in the loop for some years, I wanna say this was first made for and worn by Beatrix Reiterer in Essen, and last used by Elizabeth Welch and Annemarijn Mandaag in Oberhausen.

Maid / Serafimo: The German maid skirt has typically been white, and the breeches typically mint green, from the original Hamburg production to the most recent Oberhausen production. So also here, worn by Lina Mendes in Sao Paulo.

The Rooftop costume: O... M... G. That is the wildest Rooftop dress ever made. Electric blue brocade covered with spray-painted contured lace, and with blue and purple decorations. Made for the original Dutch production, is a costume I never thought I would see on stage again. The costume looked quite overwhelmingly bad backstage. This is a good lesson in COSTUMES ARE MADE FOR THE STAGE, because it looks good under the lamp lights, and especially paired with a calming mint cloak.

The Star Princess: This is another good lesson in COSTUMES ARE MADE FOR THE STAGE, as this skirt also looked rather bad backstage. Plastic-like overlayer, with thick pink silk ribbons attaching the big silver stars. It looked like a children's version of the costume. But look at it on stage! Also nicely paired with a classic bodice with discrete beading and rich ruffles.

The Wishing dress: Oh yes they did! Paired that truly vintage Dutch Wishing bodice with a larger German skirt. The bodice can be recognized by the larger appliquées and the stripy cuffs, very typical for the first European versions of the costume. Me like.

The Aminta costume: No huge surprises here. One of the new Hamburg dresses, made in the style of the old Hamburg dresses - but with the addition of the Dutch aprons, just to keep that Dutch flair no? Nice combo.

The wedding dress: AAAA OOOOOHHH OH MY!!! Those bodices. Words can't express how much I love the earlt European bodices, with their exaggerated lines, long bodices, defined waistlines, rich silvery fabric and DECORATIONS. It was paired with a more unambitious recent German skirt, but with its long lines the whole costume reflect rather well on Maria Bjørnson's design. The old Dutch skirts had much more sparce lace.

Also bonus that the other Brazilian Christines wore the same type of bodice, which meant lots of photos of them in use. Here's alternate Giulia Nadruz:

So yeah... the saga of vintage Dutch costumes as worn by principal Lina Mendes in the Sao Paulo revival, and as originally designed by Maria Bjørnson.

[operachristine]

Holiday Gifting Day 1

Day 1 of 5 features a few videos from Phantom!

Michael Crawford (The Phantom of the Opera), Sarah Brightman (Christine Daaé), Steve Barton (Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny) 1987; Broadway Notes: Rehearsal footage, around 40 minutes long. Professionally filmed and sometimes staticky and fuzzy, but rare glimpse of the original cast and director working on the production

Link

Michael Crawford (The Phantom of the Opera), Dale Kristien (alt Christine Daaé), Steve Barton (Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny), Judy Kaye (Carlotta Giudicelli), Nick Wyman (Monsieur Firmin), Cris Groenendaal (Monsieur André), Leila Martin (Madame Giry) October 8, 1988; Broadway || Notes: Act 1 starts partway through Auctioneer's speech; Act 2 midway through 'Masquerade'. Includes a clip of Michael Crawford's bows for his last show on Broadway, shot from a different angle and possibly taken from another source.

Link

Gary Mauer (The Phantom of the Opera), Marie Danvers (Christine Daaé), Michael Shawn Lewis (Raoul), Kim Stengel (Carlotta Giudicelli), David Cryer (Monsieur Firmin), DC Anderson (Monsieur André), John Whitney (Ubaldo Piangi), Kate Wray (Meg Giry) August 10, 2005; Third National Tour

Link

Ben Cramer (alt The Phantom of the Opera), Maaike Widdershoven (alt Christine Daaé), Hans Peter Janssens (alt Raoul) Notes: Choppy highlights filmed by a cast or crew member from the side of the stage. || June 28, 1996; Scheveningen, Netherlands

Link

[glassprism]

What If Scenario. The Pandemic never happened, but the renovations at Her Majesty’s eventually did. During that time, they put together a concert-like production of Phantom like they did with Les Mis in 2019. Who would you have cast in each part? Feel free to include Ensemble & Understudies

I think I answered something very similar before where I said that I'd love to have had an international celebration, with recent, fan-favorite, or long-running members from productions all over the world given an opportunity to perform and do, like, one song each, along with the then-current cast at the time. So I guess it might be something like:

Phantom: Josh Piterman (London), Ben Crawford (Broadway), Derrick Davis (national tour), Osamu Takai (Japan), Alexander Goebel (Vienna), Colm Wilkinson (Toronto), Peter Karrie (Canadian tour), Peter Joback (Stockholm), Ian Jon Bourg (Germany), Anthony Warlow (Australia), Henk Poort (Scheveningen), Juan Navarro (Mexico City), Hans Peter Janssens (Antwerp), Tomas Ambt Kofod (Copenhagen), Hong Kwang Ho (Seoul), Juan Carlos Barona (Madrid), Sandor Sasvari (Budapest), Saulo Vasconcelos (Sao Paulo), Damian Aleksander (Poland), Carlos Vittori (Buenos Aires), Marian Vojtko (Prague), Stephen Brandt Hansen (Estonia), Ivan Ozhogin (Moscow), Ilkka Hamalainen (Helsinki), Adrian Nour (Bucharest), Nikola Bulatovic (Belgrade), Vladimir Grudkov (Sofia), Jonathan Roxmouth (World Tour), Espen Grjotheim (Oslo), Ben Forster (Greece), Killian Donnelly (UK Tour)

Christine: Kelly Mathieson (London), Meghan Picerno (Broadway), Emma Grimsley (national tour), Sae Yamamoto (Japan), Luzia Nistler (Vienna), Rebecca Caine (Toronto), Teresa DeZarn (Canadian tour), Emmi Christensson (Stockholm), Valerie Link (Germany), Ana Marina (Australia), Joke de Kruijf (Scheveningen), Irasema Terrazas (Mexico City), Inneke van Klinken (Antwerp), Sibylle Glosted (Copenhagen), Kim So Hyun (Seoul), Julia Moller (Madrid), Barbara Fonyo (Budapest), Lina Mendes (Sao Paulo), Edyta Krzemien (Poland), Claudia Cota (Buenos Aires), Monika Sommerova (Prague), Maria Listra (Estonia), Tamara Kotova (Moscow), Sofie Asplund (Helsinki), Irina Baiant (Bucharest), Mirjana Matic (Belgrade), Vesela Delcheva (Sofia), Claire Lyon (World Tour), Astrid Giske (Oslo), Amy Manford (Greece), Holly-Anne Hull (UK Tour)

Raoul: Danny Whitehead (London), John Riddle (Broadway), Michael Maliakel (national tour), Kanji Ishimaru (Japan), Thorsten Tinney (Vienna), Laird Mackintosh (Toronto), Kip Wilborne (Canadian tour), Anton Zetterholm (Stockholm), Nicky Wuchinger (Germany), Alexander Lewis (Australia), Peter de Smet (Scheveningen), someone who's not Jose Joel (Mexico City), Michael Shawn Lewis (Antwerp), Christian Lund (Copenhagen), Son Jun Ho (Seoul), Armando Pita (Madrid), Zoltan Miller (Budapest), Nando Prado (Sao Paulo), Marcin Mrozinski (Poland), Nicholas Martinelli (Buenos Aires), Tomas Vanek (Prague), Koit Toome (Estonia), Evgeny Zaycev (Moscow), John Martin Bengtsson (Helsinki), Florin Ristei (Bucharest), Slaven Doslo (Belgrade), Denko Prodanov (Sofia), Matt Leisy (World Tour), Carl Lindquist (Oslo), Nadim Naaman (Greece), Rhys Whitfield (UK Tour)

Is that way too many cast members? Probably! Are there even enough scenes for each of them to perform together? Unlikely! Did I give up doing supporting, ensemble, and understudies because it was too exhausting? Definitely! Do I even know who some of these people are or if they want to come back at all? Not really!

But you have to admit - it's a huge and very international cast!

[cantikdaae]

Maaike Widdershoven singing ‘Kon Ik Nog Maar Even Bij Je Zijn’ the Dutch version of ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’ from The Phantom Of The Opera. 25 years after her last performance as Christine. Watch the full video/interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS6W9hT97Hc&t=570s

[andrewlloydwebber]

Happy 25th anniversary to the Dutch production of The Phantom of the Opera. It opened on this date (August 15th) in 1993, running until 1996. It played at the  VSB Circus Theater in Scheveningen, starring Joke de Kruijf, Henk Poort, and Peter de Smet.

[the-shark-is-a-mammal]

Actresses who have played both Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera and Belle in Beauty and the Beast:

Sarah Pfisterer - US Tour (1991-1994)/Broadway (1999-2000) Christine and Boston (2006) Belle

Lolita Cortés - Mexico (1997-1998)/Mexican revival (2007) Belle and Mexico (1999-2001) Christine

Claudia Cota - Mexico (1999-2001)/Buenos Aires (2008) Christine and Mexican revival (2007) u/s Belle

Julia Möller - Madrid (2001-2002)/Spanish revival (2007-2008) Belle and and Madrid (2002-2004) alt. Christine

Kiara Sasso - São Paulo (2002-2003) Belle and São Paulo (2005-2007) alt. Christine

Jennifer Hope Wills - Broadway (2004) u/s Belle and US Tour/Broadway (2006-2010) Christine

Mia Karlsson - Copenhagen (2004-2005) Belle and Copenhagen (2009) Christine

Samantha Hill - Manitoba (2009) Belle and Broadway (2012-2013) Christine

Talía del Val - Spain Tour (2012-2013) Belle and Madrid concert (2015) Christine

Missing here:

Rachel Barrell - West End (2004-2006) Christine and Belle in unknown production/date)

Elizabeth Welch -  US Tour/Broadway/Oberhausen (2009-?) Christine and Denver (unknown date) Belle

Honorable Mentions:

Joke de Kruijf (Hamburg/Vienna/Scheveningen (1990-1994) Christine) and Louise Fribo (Copenhagen (2012-2013) Christine (Love Never Dies)). Both of them provided the singing and speaking voice of Belle in their languages (Dutch and Danish, respectively) for the dub of the 1991 animated movie.

Jana Werner. Jana provided the German speaking and singing voices for Belle in the 1991 animated movie and for Christine in the 2004 movie.

Emmi Christensson (West End/Stockholm (2014-2017) Christine) and Giulia Nadruz (São Paulo revival (2018-present) alt. Christine). Both women provided the speaking and singing voices for Belle in the 2017 live-action movie in Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese, respectively.

If I am missing anyone else, let me know!

[musicalfan94]

Christmas Video/Audio Gift

Video:

Cabaret 20.11.2014 (Broadway)

Emcee: Alan Cumming Sally Bowles: Emma Stone

https://mega.nz/#F!ihZU3a4I!c2XHtXOgixESuIdlDOLgVg

Elisabeth Das Musical 20.12.2014 (Shanghai Tour)

Elisabeth: Marle Martens (u/s) Der Tod: Mark Seibert

https://mega.nz/#F!uoRzVYTL!1TwlRqwfa8rTEfvON-VmGg

Elisabeth -Geschichte eines Musical Welterfolges 10.12.2017

https://mega.nz/#F!ypxDUbDb!UW-kp7LJDRtnoDmAfidd7A

Miss Saigon 25th Anniversary 22.09.2014 (London)

The Engineer: Jon Jon Briones Kim: Eva Noblezada Chris: Allistair Brammer

https://mega.nz/#F!eh5CQTwB!t0iS3mLGKcCBt6EvqJ87dw

Audio:

Dans Der Vampieren 2010 (Antwerpen)

https://mega.nz/#F!HpJxkKCI!2Vhe6cuPAsNvkjenE2I62Q

The Hunchback of Notre Dame 05.04.2015 (La Jolla Playhouse)

https://mega.nz/#F!z4Yi0azS!QmtKedfuiP64U0Sq60DFkg

The Phantom of the Opera 27.04.1994 (Scheveningen)

https://mega.nz/#F!uxhlVC6K!K6DmV6nuBVuoIkzD7-TeEQ

Wicked 19.07.2014 (London)

https://mega.nz/#F!qt4T0biA!g-2cLAD2jbYbxVqHST8eSw

[operafantomet]

My friend and I have a wager; I say that there have been 20-25 complete Red Deaths (not just pieces) made for replica productions since 1986, she says there have to be many more than that. Can you weigh in?

I don't have any exact numbers, but immediately I feel that sounds a bit meagre? It does of course depend on what you mean by "complete", as many of the costumes tend to share pieces - say, cloak, maybe hat - while they have separate main costumes. Sometimes doublet and breeches are also mixed and matched. Would that count as one or two?

Trying to count the different costumes seen around the world, I do see a high degree of re-use. These costumes are expensive and takes forever to build, hence there's few of them, and they rarely go on display. It also means re-use is high.

I remember talking to the head of costumes for the previous World Tour, and he told me how they worked endless hours on one of the original Australia Red Death costume between each show, to keep it fit for yet another performance. But I think it was also sentimental reasons for it, because it was WILDLY well made, they simply don't make 'em like that anymore. Jonathan Roxmouth got a new Red Death costume for his last Phantom run, which was well made in all aspects but more theatrical than splendid compared to the old one. The old one was a class act in costume making:

But I'm digressing. One thing to have in mind is that each replica production needs to have at least two operative Red Death costumes at all times, because one is used by the principal when first decending the staircase, and one is used by the double appearing shortly afterwards. They simply cannot share a costume.

Seeing how the first couple of productions around the world ran simultaneously, in West End, on Broadway, in Tokyo, Vienna, Stockholm, Toronto, Hamburg, Scheveningen, Melbourne and Basel... As well as the early US sit-down productions as well as the US, Canadian and UK Tours. That means a minimum of 30 costumes alone. Likely some of these had more than one costume for their various principals, due to different size. So let's say 35. And that's an absolute minimum.

And then cases where we KNOW new costumes were made. They made one for Peter Jöback when he first joined the West End production, as per info and photos he shared:

We know they made a new one for Jonathan Roxmouth in the World Tour, as per info and photos shared both by him and UK costume maker Jane Grimshaw:

We know they made at least three brand new ones for the Las Vegas production, as shared by costume maker Lindsay Kleinmann. This is not her photo, but shows three of them together, along with an especially made dog costume for charity:

Eventually, many of the late 1990s and early 2000s production could inherit their costumes. It means Belgium got their from Switzerland, Denmark got their from Sweden, the German costumes got a lot of the Dutch ones etc. But whereas some costumes has traveled a lot, for example the Red Death costume used in Moscow, Madrid, Sao Paulo etc, it was at one point new. Its origin seem to be Mexico, where brand new UK costumes were made, and mixed and matched with inherited Canadian costumes. But one or two were made new for them when they opened 1999. There's also been new costumes made in Japan. And definitely in West End, even if they mix and match a lot from stock.

That leaves us with at least 45 Red Death costumes. Probably more. Even with mix-and-match, and even with the hand-me-down practice. Which unfortuneately means your friend is right... Sorry!

Rarely photographed, here's the Red Death double costume in the World Tour, as a pendant to the first photo above:

(definitely not the same costume as the principal)

[glassprism]

Why does Christine have an alternate while other shows don't, like Elphaba from Wicked, which is admittedly a more vocally taxing role than Miss Daae?

Well, from what I'm reading, in many productions the Elphaba standby basically does function as an alternate, often doing one performance a week (though I'm also seeing many strongly advocating for the show to get an actual alternate regardless). I'm also pretty sure that international productions will often have alternates or actresses sharing the role - if this list is accurate, then it's been done in Stuttgart, Mexico City, Seoul, Oberhausen, Scheveningen, and Hamburg. But at the end of the day, Phantom and Wicked are also two separate shows; what one does will not necessarily affect the other.

But I suppose one reason is that Christine, apart from having a lot of stage time, is just doing a lot. She's singing, she's acting, she's dancing, she's onstage a huge amount of time and when she isn't, it's probably so she can get pulled out of one costume and pushed into another. Elphaba also does that (well, maybe not so much dancing) and I want to say she has almost the same amount of stage time (?), but a big difference is that Wicked is not a sung-through musical like Phantom is, so while there's some pretty vocally taxing songs, Elphaba also has a lot of time where it's just dialogue. Phantom, however, is a sung-through musical, which means Christine is singing for almost the entire show.

That being said, I'm not a Wicked expert by any means, so if anyone else has something to add, feel free!

[glassprism]

Follow-up on the Wikipedia. Thanks for letting me know about the “ other productions“ heading, but I guess that raises an unflattering question about who arbitrary decides which productions this to be on the front list, and which ones are relegated to an article further down the page? Don’t you think there is a bit of a neglect/apathy in international productions? The same wiki article doesn’t even mention world tour back in 2005-2007 and 2012-2016. Nope just the 2019 one… Maybe I’m just angry.

Technically it does mention the previous World Tours - as I said in my last post, that's where I thought the info was a little inaccurate because it was giving several of the World Tour stops their own country instead of placing it under the general heading of "World Tour". The 2005-2007 World Tour, therefore, is split under the Australia and Singapore productions, the 2012-2016 World Tour is split into the China, South Korea, Turkey, and Thailand headings, etc.

I can definitely see your point about how all productions outside of the UK and US are relegated into an "other" section, but then again, it's not just Wikipedia that does it, it's something you see happening throughout the musical theatre fandoms, across many different shows. Like, I (and you, in your own question) lump all of them under the heading of "international productions" or "foreign productions". Trading sites, including mine, will have separate tabs for West End, Broadway, and touring productions, but place everything else into a "World" or "Other" tab. Sites with information, not just Tumblr but wikis and such, will usually have far more detailed info for Broadway and West End and tours within those respective countries than for productions outside of it. And this is kind of a problem throughout the musical theatre fandom, which tends to be very Broadway-and West-End-centric (though not always, I've seen the West End get neglected pretty hard as well).

Then again, however, and this might blow your mind a little, have you tried going to Wikipedia in other languages and searching Phantom there? Look at Phantom in Portuguese Wikipedia? They have the entire cast of both Brazilian productions plus their covers and replacements. Same for Dutch Wikipedia (which was actually really helpful considering the Scheveningen and Antwerp productions are fairly old and difficult to find info on). Phantom on Spanish Wikipedia is also pretty good with cast info. Phantom on German Wikipedia could be a bit better but at least they give start and closing dates for each production. And massive shout-out to Japanese Wikipedia and its page on Phantom, which gives the dates of not only each of the Japanese runs, but also the start dates of many non-Japanese productions. You go, whoever is running the Japanese wiki page of Phantom!

What this might also show is that, while the pages in other languages do spend some coverage on the West End and Broadway, they're obviously geared towards the productions in their own respective languages. So perhaps it's also a language thing - the Wikipedia page in English is going to lean hard towards English-language productions, because information for that is easiest to find. So explore a little outside Wikipedia in English, and you might find the bias against international productions to be rather different.

[glassprism]

Niche question: can you think of any other Phantom boots that while not necessarily notable in quality are notable for simply being What They Are? (For examples: the Dutch cue tape; the Sydmonton recording.)

Oh, let's see:

1985; Sydmonton - Video of the show's very early form.

April 1988; Broadway - Video of the original Broadway cast.

1993; Scheveningen - Video where you can hear tech cues.

July 28, 1996; Scheveningen - Video that was actually shot by a cast or crew member standing off in the wings.

April 2000; Antwerp - The "Hell Boot", the video where the colors are so intense you feel like you're watching the show in hell.

May 23, 2004; Stuttgart - The video with the "third kiss" between the Phantom and Christine in the 'Final Lair'.

July 15, 2006; Essen - Video of possibly the worst Phantom (Uwe Kroger) to ever grace the stage of a replica production.

January 1, 2014; Shanghai - The "Raoul boot", the video where the filmer apparently thought Raoul is the main character of the show.

I tried to refrain from putting down ones that were "last show of this production" or "last performance of this actor" because there's a fair few of those. I also ignored things that were not actually performances (e.g. rehearsal videos, the Phantom Family Video, performances for the media, and so on).

Any other takers?

[cantikdaae]

Production photos featuring Henk Poort, Els Bongers and Peter de Smet from The Phantom of the Opera Scheveningen, The Netherlands circa 1994/1995 (De Kampioen, May 1995)

[cantikdaae]

Over the past  30 years several Dutch performers have played the role of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, West End and Greece. To celebrate these Dutch performers, I have made a compilation audio of them singing the final part of Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. 

This is the list of Dutch Christines in order of appearance:

1. Joke de Kruijf (Vienna, Austria) 2. Joke de Kruijf (Scheveningen, The Netherlands) 3. Els Bongers (Scheveningen, The Netherlands) 4. Maaike Widdershoven (Scheveningen, The Netherlands) 5. Ineke van Klinken (Antwerp, Belgium) 6. Janine Kitzen (Stuttgart, Germany) 7. Lauri Brons (Hamburg, Germany) 8. Michelle van de Ven (Hamburg, Germany) 9. Celinde Schoenmaker (West End, UK / Athens, Greece) 10. Annemarijn Maandag (Oberhausen, Germany) 11. Anouk van Laake (West End, UK)

[glassprism]

I couldn’t find any more information, but it turns out she was in the regular European Tour, and not the World one. I hope that helps!

Hi! As far as I know, there is no such thing as a “European Tour” of ALW’s Phantom musical. There’s been tours in the UK (called the “UK Tour”, obviously), as well as multiple productions in Europe, but those are each considered their own separate thing, with their own separate casts (though there is some crossover occasionally of cast members if they know multiple languages or are just that good). So if you want too help me, you’ll need to tell me the exact production she was in: Vienna? Hamburg, Stuttgart, Essen, Hamburg revival, Oberhausen? Scheveningen? Antwerp? Copenhagen? Stockholm? And so on (there’s many more besides what I just listed). Hope that clarifies it.

[glassprism]

Hello, Glass! I hope you haven't answered it already, but I'm new to Elisabeth das Musical, and I really wanted to get to know it. Do you have any directions? Like a good cast to start with, or a good video to look up after... Any good tips also in what to run away from? :P My tastes are alike yours, so I trust it. Thank you very much!

Well, if you haven’t already, definitely check out the 2005 proshot video of the Vienna production. There’s a version of that which comes with (fan-made) English subtitles, which can really help you understand what’s going on if you don’t know German. The YouTube version of it got taken down, but I believe @cosetteskywalker​ has a copy of it.

Anyway, if you have watched it (which many fans have - for a lot it’s the gateway to the musical), then you can check out some of the following versions. The cool thing about Elisabeth is that there’s a ton of proshot versions floating around of many different productions, so it’s pretty easy to find a decent video with a good cast. Here are some recommendations:

August 29, 1992 Viennavideo - Dress rehearsal, so there are a couple of incidents that end up stopping the show, but otherwise a good look at how the show originally was envisioned. (Note: it was a lot darker.) Uwe Kroger and Pia Douwes are also wonderful here, some of my favorite interpretations.

1999 Scheveningenvideo - I haven’t watched the Dutch production as much as I should have, but this video is a pretty good look at it, and is proshot like the above. I’ve heard some pretty good things about Stanley Burleson’s Death and the production as a whole, and it can also lead into…

January 13, 2002 Essenvideo - I don’t know if this was professionally shot, but it was filmed with a tripod by someone in the audience, so video quality is great. Since this was Pia Douwes’s last as Elisabeth (in this production; she comes back several more times), the audience energy is ridiculously high. Also a good introduction to the Essen production, which was heavily inspired by the Dutch production in many ways but also went off in its own, occasionally kitschy, direction in others.

September 17, 2006 Stuttgartvideo - I know I’ve been drowning you in videos of Pia Douwes, but this is the last and it’s for a somewhat unnoticed production: the Stuttgart production, which was an interesting mix of the Essen and Vienna revival productions. This was an audience recording but was also the last performance, so audience energy is very high. (They start waving glowing sticks around towards the end.)

March/April 2009 Antwerpvideo - Yet another proshot for the cast, beautiful quality and great cast overall. It also gives you a look at the staging that was used again for the German tours and 2012 Vienna revival; I greatly dislike it, but I think it’s worth seeing it at least once.

August 25, 2013 Seoulvideo - The Korean production was a funky mix of almost every production that had come before it, and this is probably the most common video of it. It features Kim So Hyun as Elisabeth (a former Christine from ALW’s Phantom and really cute) and Kim Junsu, who gets an unusual amount of focus from the filmer due to the fact that he’s a kpop star. The latter is great if you’re a kpop fan (like my sister) but a tad annoying if you’re just trying to enjoy a bootleg of the musical (like me).

Any Takarazuka video - Just about all the Takarazuka videos are proshot. The 1996 one is interesting for “historical purposes” to see what the original Takarazuka versions envisioned (e.g. an Elisabeth who is very romanticized and “lacking a brain and spine”, according to one viewer). The 2005 one with Ayaki Nao and Sena Jun is probably one of the most common versions though, and has a Death and Elisabeth closer to the interpretation used in the European productions.

Anyway, so that’s a pretty general overview; I was focused on getting you clear, common videos to see the different stagings and productions worldwide, though I admit I left off a few due to lack of knowledge (such as the Toho and Hungarian productions). It’s such a great musical though, and I really hope you enjoy exploring it!

[glassprism]

Hey GP! I was wondering if you could figure out who would have been in the main roles in March 1994?

Sure, though it depends on location (and I’ll just do the trio here):

London

Phantom: Ethan Freeman

Christine: Jill Washington

Christine alt.: Claire Moore

Raoul: Clive Carter

Broadway

Phantom: Marcus Lovett

Christine: Tracy Shayne

Christine alt.: Luann Aronson

Raoul: Ciaran Sheehan

1st National Tour (San Francisco)

Phantom: Franc D'Ambrosio

Christine: Lisa Vroman

Christine alt.: Cristin Mortenson

Raoul: Raymond Saar

2nd National Tour (Chicago)

Phantom: Rick Hilsabeck

Christine: Sarah Pfisterer

Christine alt.: Rita Harvey

Raoul: Nat Chandler

3rd National Tour

Phantom: Grant Norman

Christine: Adrienne McEwan

Christine alt.: Sylvia Rhyne

Raoul: John Schroeder

UK Tour

Unfortunately, the brochures available skip from October 1993 to November 1994, so I’m not quite sure when cast change occurred, so these are the possibilities.

Phantom:  Dave Willetts or Mark McKerracher

Christine: Lisa Hull or Nikki Ankara

Christine alt.: Josie Walker or Sarah Ryan

Raoul: Mike Sterling

Toronto:

A very confusing year; there aren’t brochures and I’m somewhat doubtful as to whether my videos from this production are labeled with the correct year. But it may have been...

Phantom: Peter Karrie

Christine: Teresa DeZarn

Christine alt: ?

Raoul: David Rogers

Canadian Tour:

Phantom: Jeff Hyslop

Christine: Patti Cohenour

Christine alt.: June Crowley

Raoul: David Rogers

Australian Tour

Phantom: Rob Guest

Christine: Maree Johnson

Christine alt.: Danielle Everett

Raoul: Peter Cousens

Japanese Tour (Sapporo)

The Japanese productions usually have at least three to four actors sharing each role, but unfortunately, all we know are the following three.

Phantom: Eiji Akutagawa

Christine: Hisako Hanaoka

Raoul: Kanji Ishimaru

Stockholm

Phantom: Mikael Samuelsson

Christine: Johanne Brochmann and Inger Olsson Moberg (shared the role)

Raoul: Jan Kyhle

Hamburg:

Phantom: Thomas Schulze

Phantom alt.: Simon Tunkin

Christine: Colby Thomas

Christine alt.: Renée Knapp

Raoul: Dale Tracy

Scheveningen:

Phantom: Henk Poort

Christine: Joke De Kruijf

Christine alt.: Els Bongers (most likely)

Raoul: Peter De Smet