HELLO! I've started noticing random lyric changes in bootlegs of Broadway/West End Phantom... is there a timeline to why these changes occurred? Randomly? Is there any rhyme or reason? i.e. "Christine are you alright" in 2023 or the order of Masquerade lyrics switching in 2014 (?) or Bravi vs Brava. Just curious!
That's a pretty tall order, but I'll do my best! But there is definitely a rhyme and reason to it all, you just have to follow the timeline while taking into account that there will also be differences between productions and between actors as well. Keep in mind too that especially in its early days, it's not uncommon for a show to be tinkered with and it's lyrics altered as they get it running.
The first difference (if we don't count the Sydmonton production which was more of a concept production, but you can read about some lyric differences here) come between the original London production when it opened and the original London cast recording. There's already a difference in the 'Think of Me' lyrics, with the production opening with the lines, "Fly away, but when you lie awake" while the cast recording simply repeats, "We never said our love was evergreen", among other things. Furthermore, the London production had an extra line for Raoul in 'Little Lotte', where he says, in response to Christine talking about the Angel of Music, "No one could have sung the way you did tonight without a little help from him." By 1987 this line was cut, I assume because it's a tad redundant.
Many of the initial lyric changes came from 1988 Broadway transfer, such the changes to 'Think of Me', adding more lines for Piangi in 'Notes I', changing 'Wandering Child' from a trio to a duet, altering some lines in 'Point of No Return', flipping a line or two in 'Down Once More', and so on and so on. None of them make massive changes to the story or plot, but they are alterations all the same. You can read about all those changes here.
One more important addition was made in 1989, either for the opening of the Los Angeles sit-down production or the Toronto one, and that was the reprise of the line, "Help me to say goodbye" in 'Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again', which was added to end the song on a more powerful note. Since this was added in 1989, if you listen to any international productions that began before this period (such as Japan, Vienna, or the original Stockholm production), they will not have that additional lyric.
From here things start to get funky. Starting as early as 1990 in the London production, the production began using alternate lyrics for 'Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again', which began with the line, "Three long years..." There were used up until around mid-2002, when they were changed back to the more common, "Passing bells and sculpted angels". However, one or two productions that based their libretto off of London's would also use it, such as the Dutch production, and it would make a surprise return in the restaged US tour.
One other change I can think of came in 2006 with the Las Vegas production. Most of the changes in Vegas were because the show was cut down to a 90-minute, one act show, so most of them did not apply to other productions, but they did alter two words in 'Think of Me', going from, "Think of August when the trees were green" to "Think of August when the world was green". This is notable mainly because the line started showing up sporadically in other productions, such as the 25th anniversary concert (probably because SIerra Boggess was an original Vegas Christine) and Broadway.
From 2014 onward, another change: the song 'Wandering Child', which had been sung as a duet everywhere in the world except London, some of the UK tours, and some non-replicas, was changed back to the trio, and this was enforced across all productions except non-replicas, which can probably do what they want. That being said, there were still some lyric differences between London and other productions worldwide, which I go over here.
Finally, when the show was revived in London and reopened on Broadway after the COVID shutdown, there were multiple lyrics changed. The most famous is the one for 'Angel of Music', done to accommodate Christines of color but which underwent several changes in the first few months, but there are changes scattered everywhere, though some were reverted a few months later, which was just very funny to me. I go over it a bit here.
All right, got all the major timeline changes down? Great! Because now we're going to add another layer of complexity: production differences! Because as you might have noted, some productions have different lyrics between them, or will omit or add lyrics. The most notable are the differences between London vs. Broadway, and this is where you get things like the different 'Masquerade' lyrics (London has one version, Broadway has another that tends to be used worldwide), the use of "viper" vs. "vixen", Christine's hopes lying "shattered" or "murdered", and many others. I go over quite a bit of it here. Unfortunately, when the London production was revived, most of these differences were lost.
More changes came with the 25th anniversary concert, most of which were to accommodate the changed setting. These were then used in the restaged UK and US tours, but with even more alterations, with some again being done because of differences in the staging or props but others just because. I go over it here, and an additional one here, and I also discuss an old line being brought back to the concert here.
And finally, once you have all the timeline and production differences down, you have to account for the fact that in a few places, actors have a choice in what lyrics they can sing. One of the most famous is whether the Phantom chooses to sing "far-reaching gaze" or "fathering gaze" in 'Wandering Child', something that goes back all the way to the 1990s. Heck, some actors, like Hugh Panaro, will switch the word depending on their run or their mood.
And then when you get into "bravo" vs. "bravi" vs. "brava" (or "bravissima" vs. "bravissimi"), I can only assume it's a whole combination of the above. Keep in mind that both Raoul and the Phantom say variations of those words so it gets pretty complicated pretty fast. Officially, Raoul should say "bravo" and most do, but then in the Canadian production, whether due to direction or tradition, they almost all say "brava". Meanwhile, some librettos, such as the original and the Las Vegas one, state that the Phantom should sing, "Bravi, bravi, bravissimi", but later librettos, the 2004 film, or the RAH concert states it should be, "Brava, brava, bravissima". I wondered if they might be a little more consistent in the Romance-language productions (Brazil, France and the French dub, Italian dub, Mexico, Romania, Spain), but nope, it's all over the place there, which leads me to think that they don't actually care that much - except, naturally, for the Italian dub, which has Raoul congratulating Christine with, "Brava!" and the Phantom congratulating Christine with, "Brava, brava, bravissima".
So we'll see what they do in the actual Italian production! Don't let us down, Bradley Jaden and Ramin Karimloo.
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the wip-iest of days
so after a bit of delay - i.e. distraction in the another wip variety i'm back in my southern philanthropy words.
thanks ever so much (dr, alex) @theprinceandagcd & @typicalopposite for the early wednesday tag! 💚
words and lots of tags under the cut
“I have it on good authority that anyone from Texas can be a cowboy with the right attire, though that drawl of yours makes me think you wouldn’t need the clothes for it.”
“I have a friend that used to say that every Texan was one cowboy hat or flannel away from singing ‘Home on the Range.’” Percy cocks his head, and Liam elaborates, “It’s an old song we all had to learn to sing in grade school and all about ‘that cowboy life’”
“Yeah, I’m somewhat familiar with the song …” Percy trails off, and Liam seizes the opportunity to get them back on track; after all, he was promised to be allowed to play the part of the broncing buck. His fingers make quick work of undoing Percy’s fly, and he follows as Percy stands back on the floor at the side of the bed and assists Lian in pushing the not-quite-leather pants to the floor.
Liam is curious about how they can be both leather but also something else he can’t place, and he is about to ask when he realizes Pez is standing in front of him in nothing but a thong. They leave nothing to the imagination, clinging to his uncut cock, and Liam slides his finger along them, sliding one under the waistband and exposing the tip of Percy’s cock. He leans in and licks at the exposed tip, tonguing the foreskin still clinging to the head. He watches as it slides down to rest just under the tip and tongues at the frenulum there on the underside of what might be the prettiest cock he’s ever seen, and he hasn’t even seen it all. He hooks a finger in the silky thong, tugging it down to expose the rest of the cock, he really wants to get his mouth around.
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He's late.
It's the big day, and he's already fucking it up. Awesome. Leave it to Gordon to continuously make everything harder for everyone around him.
Under stress, panicking, and annoyed to hell and back, he pushed the cart into the beam. As soon as the crystal touched the laser, it sparked, electricity zapping out across the large chamber. Smoke started to rise from the machine, and the creak of radiation filled the air.
Gordon took a few steps back, looking up at it in horror. Shit, they did it too fast, didn't they? They could hear their coworkers screaming behind them, but their attention was locked on the giant machine.
The security guard who'd followed him in suddenly vanished from his peripheral. Gordon looked away for just a moment to try and find him again- there! Standing on top of the platform where the controls were, there was the "non-human" guy who'd been following him all day. The radiation beams were shooting right next to him, ohh fuck he was going to die up there.
"Get off the top of the- you're gonna wanna be on the floor, what if the fuckin' rafters fall?!" they shouted up at him. "You gotta-"
With a flash of light, the test's sample started glowing an intense, neon green color, cutting Gordon off. He threw his hands up over his eyes, catching a glimpse of the chat as he did so. He couldn't make out any of the words, but he could see that people were speaking in all caps now. He yelled a swear at the pain.
He spun around to look at the window, shouting for help, only to watch helplessly as one of the other scientists overseeing the project launched himself down into the chamber. He shouted in fear, running around in panic before seemingly tripping over his own feet and knocking himself out on the floor.
The guard was just fuckin' gone by now. He must have gotten trapped in the beam or something, there was no way to tell and no time to find his body. The crystal started rocking in the cart, and with each shift there came another explosion, with atoms crashing into each other and splitting in ways that should not have been possible with humanity's current tools. Gordon could only look up at it, frozen in fear.
With one final shift of the crystal, it shattered. With it went the whole experiment, lighting the entire room up in harsh green. Gordon threw his hands up in front of him, screaming as his world was changed forever.
Then... nothing.
Gordon blinked a few times, looking around themself at the pitch blackness that had enveloped his world. He couldn't even see himself in it.
...Was he dead?
No, that couldn't have been right. He was still breathing, right? That had to count for something.
He squinted into the dark, trying to see anything. As his eyes adjusted, he swore he could see faint lines of green running lengthwise down his vision. Whether that was caused by the bright light of radiation or if that was actually SOMETHING, he couldn't tell yet.
He opened his mouth to yell, but instead of screaming out into the dark like he'd planned, he let out a simple, friendly greeting.
"Howdy."
No one answered him.
As his eyes continued to adjust, he began to make out what the lines were- numbers. They were lines and lines of numbers, wrapping all around him.
...Where was he?
"Howdy," he continued to call out. "Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy."
Still, no answer.
The world around him began to flash, green as the radiation from the test gone wrong. Gordon spun around, trying to find the source of it. The numbers lit up under the flashing lights- illuminated by shots of lightning- ones and zeros.
It was the same light from the Resonance Cascade. Aw fuck, was he still in the test chamber? Shit, he had to wake up, he was going to get hit.
He struggled to move, only to realize there was a pull on his arm. Looking towards it, he could see green strings attached, pulling him nowhere and in five different directions at once. It hurt, oh GOD it hurt, but no amount of pulling was freeing him. He pushed against it with his left hand, his free hand, and no avail. Nothing.
Before he could do much else, the strings yanked, and with this tug went his hand. He screamed in pain and surprise, everything going dark again, but only briefly.
He was in the garbage compactor. His hand was gone.
He wanted to stop, but something compelled him forward. He wanted to lay down and go back to sleep, but something wouldn't let him. He wanted to give up. Something in him made him grit his teeth.
He kept going through Black Mesa, lead on by Tommy this time. He wanted to collapse. Something forced his legs forward.
He kept getting kicked back down when he tried to climb out of the water, the clone's heels relentless. He yelled for Tommy, trying in vain to pull himself out. He only could with Tommy's help.
His friend was caught up in the tide of clones, too, and was quickly shoved away from Gordon. The shots from his gun continued to echo through the room, adding to Gordon's massive headache.
"I've unleashed the power of all 300 clones," Dr Coomer's voice boomed from somewhere. It was near impossible to tell if he was far away or close by with all the noise. Gordon's head swiveled quickly, trying to pinpoint where the hell he was.
"There's an entrance in your suit, Gordon, AND I WANT IN."
There! He was shoving his own clones aside, slowly making his way closer. He had the look of a crazed man about him, eyes too wide, grin too large. He was shaking, too, like he was high on adrenaline.
Green lines were starting to creep along the walls, down down down like a watercolor painting. Gordon squeezed their eyes shut, shouting Tommy's name.
He was backed into a corner, swarmed by clones as the real- main?- Coomer crept closer and closer. "I've been outside Black Mesa, Dr Freeman. There's nothing there. But you..." He shoved his way in front of Gordon, grabbing his stub of an arm. "I KNOW there's a world in your dreams, AND I NEED TO GO THERE."
Gordon screamed.
Berdey shot up, startled out of xeir nightmare. Fuck... nightmare. At least it wasn't real.
Just to be sure, they pinched themself. Yep. That hurt.
They flopped back down on the bed with a sigh. Gordon could never escape these, either- of COURSE Berdey would inherit them from him. Couldn't catch a break, in this life or the next.
It was still dark under the door, implying the darkness outside, too. Night. Well, they didn't wanna go back to sleep, not after that.
Looking at xeir left hand, they saw no new messages aside from the "goodnight"s that had been there before they drifted off.
They didn't wanna get up, but they also wanted to check on Coomer, just to make sure he was okay. Gordon had never managed to figure out what the fuck he'd meant by the whole "world in your dreams" thing. His dreams were a nightmare. Literally this time around. Why would Coomer want to go there?
It was anxiety talking. Coomer hadn't brought it up in a long time. Maybe he'd finally gotten over it. Besides, he didn't exactly want to see him right now.
With a sigh, he laid back down. It was gonna be a long night.
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