I generally think of Andrew Lloyd Webber as the Aaron Spelling of theater (or perhaps the musical Macbeth would be a better equivalent as his shows are “filled with sound and fury signifying nothing”) and haven’t really liked anything of his other than his Tim Rice collaborations. I saw Phantom in the theater and thought it was basically pretty to look at and not much else. OTOH, I feel almost a moral obligation to support any movie musical in order to encourage the production of more, and the trailer looks okay.
Who plans to see this one? And are there any major Gerard Butler fans out there? (They’ve obviously added some scenes since I don’t remember swordfights or snowfalls in the original, but I wonder if there are any new songs.)
I’m not a big fan of Phantom, but as you said, I’m going to to go to encourage the studios to make more musicals that I do want to see. It woorked for zombie movies–I forced myself to sit through Resident Evil and saw the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and lo and behold, George Romero’s newest zombie epic, Land of the Dead, was greenlighted and is shooting in Toronto right now.
I confess to a love of schlock…I’ve been a Phantom phanatic since high school. I want to go just to see whether Schumacher actually did it right or if he made Batman & Robin with chandeliers.
If the Phantom has molded nipples on his formal jacket, I’ll know.
Oh, and slyfrog? After Dance of the Vampires, nobody wants Crawford to even open his mouth, let alone actually take a role in a major motion picture…
Yeah, and the trailer makes that rather obvious. It’s a shame–there’s a lot of stuff in the book that couldn’t be done on the stage but would be fantastic if done right on the silver screen.
Yea, I’ll see it. I saw it at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, so I may as well go see the film version. Still, I’m a bit trepidatious. So much of what made it great in a theatrical setting just won’t transfer to the small screen.
Crawford is currently on the West End in “Woman in White.” After DotV, it’s very generous of ALW to give him a second chance. The show’s getting mixed reviews, but is planned to open on Broadway in 2005-2006.
I might go see the Phantom of the Opera movie once or twice.
The OLC of POTO is the largest selling cast recording ever.
That’s “Lloyd Webber” darlin’. Or “ALW” to theatre fanatics.
The best quote on Crawford (per vebatim):
After playing Count Kroleck (in DotV) he’s now playing Count Fosca in Woman in White. Crawford’s proven he can really play a C*UNT (did my finger slip?).
Steve Haygreen of the www.tiretracks.co.uk site. He’s in love with Jim Steinman (or Stein-god, as Steve calls him), and never recovered from what Crawford did to DotV.
Thanks. Now I don’t have to be the first to remind you all that the film is the work of one of the five worst Hollywood directors getting regular gigs.
