Do you have any opinion of the new london chandelier?
I think it's getting better and better... in the sense of them reworking it now and then, and in the sense of me getting used to it.
The original design for this chandelier had lyred with holes in them, to suck the drapes into the structure like in the Restaged Tour. It also had its own platform in the ceiling, and because it was never meant to hit stage it had a spike underneath.
Obviously things needed to be reworked to make it function more like the chandelier Maria Bjørnson designed for HMT. So they added the original lyres without holes, they removed the spike underneath so it could be a stage-based one (which, from all I've heard, was not the original plan for the West End revival), they gave it a top-tier, and they've kept adding beads to it to beef it up. Here's three stages: the UK Tour revival design, the reworked chandelier at the West End revival premiere, and the chandelier as it is now:
When the West End revival opened I thought it looked a bit cartoonish. Very bubbly and shiny. The added horizontal beads did a lot for the look. I still think it's too shiny, I miss the brassy look of the original chandelier. But as it is now it gives me cool circular Viennese chandelier vibes. And I also think it's a big improvement from the intended tour design which was mostly frame and bulbs to make the drape thingie work.
YES to all of the above! I think, since it is a clear hommage to the original Garnier chandelier it works really well. What I feel should have been done is continue the paint scheme of the old one to give it a bit more age and an antique feel. And preferably use the same Björnson design lasercut metal motif.
But what still could be done is to hang the crystal garlands a bit lower and attach some more on the top tier. If they would still add some of the gold details between the crystal strands, where there now are gaps that would be lovely.
On a side note I seem to be in a minority who does not like this new more bright, shiny and garish technicolor look of the new production. It’s supposed to be murky, dark and antique-looking. It didn’t use to look like that because it was done in the 80′s. It looked like that because it tried to replicate the 1880´s.
A (not-so-brief) list and analysis of the things that were changed in the set design of Phantom London, part 1
[*includes things that were changed in between the release of the infamous Planning Document™ and opening night!*]
WARNING: long, image-heavy post
The past week has undoubtedly been very confusing and anxiety-inducing for a lot of phans, I myself included, who were (and are) still horrified of what C*mM*ck has done to Phantom London.
So naturally, as someone who lives somewhere that couldn't be farther from the UK, I decided to compile a list of all the things that I've learned — through hours of shamelessly scrolling through Instagram, Twitter and Facebook tags — about the planning, creation and production of the new set design.
Hang on tight, it's a bumpy ride.
1. The proscenium
The most obvious thing that is now different from the OG. Let's take a look at the concept art shown in the original planning document:
Ahh, I remember the release of this picture and the Tumblr/Twitter/FB explosion that ensued like it was yesterday. Good times.
The new set design by Matt Kinley is mainly derived from what he did for the UK tour, which introduced the cracked, sculpture-less proscenium and the separate proscenium frame/boxes that appear only during the opera scenes. Unlike the greatly simplified UK tour design, however, this design for London appears to have the original lyres and garlands at the top, as well as some structural elements of the OG proscenium (see the outward curved trimmings on the top sides). The surrounding areas of the auditorium are also shown to be restored to their original colours, the most interesting of which is a new false wall in the area behind the top part of the proscenium. These areas were previously blacked out with black paint and black masking.
Despite hewing closer to the OG than the UK tour did, this was still a sacrilegious bastardization far cry from Maria Björnson's design, and I guess the creatives were aware of it too, as they seemed to try to soften the blow by:
using actual pieces of the original proscenium that weren't a part of the OG plan such as this satyr-riding angel...
including an "homage" to Maria (according to ALW) in the form of a new sculptural bust that fills up the Golden Angel's spot (picture from @mariussansmerci) ...
The design of the false wall behind the lyres on top was also changed to... something that I guess gives off the impression of a false dome?? Not too sure about this one but I kinda like it ngl:
Something that the planning document mentions is that the removal of the side sculptures and the installation of a "cracked" proscenium allows for sound equipment to be installed behind the sides of the proscenium, which frees up the two side boxes to be "used as originally intended". And that's exactly what happened. Surprise, C*mM*ck now has 4 extra seats that he can sell overpriced.
And here's the finished result (photos from here):
With the safety curtain that was brought over from the UK tour and without the inner proscenium/boxes:
To be honest? I kinda like the final result. Those (possibly face-saving) changes really saved the design from looking like a bad copy of the original proscenium; now it just looks like a mediocre copy. But don't worry, whenever I get too comfortable with this new design I just pull out pictures of Maria's OG proscenium and my fiery anger for the new one is reignited.
And that's all I have on the proscenium!
Next up we have something that I believe had the most confusing and troubled development out of all the new set pieces:
2. The Chandelier
Man, this poor thing has been through a lot.
When it was originally designed for the UK tour, the chandelier was intended to utilize much of the same technology that the r*staged tour chandelier used, namely the drapes that are "magically" sucked into the chandelier itself and the straight-dropping mechanism. Hence, the new chandelier was made to be circular and non-collapsible, featuring a decorative spike on the bottom. According to pictures of the model and the concept art shown in the planning document, I suspect the drapes were to be sucked in through the decorative lyres (see the circular openings):
But this mechanism was precisely the reason for the downfall of this design. Come opening night of the UK tour, and this chandelier was nowhere to be seen. My suspicion of what went wrong? Either the drapes were snagging on the lyres (kind of like what happened to the short-lived garlands on R*staged Tour Chandelier), or the retractable frame that held up the drapes wasn't working properly.
But whatever the reason for the failure of this mashup chandelier, the designers must've realized and abandoned ship pretty late, because pictures from one of the prop makers showed that it was still being made with frames that were very much non-collapsible as late as February this year:
Once they realized it wasn't going to work, I believe a series of last-minute actions were made. My theory: they brought back the OG chandelier in all its missing-bulbs glory less than a week away from opening...
... and stripped it of its lyres, which were transplanted onto the new chandelier, as is evident from the final product (photo from @soulsoaringphan):
This hypothesis is bolstered by the fact that the new lyres were originally going to have holes in them for drape-sucking (ew), and so once the decision was made to have the chandelier work more like the OG, the logical step would have been to just borrow the lyres from the old one instead of making new ones in less than a week or two from opening.
Also note the gaps in the beading that would've had the rigid golden frame trimmings seen in the model and the in-progress photos above; the designers must have removed them hastily to allow the chandelier to collapse, but unfortunately they just... left it empty. Oh, and the absence of the spike on the bottom, which is now just a huge gaping hole (again, ew). There's also an additional tier on top that wasn't present in the OG, model or any of the concept art.
I'm actually quite relieved that the new chandelier is pretty similar to the OG and the Palais Garnier one, but if I have to nitpick: I miss the horizontal decorative beading, the ones that were on the top tier and in between the lyres in the old chandelier. Maybe it's just me, but the chandelier looks... incomplete without them.
And that's all I have on the chandelier!
3. The Orchestra Pit — wait, I can't upload any more pictures??
Welp, guess I'll have to make a part 2 then. Thanks for reading this long, long rant post, I hope it was at the very least entertaining and slightly informative!
And lemme know if I forgot to credit anyone whose pictures I used!
There’s not a lot so don’t be panicking that your favourite show is irredeemable. Spoilers below (obviously)
-little set revamp but still true to the old set
-the chandelier still goes up (and down)
-a few lines in angel of music are amended. The reference to christines face being white and frightened for obvious reasons are gone
-after angel of music Meg gets a bonus line about “always rehearsals”
-the candles in the phantoms lair seem less impressive, the tall candlesticks didn’t come out but they were there for final lair so maybe a tech issue?
-projections in the title song. Just to show a background and that they’re going down below the theatre. I actually liked it.
-in poor fool the phantom is no longer up at the top of the stage. I miss that. You just hear him laughing. Then when the chandelier drops he does it from box 5.
-“the ballet”. There’s an extra wait for the ballet to be moved forward. Andre can’t even think what to do in the panic and Madame giry comes out and bangs her cane which makes him come to his senses and say about bringing the ballet forward. He gets even more caught up in it than before. Really loved the change.
-my biggest one. The angel is gone. This was my absolute favourite part and now it’s a 10 foot Pegasus statue that rolls out and after all I ask of you it comes out further and rotates and the phantom climbs it. Way less dramatic. I prefer my phantoms screaming and dangling over the audience. Maybe that’s just me.
-some lines in masquerade have been moved about but nothing huge.
-when Andre and firman bump into each other before masquerade firman opens his cloak to show a little waistcoat with subtle skeleton bones painted on and then Andre has his usual reveal of the full skeleton costume. I thought this little touch was cute.
-the dummies for the corpses seem a lot better.
-there’s an odd few filler bits where the ballet girls just run across the stage? Seems weird but maybe it’s necessary to make time for something else.
-not a production change but this raoul (Rhys) is a jumper and that absolutely needs mentioning as the last few I’ve seen haven’t done the jump from the bridge and I’m thrilled to see it back!
That’s everything I remember for now! No songs missing, no added songs. The only drastic change for me is losing the angel and the phantom in the flies.
And just a note that the new cast are brilliant. I’ve never seen Killian somehow and he smashed it. A very classic kind of phantom vibe from him. Lucy is INCREDIBLE and I’m so proud of here being the first POC Christine. And I’m hardly ever a raoul fan but Rhys was so strong and I really enjoyed his raoul.
"Mackintosh stood by the move, stating that: "Am I sorry? I'm sorry they're upset, but I do find it odd why musicians would want to keep doing the same thing year after year. I believe we should not be holding jobs for actors or musicians ad infinitum. This is not the Civil Service, we're creating art.""
I literally don't see the point of this. The "redesigned" proscenium isn't even that "technically advanced" and doesn't add anything to the show that the original one can't. Heck, if they were getting sick of the angel breaking down all the time they should've just made it a static piece and I wouldn't mind as much. Why can't CamMack just leave it alone???
When will CamMack understand that you simply cannot replace a SIT DOWN production that is practically custom moulded to the theatre with one that is designed to fit into as many theatres as possible?? 🙃🙄
In GOOD NEWS for us Phans, Really Useful Group president Jessica Koravos has confirmed that Phantom of the Opera is NOT closing and that Cam Mack misspoke. When the renovations are complete and the pandemic allows, The Brilliant Original will be back on the London stage. Hooray! Article in #TheStage
“[Koravos] said the musical would return unchanged, using the work of the original creative team, including director Hal Prince and designer Maria Björnson, and added that when the show returns it will ‘indisputably be the longest-running musical in the West End.’”
kianamaiart
gummygunk
origamiaround
