This may sound silly but upon my 128th watching of the RAH Phantom I found myself, like, JEALOUS of Hadley? Like, the slight golden sheen in his hair? His perfectly applied eyeliner? Like, who gave you the right, sir? You're almost upstaging our leading lady in terms of prettiness, and Sierra's a straight-up bombshell. XD
If you’re being silly, then oh no... what am I?? 🤡 As someone who spends a decent amount of time thinking specifically about Hadley Fraser’s Raoul, I have heard lots of opinions about him. But if there's one thing it seems we can all agree on, it's that his look was SO RIGHT!
The stage lights made his naturally brunette hair GOLDEN for some reason?? Like, during the production his hair was literally brown. We have no evidence of him ever dying it at that time, and offstage photos clearly show that his hair was not blonde. But for some reason those stage lights made him glow like an angel. Dear techs who lit that stage: I love you, you’re amazing, thank you. 😍
(I’ve talked about Hadley’s POTO hair more than once... you can read more in this ask, which was written before the Hadley Hive Mind™ came to the conclusion that it was indeed a trick of the lights!)
As far as his eyeliner goes, I don’t immediately recall any other productions where he went so hard with the guyliner like he did for POTO. Piecing together what we’ve heard directly from him and discussions amongst fans, he must have gotten it into his head that his eyes wouldn’t be seen from very far away in the massive venue that is the RAH? But... he must have forgot the fact that the majority of viewers are going to see his performance from close up either in movie theaters or on DVD. Soooo was it totally strange that he piled on the eyeliner? Yeah, but oh heavens did he look good. 👁👄👁Please Hadley, bless us once more with your guyliner!
I love that you brought up Sierra’s STUNNING Christine! To me, both of them were perfection in terms of performance and looks. (I am purposefully ignoring Hadley’s final lair costume, because yes I am still bitter 🙃) Throw Ramin’s Phantom into the mix and my friends, POTO@RAH is a one stop shop thirst-fest. A little something for everyone!
Thanks for giving me this lovely excuse to drool over Hadley’s Raoul for a while, it was a delight! 🤤