Yo! I’ve watched PotO 1991! I didn’t plan to, but I’ve just discovered it and found it on YT so I said “Why not?” (Spoilers ahead)
It is charming, doing things a bit differently than the other musicals.
The Daroga is presented, which is really surprising, but he is really different from his book counterpart… Unfortunately he is used for comedy effect. Also his accent is a bit forced… They did him a bit dirty.
The relationship between Christine and Raoul is established with a lil ballet of the two young lovers in which he catches her scarf (yk the drill). Here Raoul is pretty close to his book counterpart, with doing whatever it takes to try to save Christine, ect…
The 2 directors are hilarious, that behave like an old couple that always argues about small things, loved those two.
Madame Giry has a strange haircut (very important detail BG, how could we do without it) and also substitutes, in part, Mama Valerius’s figure (she’s the one telling Christine that Erik is the SPIRIT of music)… strange choice.
Erik is DRAMATIC AF, I love it! The whole part at the lair singing and moving and falling, aaaaaa… He also does many shenanigans lmao. The unmasking went much better than I thought, he didn’t attack her, was pretty gentle (*cough* unlike Book Erik *cough*) his makeup is not that bad. I find a bit funny how at the end he tries to lure another woman to be her teacher (a ballerina this time), goes completely against the original Erik (but we have to separate these 2 entities), so it means that he wasn’t really shaken by Christine’s decision (basically being: “Oh no! Anyways”). He doesn’t use a lasso :( he killed Buquet with an axe. NO CHANDELIERS WERE DROPPED :((( And I find hilarious how the name Phantom is ever used, I imagine them being like “Ok guys! REMEMBERED TO NEVER SPEAK THAT WORD! WE ARE IN DANGEROUS WATERS! WE ALREADY HAVE A SIMILAR MASK, WE CANNOT AFFORD TO GO FURTHER!!!” Ah, I didn’t know that Jerma has been a phantom (so sorry for the shitty joke, David Staller did a great job)
This Cristine had the guts to give Erik’s mask back while looking at him also made the choice to go with Raoul (in the novel and ALW musical her actions are more powerful tho)
No confrontation at the end, Erik just gives Christine the choice without restraining Raoul, pretty reasonable of him (and I thought that Cherik was the most reasonable), a bit anticlimactic… Didn’t really enjoy it, ngl.
This was an overall good experience. Pretty funny (had many good laughs), this is more of a comedic take on PotO, there aren’t the elements that make it a tragedy and something to cry your eyes out. I recommend this if you are in the mood for some laughs.