Phantom of the Opera celebrated its 26th anniversary on October 10th and has recently been given an update. As I had seen the show years ago I wanted to see what, if anything had changed. Andrew Lloyd-Webber's multi award-winning musical is a captivating love story with astounding music that gets into your soul. At least that is how I remembered it. I looked forward to a refresher in romance, tragedy and love and was not disappointed. I went on 11th October to His Majesty`s Theatre Theatre Haymarket for the matinee performance at 2.30 pm. I had paid £21 for my ticket with lastminute.com taking advantage of the offer of no booking fee. The seat was in the Grand Circle and had a slightly restricted view. I was able to move to a better seat within the Grand Circle during the interval as a third of these seats were empty. I am sure this wouldn`t be the case during an evening performance. The cast are astounding http://www.thephantomoftheopera.com/people/cast/marcus-lovett (link) with Marcus Lovett as the Phantom the show is already guaranteed to impress but the whole cast is spectacular and Sofia Escobar as ‘Christine’ is magnificent. The stage setting are impressive and dramatic and I loved the Masquerade's ball. The costume colours are bright and jewel like and I like the cloaks that seem to float around half the stage. It is the chandelier that captures the drama of the opening scene as it shuffles and moves and rises high over the audience. I think this is a major improvement of the earlier performance as it brings the phantom immediately into the play. The chandelier has a further role during the play and the height of the stage is put to good use for ghostly frights. The stage sets are mind blowing how they can creates such effects on a stage is wonderful. The candles parting like the biblical parting of the waves as the boat carrying Christine and the Phantom down the misty lake would take a lot of beating. The orchestra spilling out haunting music as fingers fly over violins is special and the mists circling the actors creates an entrancing setting. It is a beautiful musical that everyone should see. We all stood to appauld the actors when the `Music of the Night` stopped.
