The Phantom of the Opera

A couple of weeks ago I had written about watching The Phantom of the Opera at The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. It was such a wonderful experience. I can not begin to describe the feeling when you hear the familiar and haunting songs, watch the spell-binding performances, and get caught up in the splendid theaterical effects. The Las Vegas version is shorter than the Broadway production (about half an hour shorter but features all the highlights and all the songs - however what it lacks in length, it makes up for with much more spell-binding visual effects). I guess the best description for the show is to describe my reaction to it: throughout the play I got goosepimples and felt a tingingling running up and down my spine. I would grip Jojo's hand and whisper to him my favorite parts. And yes, there were times, I actually held my breath and got all teary-eyed. In short, I LOVED IT. But enough about me, what was even more surprising was Jojo's reaction to the show. He was so fascinated by the music too. I guess we all were. All 5 of us (Joy, Marc, Jules and Jojo) were humming Phantom tunes and singing snippets of made-up lyrics as we walked down The Strip.

When we got back to LA, Phantom-fever was still high. We watched all the performances that featured the cast, songs and even the spoofs on You Tube. We saw the movie version featuring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum - which was also good but nowhere near as great as the live performance. Jojo and I downloaded the show's musical score onto our Ipods. My hubby even changed his cellphone ringtone to the Hannibal Overture (the intro to the Phantom of the Opera). We would sing karaoke-style to such songs as "Music of the Night", "All I Ask of You", "Angel of Music", and "The Phantom of the Opera". Joy and Marc were our captive audience and listened to those earsplitting renditions without too much protest. Lately we have been playing the musical score right before bedtime (every night this week!) and we've been drifting off to sleep lulled by the music.

So, of course, we are excited beyond words when I came across an ad for this:

3/26/2008 - 4/19/2008
Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center

http://www.ocpac.org/home/Events/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=575