Today’s blog is not about Florida, because I’m sitting on a beach near St Petersburg and have done nothing interesting.
Instead I’m going to talk about a week or so ago when I saw THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA on stage in London. I’d wanted to see it again ever since I first saw it in August last year. As soon as I got home that night, I downloaded the original London cast recording and it’s become one of my most listened-to albums.
On Saturday, 4th September a few of the cast were leaving and I was determined to see them at least once. Gina Beck who had played Christine when I first saw Phantom was leaving, as was Rebecca Lock who started as Carlotta in September last year, after I saw the show.
I first met Rebecca when she was the second actress to play Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in AVENUE Q’s London production, two years ago. I really wanted to see her in a completely different role, so I was extra excited.
The show was amazing, of course. It’s always interesting to note the differences between the original cast albums and the current show. Many of the lyrics to THINK OF ME, for example, are very different, and this is something you can usually only see in the live show. So I finally bought my ticket for their last performance, the evening show that night.
Afterwards I went to the stage door of Her Majesty’s Theatre to wait for the departing cast members. There were a few other people there, most of whom I vaguely recognised from their Twitter avatars.
After a while Gina came out and chatted to everyone individually whilst Will Barratt – the current Raoul – did the same. It was great to finally meet her and she said it was good to put a face to a (Twitter user)name at last. We talked a bit about the show and her future plans we both said, almost at the same time, that we hope we’ll see each other at another stage door soon. After hugs and goodbyes, she moved on.
During our time stood outside, Ramin Karimloo arrived from his own stage door at the Adelphi. If we’d been more alert and not cold, this would probably have prompted cries of “He’s here! The Phantom of the Opera is here!”, but alas, it did not.
About an hour later the Diva strolls out. Some people had brought along presents and gifts for both Gina and Rebecca, and these were much admired by all. My turn came and I started to say who I was and she said “yeah, I know”, which made me laugh because I hadn’t spoken to her face-to-face for over two years, but she meant because of Twitter. We spoke a little about her next project, the film SURE FIRE HIT which she is going to be in with Jennifer Ellison and Chris Noth, talked about the last time we met and so on. It was nice to catch up and I hope she doesn’t stay away from the West End for too long. After 24 years Phantom is as strong as ever, but Rebecca was definitely one of the finest Carlottas and Gina a fantastic Christine, and both will be missed at Her Majesty’s.
Here are some photos of my view right now (there’s wifi on the beach, inexplicably)
