Crazily Enough There's Been A Sudden Demand For Stream Merch, So Uhhh Here Are Some Options I Guess?

GIANMARCO SAURINO as  PROCURATORE FOURNEAU on "The Law According to Lidia Poët" | Season 2

“No sooner did I see that his attention was riveted on them, and that I might gaze without being disturbed, than my eyes were drawn involuntarily to his face… I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking - a precious, yet poignant pleasure; pure gold, with a steely point of agony; a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless.”

— Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (via undergroundoutofsight)

This Week's Phantom Spotlight: Marcus Lovett

He's not everyone's cup of tea, but after going back and forth about this a few times with different watches I've decided he's mine (oddly enough).

Detractors call him stiff (and he is) and aloof (I get it), but those are choices that make sense when you understand the logic behind his portrayal. "Unsocialized" doesn't [always] have to look like "unhinged;" it can also look...detached, hyper-rationalizing, wheels turning in head at all times.

^^^ And that would get old were it not for the fact that Lovett plays that vision very methodical and consistent so that it can all be undone in the final lair. His Erik's arc is calculating/processing by imitation -> learning how to feel organically. His tension: "Oh shit, I'm actually feeling things. I wasn't supposed to feel things."

Slightly hard to tell bc of the glare in the boots, but 95% sure he embraced Christine back (hesitantly) during the kisses/hugs and also held AO'B's hand, and that decision matters for his portrayal (saves it from being too stiff and consistent and he plays it like he's embracing her despite himself--stopped thinking, started to feel).

Also has to be paired with the right Christine, which he was with Anna O'Byrne. She got it; they played off each other well.

Forget Raoul, that veil is Lovett's real antagonist in the final lair.

Hugh gave everything this performance. It's historic somehow, idc.

I've been thinking a lot about the relationship between gothic romance, melodrama, and fanfiction (mostly Re: POTO) and how they've been shunted into the category of "women's media." Like women and queer folks have been writing their desires into media for centuries and being told that such desires--the excess, the sensationalism/sensuality, the emotional transcendence--are not "realistic" and only good for aesthetic consumption in its place.

But then you look at the general endurance of "women's media" through time...and the fact that even in a capitalistic world obsessed with monetization and the "hyper-real," there are whole fandoms/online communities where authors are writing fanfics with hundreds of thousands of hits for FREE and where third spaces and alternative economies based on trading and sharing have taken shape around the very same desires deemed "unrealistic"....

Idk where I was going with that, but someone gets the point. Is it that queer and feminine desire are "silly," or do they imagine other ways of living and relating to each other, our bodies, our emotions that certain power structures want us to think is impossible?

As a rabid POTO fan, imagine how I shocked I was when I watched this niche independent film for class and learned that LND was featured. I literally thought I had left another window in my browser open playing ALW but nope, the filmmakers actually weaved the song into the final frame. My hyperfixation is following me everywhere in the best way.

24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami, 2017).

I'm ruined.

John Cudia + Jennifer Hope Wills

2006 U.S. tour

I think of Immersive Phantom as the random protein/granola bar stashed at the bottom of your purse or bookbag. If you’re super hungry between meals it’ll tide you over, but you’re really just saving your appetite for your favorite restaurant and dessert after work.

And you’re also waiting for the place to release the dang cast list—I mean, menu—to see if Jordan Donica is on it.

I feel like an outlier bc I know immersive phantom is the hot thing rn but I'm actually more excited for the (vastly more accessible) U.S. tour and all the new phans it's going to bring in

Phantom Acting Choices That Live in My Head Rent Free (Part 3)

Final lair edition because this scene alone has permanent residence in an entire area of my brain.

When Davis Gaines and Stephen Buntrock take "this face which earned a mother's fear and loathing" up an octave. If you got the range, flaunt it I guess.

Hugh Panaro absolutely torments Raoul. Why are you waving at him from the other side of the portcullis? Why are you singing "raise up your hands to the level of your eyes" like that?!

The way Ian Jon Bourg and Kevin Gray scream "I love you."

The way Hugh Panaro whispers "I love you."

The way John Cudia fumbles "I love you. I--" in his performance with Sarah Lawrence.

Honestly there are no less than fifty Phantom I love you's that play in my head at any given moment. I'm obsessed with extra ilys.

But also Earl Carpenter saying "fuck an ily" and just dropping to his knees to offer Christine the ring again like the sad wet cat he is.

David Shannon screaming "No!" when Christine says "you deceived me."

Phantoms who lean their cheek against Christine's hair between kisses (shout out to Ben Crawford, Laird Mackintosh, and Jonathan Roxmouth, this is an underrated 2020s calling card).

Any Christine putting their hand to the Phantom's cheek during the kiss. Common West End staple, but bonus points if a Phantom reacts to it (Ramin, Earl, David Shannon, etc.)

When Sierra Boggess turns back to look at Erik one last time during the 25th anniversary performance and RK gives her that slight nod like, "Go ahead, it's ok." Kill me.

Lucy St. Louis staring down Killian Donnelly's Phantom through the portcullis while she (supposedly) sings "share each day with me" to another man.