I Never Make Claims About "the Best" But After Much Consideration I've Broken My Own Rule And Have Come

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.

Interrupting my usual POTO content to exclaim: God almighty this man!

I'm going to reblog this combination whenever I see it.

I've just thought of a phantom of the opera remake directed by guillermo del toro and now I will never know peace

Not sure what I just experienced watching the restaged POTO tour, but now I need to revisit David Shannon bootlegs to help me recover.

Chapter 2 is live!!

Some random thoughts in the void as I try to work through wtf I actually want to do with this fanfic:

“Think of Me” is the first song I heard from POTO before I was even properly introduced to the show. But once I watched Phantom in full, I realized how much of an “odd man out” the song is. I get that it serves an introductory function and that it’s basically a Christine/Raoul leitmotif, but even so it doesn’t seem to feature much in the musical overall.

And I guess this fanfic retelling is taking up the song in a completely different vein and asking what the story would look like if “Think of Me” was a potential leitmotif for Christine and Erik. What if Erik and Christine had encountered each other in one set of circumstances, gone their separate ways, and then reconnected and “remembered” each other—but with a new set of emotions and challenges?

Maybe I’m just trying to extract an Erik/Christine ship 😅. But also want to gently explore whether it’s possible for Erik’s Angel of music/father figure act to be meaningful for the both he and young Christine and not just loaded with manipulation and grooming. And I feel like the only way that’s even slightly possible is for her to actually have room to grow up and come back to the opera house as a woman.

Maybe it won’t work but 😂🥴

Michael Crawford's "I love you" wail and "[big voice] YOU ALONE [sad wet cat voice] can make my song take flight" are actively disrupting my day.

I thought Gary Mauer and Marie Danvers's final lair kiss was special but after watching (more than) a few bootlegs I realize that Danvers never fails to deliver a good kiss regardless of who's playing the Phantom or Raoul.

And I feel like she deserves more appreciation because this is in fact an acting skill. Multiple Christines and Phantoms have already told us that Erik's face is just a disgusting mass of makeup, glue, saliva and sweat by that point in the show, so manufacturing chemistry and infusing the kisses with the right nuance(s) is no small feat.

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?

‘It has to be said that Warlow put on a magnificent performance, providing Brightman with unstinting backing and support – even if he did eclipse her in some parts. […] He lifted many of the duets, such as Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life) and All I Ask of You, above some of the original versions.’ (x)

Anthony Warlow singing an utterly swoon-worthy Raoul alongside Sarah Brightman’s Christine during The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber concert tour in 1996

(And yes, I still can’t believe this exists. His “Christine” asdfghjkl)