I’d watched the musical when it first played in Singapore in 1995. And in April 2007, I was to watch it again… It’s always been my favourite musical, I guess cause it was the first musical I’ve ever seen, and so it etched a deep impression. On the contrary to the first time, where I was sitting right at the stalls (that what it’s called?) and real close to the front, and the chandelier had been precariously hanging above my tiny head, I was sitting in circle 1 this time round… The view’s still quite good though, just a bit skewed.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this musical as much as I had expected. Whether it was the events immediately preceeding it, or just that I’d grown up so much that it would now take much more to impress me, I don’t know… Or perhaps, the cast this time was exhausted by their continuous and extended run here? Anyway, it was rather anti-climax because the audience did not give as rousing an applause as it did before, the applause and whistling (was there even any?) did not ‘bring the house down’, and sadly, there were no calls of ‘encore!’.

Still my favourite scene is the boat ride the Phantom took Christine in his lair, and later on, where he sang ‘Music of the Night’. Incidentally, Brad Little’s rendition and ending wasn’t as powerful and lingering as I’d remembered… Nevertheless, he is doubtlessly the best of this lot! Rebecca Knowles was casted as Christine Daae, our female lead, and she wasn’t really that good… I remembered tearing towards the end of the musical when I was a kid then, it was so heart-wrenching to see the Phantom’s heartbreak… But for this one, the ending eh…. not really that tearful… Sigh. Anyway… I think Sarah Brightman sang much better as Christine Daae on my CD… Heh heh…