Happy Hallow's Eve!

Greetings, everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted in so very long... but I knew I couldn't let Halloween go by without some kind of acknowledgment on this blog. I hope all of you have a wondrous All Hallow's Eve, whether you're planning on trick-or-treating, staying home and giving candy to kids (and kids-at-heart) who drop by, going to Halloween parties, curling up with your favorite scary books/movies/music, or doing something else to keep the spirit of Halloween alive in your heart. As for me, I'll be prowling the streets of Waikiki as part of their annual costume parade!

Recent Occurrences

Greetings, all! Sorry I haven't blogged in so long . . . but to make up for it, here's a huge update on what I've been up to. Toward the end of May/beginning of June, I had an awesome two-week stay in California, during which I got to do quite a few Phantom-y activities.

Ode to a Film Phantom

Robert Englund is one of my favorite horror film actors of all time. His movies, regardless of their quality compared to each other and to others in the genre, have always entertained me. Of course, he's most famous for playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series (the most recent remake notwithstanding). It's his 1989 version of The Phantom of the Opera, however, that holds a special place in my heart.

This version of Phantom was directed by Dwight H. Little and starred Englund as Erik Destler, Jill Schoelen as Christine Day, Stephanie Lawrence as Carlotta, Alex Hyde-White as Richard, and Bill Nighy as Carlotta's lover. As the names suggest, this is not a straight-up adaptation of Leroux's novel. Rather than the Paris Opera House, this story takes place in Victorian-era London. Well, the bulk of it, anyway -- there's also a bit set in modern times with a sort of reincarnation/time-travel plot device to connect the two eras. In some ways, that aspect is similar to Bram Stoker's Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, but in my view, the film overall seems to have more in common with John Badham's criminally underrated version of the classic vampire's story (which starred Frank Langella as the Count). Both are very different from the original novel in terms of plot, yet they evoke the mood and atmosphere of their respective books in a way that's perhaps more faithful than the vast majority of other adaptations.

"Love Never Dies": An Update

Greetings once again, and Happy Earth Day! Today, I bring you yet another post relating to "Love Never Dies" (the Broadway premiere of which appears to have been pushed back to next spring). I would have posted it a while ago, but didn't for two major reasons: 1) I was super-busy with school, and 2) I wanted to make sure I had as much accurate information as possible before posting. In this case, new info kept coming out pretty much non-stop . . . Such is life. But anyway, here's the post that was several weeks in the making.

Before I get into the meat of this post, though . . . First off, I'd like to make a couple of corrections to my previous post on LND, just so that nobody will think I intentionally got certain plot points wrong in order to make the show look bad (since it does a pretty good job of that on its own). The first is that the Phantom (or "Mr. Y.," as he's called -- ha ha, get it? Mr. Y = Mystery! Sheer genius, I say!) does not rape Christine; she returns to sleep with him the night before she marries Raoul, which puts their characters in a much better light. (For those of you playing along at home, that was sarcasm.)

The other correction I need to make is that the Phantom doesn't follow Christine and Raoul to New York; instead, he sets up his theme park/freak show/thingy on Coney Island ten years after the original (the math doesn't really make sense there as far as dates are concerned, but I guess we're supposed to just go with it), and then he tricks them into coming to work for him at a time when they're desperate for money thanks to Raoul's boozing habit . . . and somehow, Christine has no idea that this mysterious guy who wants her to sing but refuses to give his name or show his face is actually (gasp) the Phantom! Um, sure . . .

Since I'm in a "kernels-of-truth" kind of mood, I have an admission to make as well: I never intended to blog on LND again here. I heard the cast album from a free source a week or so after my last post on the show and found the music and lyrics to be so underwhelming that I thought it unworthy of review on this blog. (Certain melodies sound partially or mostly plagiarized, as well, and not always from ALW's previous work -- listen to "Sally's Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas, then listen to "Beneath a Moonless Sky" from LND and tell me they don't sound the same!)

Anyway, I thought my previous LND post would be my final word on that sorry, Twilight-ified show. Recent revelations about the show and Andrew Lloyd Webber's company the Really Useful Group, however, have made it necessary to bring up LND once again.

"Don Juan Triumphant": The Artist's Plea

Greetings once again! This is an essay I posted on my Facebook page some time ago about Erik's Don Juan Triumphant as it was portrayed in the original novel and some of the adaptations. I've made some minor changes and corrections since that original posting in order to post it here. Again, feel free to comment and offer your own opinions or insights!