Ending ...


This is a quote from a review I found. The author admits a dislike for POTO (but reviewed it anyway go figure,) "The other change? The ending... kinda. I'm not going to go into detail and give anything away, but it seems that there's been a minor alteration in how things pan out in the final few minutes of the production. Being that I'm not too familiar with why the change was made, I searched online and found no definitive answer, but some claim it's probably an effort to tie Phantom's story in better with the appalling sequel (which, evidently is also coming to Blu-ray this year). People are likely to shout a big fat 'shenanigans' to this as well, and they wouldn't be wrong. To alter how a chandelier meets its end is one thing, but to actually change the production's final moments does seem too revisionist for even my liking." any idea what he is talking about? It seems pretty much the same as every time I have seen the play. Thanks!

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Sounds like this guy is full sh*t. I've seen the show on broadway twice, and there is nothing different about the ending that hasn't been there since the beginning of the production 25 years ago in the West End. As for the chandelier....is he talking about how it doesn't crash? Or how it happens after All I Ask of You Reprise as opposed to the 2004 movie? They couldn't crash the chandelier due to the logistics of the Roal Albert Hall. It was unsafe.

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I agree with movie. The only difference I noticed in the finale was they left by stairs and didn't leave by boat (my guess a staging issue). Sierra's acting does make Christine more remorseful to leaving than other Christine's interpretations but at the same time other actresses have portrayed it this way as well. I have read others opinions that this was to be a foreshadowing to LND but I don't agree. When I first saw it in theatres I didn't think that at all and just thought it was the interpretation (again that's just my view). But I have always thought Christine would show some sadness/remorse in those final moments.

"After all this time?"-Dumbeldore
"Always"-Snape
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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They may be referring to the Las Vegas version of the show. It was streamlined and the chandelier fall is at the end of the show, just after Past the Point Of No Return.

Great show, but still not quite as good as the original...

"You know what a cautious fellow I am..."

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This was my intro to the musical. So what happened at the end? The two of them go off on the stairs, and the Phantom is just left there alone? I expected more from the ending. Not sure what, but it was kind of anticlimactic.

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Christine turns to the Phantom when she sings "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime" and sings it to him.

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She was going to but she didn't turn to him.

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Christine turns to the Phantom when she sings "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime" and sings it to him.

Even though I firmly believe she was in love with the Phantom on a very deep level, I thought this alteration was very farfetched.

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Yes. In the stage show, when she and Raoul sing the reprise to All I Ask of You, they are on the boat singing it to each other. In this version, she stops on the stairs to leave his lair, half turns as if wanting to face the Phantom, and sings her part of the reprise to the him while avoiding his gaze. Raul's part of the reprise is almost a plea: "no, you don't want to stay here, you need to come with me".

I found the complaints about this directorial change to be a bit nonsensical. Most of the people complaining wanted Christine to end-up with the Phantom anyway. The outrage was more likely because the cardboard Raoul in the stage version finally has a personality in this version, but it corresponds to the sequel Raoul's personality. Which is to say he is a bit impatient with Christine and incredulous. I wonder if it had been played the same way as on Broadway or the West End (a wooden personality with no inflection in any line delivery) if the outrage would have been the same.

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