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Three into one goes just fine The Three Phantoms Birmingham Hippodrome **** SUNDAY nights at theatres are usually left dark or reserved for aging pop stars with Statocaster zimmer frames treading the nostalgia trail mixed with clairvoyants finding Aunty Nellie's spare teeth for someone in the third row. So a sortie into the Sabbeth spotlight for the Hippodrome had to be a bit special and so it proved with a sort of Rat Pack for those with A levels. The Three Phantoms are
musical theatre stars in their own right but, to keep on the friendly
side of the trade descriptions legislation, represent roughly a third of the Eriks - he is
the Phantom bloke with the cut price mask is you are not personally
acquainted - when it comes to the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of
The Phantom of the Opera. Earl Carpenter, Matthew Cammelle and John Owen-Jones have donned the famed half mask around 3000 times between them out of the 10,000 or so performances of the show since it opened in London in October 1986 – and with Owen-Jones as the current Phantom their percentage is going up daily. Add to those three current stars
the wonderful Rebecca Caine and you are guaranteed a
marvelous evening of music and song with plenty of humour and
chats with the audience to boot. Miss Caine, born in Canada and
trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is one of that rare
breed who have sung in both opera and musical theatre and excelled in
both. She first appeared in the West
End aged 19 in Oklahoma! But was
appearing in Opera at Glyndebourne - now there's posh for you -
when she was invited by the Royal Shakespeare
Company to create the role of Cosette in the 1985 opening of
Les Misérables. ARISTOCRACY OF MUSICAL THEATRE Complete with the
excellent 21 piece Concert Philharmonic under musical
director Anthony Gabriele, who has just completed three years as
Phantom's London Musical Director, the show sports some of the
aristocracy of musical theatre with John Owen-Jones arguably the current
king. He has just returned as Phantom
after a stint as Jean Valjean in the touring
production of Les Mis and still holds the record for the most
consecutive performances as Erik with more than 1400 over almost four
years. His Till I Hear You Sing Once More from the Phantom sequel Love Never Dies, and the haunting Bring Him Home from Les Mis are among the highlights of the show. – both powerful songs which seem to take something out of the man voted the best Valjean ever - mid you he does put an awful lot into both songs. Earl Carpenter, the director of
the show, shows a real penchant for comedy which was in contrast to his
last visit to the Hippodrome as the zealous and humourless
policeman Javert chasing Jonh-Owen-Jones's Valjean in Les Mis. The first half was workmanlike
rather than uplifting with Cammelle providing I'm Martin Guerre
and the trio in I'm All Alone from Spamalot and
Maison des Lunes from Beauty & the Beast while
Carpenter gave an emotional rendering of
Race you to the Top of the Morning from The
Secret Garden with Owen-Jones contributing Kiss of the
Spiderwoman. Miss Caine's introduction came
with I Hate Men from Kiss me Kate. The second half opened with a
Mary Poppins medley from the Orchestra and the
pace raelly picked up with a selection from
Les Mis. Carpernter opened with Stars followed by Cammelle and Miss Caine with Heart Full of Love and Owen-Jones's Bring Him Home raising hairs on necks. But with a title like this the
end has to be Erik and the depths of the Paris opera house starting with
a selection of songs in earlier and later musical version of the 1910
novel of Gaston Leroux – a total currently approaching 30 and counting. The history bit was interesting
rather than inspiring although it did give a chance for Miss Caine to
show her considerable operatic talents before joining the trio for a
stunning version of Love Changes Everything with the show
ending with the three Eriks and Music of the Night followed by
a deserved standing ovation.
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