So did EP look good? Guessing that the best part was being in the theatre along with EP then?!

Have to admit that I got bored during Phantom itself so not too bothered by this one - I love listening to Phantom just got bored by the physical show so maybe I should just get the cd and leave it at that!

Thanks for the review, at least it was a night out for free 

Just thought, even LND has to be better than Too Close To The Sun which I saw last year! That really was the worst thing I've seen in years, it didn't even quite make the 'so bad it was funny' list - just really bad!

Right, I've now completed listening to all of the LND CD, and to be honest...I'm 50/50. (Whilst my deluxe edition is on its way back to Dress Circle, I bought the normal version from Asda for £7    )

Some tunes are just absolutely horrendous and don't fit in with anything. There's a heavy rock song that The Phantom and his son sing, and it's just awful and doesn't fit with anything.

However, the Phantom and Christine's duet is really lovely and I do like it very much. Raoul is just an idiot, I hate his character so nothing to be said about him. He's an alcoholic in this show.

I will say though, and I said this when I heard Ramin Karminloo sing at ALWs 60th last year, I hate his voice as Phantom. Sierra Boggess is a lovely Christine, but Ramin's vocie just doesn't suit Phantom.

ALW has written inside it that 'I haven't used any of the same themse from the original Phantom, except one minor exception, but I will say now before anyone else does, I have used 'The Heart Is Slow To Learn' etc etc and goes on about that...

HOWEVER ANDY!!! You underestimate we 'Phans'. There are at least 6 that I've come across after first hearing, tunes that are used in the first Phantom.

These include 'The Journey to the Cemetery' theme, the original intro to 'The Phantom of the Opera' (not the version eventually used in the show, but the 1985 single,) the little instrumental break from Masquerade, the freak-show music from the film, and a 'Say you'll share with me, one love, one lifetime' theme from 'The Final Lair.'

The tune I was expecting to hear (Masquerade) didn't make it in!! (Unless I've missed it on first hearing,) because in the book this was based on the Music Box Gustave has plays Masquerade, and on the cast recording it plays the bit mentioned from 'The Final Lair.'    Hmmm....

Anyway, I'd go see Phantom of the Opera any day of the week, I've seen it 6 times and would go again and again...From what I can gather, Phantom 2 is just a 'one-trip'!!

Not an oddball at all Seb my boy. You are however a discerning young man with great insight and a very good ear.

I too enjoyed the original Phantom and hope to take my Hope to see it one day, time will have to tell on the sequel I guess, but so far not much good has been said so far.

Mandy, what musical theatre sequals? I'm brain dead at the moment due to reading Queen Victoria stuff all day long but can only think of Divorce Me Darling, sequal to the Boy Friend and Grease 2 (the less said about that the better!) Am sure there are others but can only think in terms of the 1800s right now 

I love the music in Phantom, but didn't like Michael Crawford.  Haven't heard anything from him I liked yet. Now if Michael Ball had been Phantom, I would've stormed the stage and knocked Christine into the middle of next week.  Loved him in Les Miz.

and Michael Ball DID get Christine when he played Raoul in the late 80s in London