Having seen a great number of Phantoms I have to say that the "orginal" is still the best! There have been other Phantoms I have seen but there is one major difference between all of them and Michael Crawford and it makes a huge difference I'm sorry.
Michael Crawford simply BECOMES the Phantom.
The rest are all acting.
They may do it well, but they are not doing what HE does.
The "acid" test, what defined that "difference" for me was watching Crawford at Radio City in the ALW greatest hits show.
No makeup, no special effects, just a partner, a few hand gestures, those really great songs. That's all Michael Crawford needed to send complete CHILLS up my spine. For those 20 mins he held me spellbound. He made me simply forget all the rest of the Phantoms I'd ever seen even existed as I watched him.
He was simply amazing.
Living in NYC at the time, I'd already seen several excellent Phantoms before him at that point. I've seen several since.
Not one IMHO could TOUCH him in the role.
I still believe that.
I still hope that movie version aside that one day they will release a DVD of Crawford's Phantom for the world to see. I know one exists because I used to know a librarian at Lincoln Center who worked in the Theatre Collection who told me told me that they DID film Crawford in his first run.
They have been trying for some years now to grab a video of the major productions on Broadway for the sake of posterity. They are generally-speaking not for public viewing, and given we're talking the late 80's and non-digital film the one that's there is probably not the best copy, but I'd still salivate at the chance to own THAT particular version.
I only got to see Crawford in the mask once thereafter, but I have never forgotten the experience.
For ME he is the Phantom.
There may be others worthy of the mask, but it's Crawford's Erik who will be THE Phantom for many of us, no matter how many able Phantoms happen to follow him down the generations.
I truly mourn the fact that he wasn't given the movie.
Having heard and seen Butler, who I otherwise have liked in a lot of things, while I think he did his very best with the CHARACTER, I cannot honestly say he did the role justice otherwise. He tried, and it was a noble effort I give him that, but he simply doesn't have the PIPES for the musical end of the role. Erik's face is supposed to be hideous, but his voice is supposed to be akin to that of an angel, albeit a dark one.
Butler just could not convey that.
Crawford did, and still does the moment he chooses to sing any of the Phantom Songs.
I once heard a very good stage actor descibe his part as having a "soul" of it's own. He said it was hard for him to come in and take over, to do a follow up production and make the part his own, because at that point it was such a legendary role that it was almost capable of playing itself. There was nothing he could really add to it, he just had to live up to it.
I must admit having seen Crawford I think I finally "get" what that man meant.
When Crawford sings the Phantom it's almost like the SOUL of the PHANTOM is there with him guiding every note, whether he's in the cape and hat or not. They mesh SO well, that the actor and the role become seemingly one.
It's really a hard thing to explain in words.
You just have to SEE it to get where I am coming from.
But that's why I just can't help but defend his place in terms of his being the "best" Phantom.
He just is...
That doesn't mean the others aren't great, some of them are.
But he simply IS incomparable.
MHO
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