Had just arrived back from Rome the weekend beforehand, and my sister and I realised that Mother's Day was fast approaching. The only musical she'd seen within recent years was We Will Rock You, so I thought it was high time she got a bit of culture in her life (ha!). So we booked up 3 seats through lastminute.com (free advert for them there), but weren't told WHERE the seats would be, just that they'd be in the area of our price range. About 2 days before seeing it, I started wildly panicing that we'd each be seated seperately and behind pillars...no idea why. We of course weren't, and had great seats in the stalls much to my delight (no sitting up in the bloody upper circle again).

Now it happened to be St Patrick's Day, and I was panicing to my long-suffering sister that John Owen-Jones (the current Phantom) wouldn't be on, and had these mental images of the whole cast boozing it up in a pub somewhere. When you walk in the theatre, there's a board which displays who's on that night, and was extremely relieved to see it was a full cast....My sister says (as an eye-witness account) that I "walked in, immediately scanned the board, and did an 180 degree turn on the spot with a giant grin on your face." I of course have no recollection of this, as I never lower myself to silly fangirl moments of any kind....In saying that, I bought a badge with the Phantom's mask on it (look, it was cheap) and woooow, it glows in the dark! :D

Sat down inside the theatre, and all was well until a giant of a woman seated herself on front of my mum. Subtlety is not a word in the Glaswegian language, and my mum immediately began talking very LOUDLY it was a disgrace that people of a certain size should be allowed inside theatres (I've toned her real words down by the way, as you can imagine!). She was quite "big" I'll admit it. And it was so hot in there, was ready to strip (probably much to the horror of those around me).

And so the musical began! Hey wow, I could actually see the singer's expressions this time! Ramin Karimloo's (Raoul) English accent is practically flawless now, sehr gut, and his singing was brilliant, and if anything, reminded me of Mr Jones', just the way he sung certain words.This is of course a good thing! "Meeeeewsic!"Loved his clothing also, in fact all the costumes are great, very smart. John Owen-Jones was outstanding, he is by far my favourite singer in the West End at the moment. I never sit there and worry thinking "Uh oh, is he gonna make that note?" He just belts 'em out with that great voice, and that final note he held in the last song was amaaaazing, was like "Woah, he obviously doesn't need to breath!" Such a dramatic guy, sort of stands there with his hands resting on his hips, singing away, heh. When he's shouting "SING!!" to Christine, I can't help but flinch slightly, he's kinda scary at times.

Yuck, that bit with Christine's reflection popping out of the mirror, how nasty is that? I've had many a suspicious thought that my reflection would reach out and strangle me. I'm surprised Christine isn't terrified of them, what with the letchy Phantom hiding behind one and her reflection popping out at her, poor lady. Katie Knight-Adams (Christine) did pretty well, though struggled on a few notes - of course I can't blame her, you ever tried singing those high notes in Phantom of the Opera?.........um, not....that I have....

Anyways, loved it on my second viewing, and yes, would most definetely see again. And Mr Owen-Jones is supposedly leaving in September, so MUST try and catch him as the Phantom once more. Prices go up terribly in the summer, what with the kids being off of school and it being tourist season (arghh). "The meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewsic of, the, niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!"