Phantom of the Opera!!!!!!!! I went into it expecting it to be brilliant. I didn't expect it to blow my mind. Christine was flawless. She had a beautiful voice and the spirit that was missing from the film. John Mills actually made me like Raoul's character. He was much more of a man than Patrick Wilson's movie interpretation. And the Phantom absolutely stunned me. Definitely the most amazing tenor I've heard in person. During the curtain call, when all the characters took their bows, many people stood up. When the Phantom came out, the entire house stood up. I really cannot think of anything that I didn't like or that I would have changed. I've heard some people say that they preferred the voices of the characters in the movie version, and to tell you the truth, that seriously offends me. It is impossible to compare Greg Mills' smooth tenor voice to Gerard Butler's rough rock-and-roll voice. These people were classically trained for the express purpose of being onstage someday. The film actors thought it would be cool to be in a movie musical, and all they'd have to do is sing from their nose into a machine that would make them sound halfway decent. I guess those people just don't appreciate the art and talent that is musical theatre like I do. :)
My girl Rachel :)
I am officially Psaltina. Oh, what fun we will have.... ;) And if only I wasn't going to be out of town for 1 1/2 weeks this summer: the Woodlawn Theatre is doing The Wizard of Oz! Only the love of my life!
What the world needs most is more male pianists with amazing voices. People like Ben Folds and Harry Connick, Jr. Most definitely.
Several nights ago I introduced several of my friends to the wondrous joy that comes from watching Murder By Death. Have you seen it? You probably haven't. So you should.
Easter was great. All the kids sang the Alleluia Chorus we taught them for Prelude. It was so pretty. And of course, it being Easter, Dad wanted us to take pictures :)
Nathan and I have compiled a list of the greatest performances by an actor ever. While we differ on several, this is our joint list in no particular order (in case you couldn't tell, I love to make lists):
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote
Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs
Tom Cruise - The Last Samurai
Sean Penn - I Am Sam
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Edward Norton - The Illusionist
Adrien Brody - The Pianist
Denzel Washington - Training Day
Forrest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot
Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind
Topol - The Fiddler on the Roof
Gary Oldman - Immortal Beloved
Terrence Howard - Crash
Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man
Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects
Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland
Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird
Jonathan Rhys Meyers - Velvet Goldmine
Adrien Brody - The Village
Christian Bale - Equilibrium
Chris Cooper - Breach
Steve Zahn - Rescue Dawn
Sean Astin - The Lord of the Rings
Cary Elwes - Kiss the Girls
Adam Sandler - Reign Over Me
Jim Carrey - The Truman Show
Richard Dreyfuss - Mr. Holland's Opus
Michael Caine - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Nicolas Cage - Matchstick Men
Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca
Feel free to give me yours as well. List of actresses coming soon.
I don't care how many people laugh at me, but I saw Titanic (finally) and loved it.
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You look fantabulous in all the pics, and I'll repeat that you are prettier than all your friends...poor things having you to show them up all the time. And the list...mostly good (some I haven't seen), and I just now saw Equilibrium, courtesy of my new friend Mel. Wow -- how did I miss that?? But Shell, Shell (or is it Nate, Nate), come on...Elwes in "Kiss the Girls"???? I love him, but that movie was generally terrible, not well acted in any part, bad script, etc, etc, etc. And have either of you actually seen "My Left Foot"?? I agree w/ the choice, but wouldn't have figured you for watching it. I'll close by reminding you of the most important one you left off...Bogart in "Casablanca".
Oh man...I was seriously going to put Bogart on the list and COMPLETELY forgot! Now regarding your other comments: So you liked Equilibrium? Once you get past the complete implausibility of it, it's a fantastic movie. Aw come on, I loved Kiss the Girls! And Nathan has seen all of My Left Foot, I've only seen parts of it, but enough to know that I don't think anyone else on that list could have played a cerebral palsy patient.
Oh, and I should have mentioned that Russell Crowe was a hard one...we had trouble deciding between A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator, and 3:10 to Yuma.
I have to disagree with some of your list picks.
Humphrey Bogart - definately The Big Sleep
Michael Cain - The Eagle has Landed
Russell Crowe - I'm kind of torn between Master And Commander and 3:10 To Yuma (not that I like 3:10 To Yuma but because Russell Crowe did a really good job.)
Gregory Peck - Twelve O'clock High
Nicolas Cage - World Trade Center
and then of course there were a few actors that you missed.
Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday
Charlie Sheen - the Three Musketeers
Gary Cooper - Sergeant York
Erol Flynn - Captain Blood
and
Tyrone Power - The Mark of Zorro (or maybe The Prince of Foxes?)
if you'll look right below my list, I said that a list of ACTRESSES would be coming soon...which will definitely contain Hepburn's performance in Roman Holiday.
I have to disagree with your alternatives. Cage's performance as an obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe misses World Trade Center by a mile; Gregory Peck did nothing that could even come close Atticus Finch. And there are some times where an actor is great in a movie, but another movie of theirs outweighs it. So is the case with Russell Crowe. Keep in mind that this is the elite of the elite, and only the very very best performances get mentions. The ones you mentioned might have been good, but could not make the list, or they would have been on there.
I look at performances for the performance sake and the movie's screenplay more than anything else. I avoid comaring movies to any other form of entertainment unless it's something like Phantom of The Opera. Thus, I like Peck's performance in Twelve O'clock high because of the performance itself. I must confess that the last time I saw To Kill A Mockingbird I was really little and I mixed it up with another peck film. I probably mixed the two films because I found them equally boring but I hope to see To Kill A Mockingbird again soon. I know we have it. As a result of my marred memory, I don't really know much of anything about Atticus Finch but I do know that in Twelve O'clock High, Peck did an excellent job in making you truly believe that he was his character. He did such an excellent job in my mind that at first I had difficulty liking his performance in Horatio Hornblower because the character was so different; he did however do a really good job in that movie too.
If you haven't seen The Prince of Foxes or the Mark of Zorro, come to my house and I will show them to you. I honestly feel that those movies are among the best of their era.
lol I'm glad you feel the same way about phantom onstage vs. phantom on film as I do :D there really is no comparison
I agree that Gerard Butler has a rough, rock-n-roll voice...but I still liked that better than the voice of the guy who played Phantom when we saw it in February. We didn't get to see Greg Mills - for that performance Phantom was played by an understudy whose name I can't remember. He had a beautiful voice, but I still liked Butler's voice better (just not the rock interpretation of the music that he portrayed).
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