Spotlight on PHANTOM 25 DVD/BLU-RAY w/ Sierra Boggess

By: Feb. 06, 2012
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Today we are fortunate enough to feature an illuminating discussion with the star of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE ROYAL Albert Hall - PHANTOM 25 for short - who is also known for her appearances on Broadway and the West End in shows like THE LITTLE MERMAID, MASTER CLASS and the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA sequel itself, LOVE NEVER DIES - the one and only Sierra Boggess! In this PHANTOM-based conversation, Sierra and I analyze the phenomenal live PHANTOM 25 performance itself - to go along with our pre-performance chat from last year (available here) - and she describes all of the time, talent and artistry that went into putting it all together in celebration of the show's 25th year onstage - led by legendary producer Cameron Mackintosh, of course. In addition to a complete performance rundown about sharing the stage with Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser, we also dissect the character of Christine and the importance of her journey over the course of the musical thriller and how it pertains to its themes of social acceptance, the power of musical performance, and, above all else, love - which, as we know, never dies. Additionally, she shares her ample enthusiasm for the simply tremendous DVD and Blu-ray experience of PHANTOM 25 (also, my SOUND OFF review of the live performance is available here) and details the experience of having now played Christine in three distinctly different PHANTOM-based stage experiences - PHANTOM in Las Vegas, LOVE NEVER DIES in the West End and, now, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE Albert Hall.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE ROYAL Albert Hall on DVD/Blu-ray is available for pre-order here. It will be released in the US on February 7.

Tickets to Fathom's movie theater presentation of LOVE NEVER DIES on February 28 and March 7 are available here. The LOVE NEVER DIES Blu-ray/DVD is available for pre-order here.

Grant To Me Your Glory

PC: The PHANTOM 25 performance capture was absolutely thrilling live in movie theaters and, now, the Blu-ray is even more of a spectacular experience. You and Ramin imbue Chekhovian-level acting and ideal vocals - you are both to be highly commended. I could not be more impressed.

SB: Aww, thank you! I mean, Ramin and I just really, really focused on the characters - and, also, Hadley [Fraser], who played Raoul - we just focused on each of our individual character's motivations. Also, I just feel a huge personal connection to the show. I think when you love something so much - you know, I love this piece; I love singing it; I love the music - then, you can find anything that you want to in it. And, to just be completely truthful in telling the story is what I wanted to focus on because I knew that it was going out worldwide - it was going to be in cinemas; people were seeing it live; it's going to be on DVD now - and, I wanted to capture how much I love the character and the story forever.

PC: For all time.

SB: I had to do it the best that I could - to just tell my truth, through Christine. So, that's what I really focused on. I try to do that with every character that I do. But, obviously, with PHANTOM, I've been lucky because I have had such a long history with it. So, I've been able to think about it and work on it for a very long time.

PC: How would you describe the feeling of doing the live shows?

SB: Oh, it felt like sitting in the most comfortable armchair I've ever sat in to do that show - that's really what it felt like.

PC: Wow. Like a glove.

SB: Yeah, it was one of the most amazing nights I've ever had in my life. It was the perfect experience.

PC: You could feel it in the audience that this was something truly special that we were all witnessing.

SB: Especially on Sunday. Obviously, we did three performances, but, Sunday night, there was something truly special about it, I think.

PC: Having played the characters ten years later in LOVE NEVER DIES, you, Ramin and Hadley have gone on the entire journey with your respective characters. How did that inform your performances and characterizations in this, the start of the epic tale?

SB: It definitely was helpful in terms of thinking through things. I mean, the thing that changed the most for me was in the final scene. Obviously, we changed it…

PC: Yes.

SB: I stay on stage after the Phantom sings, "Christine, I love you," and I gave him back the ring - usually, in the stage production, she goes away with Raoul and you see them drift away on the boat, not knowing who, necessarily, she has chosen. You see her physically choosing to go into the boat and go away. But, I stayed onstage for the final moment - when I start singing the reprise of "All I Ask Of You" - and, even I wasn't sure if I was choosing Raoul or if I was choosing the Phantom.

PC: Really? You don't lean one way a little bit?

SB: It's so complicated! I feel like that sets the tone for why LOVE NEVER DIES exists - because Christine never gave herself, one hundred percent, to her husband.

PC: How interesting.

SB: Jack O'Brien is such a genius director and he would say to us, with LOVE NEVER DIES, "there is no villain in this piece and there is no hero - because they are all at fault and they are all not at fault." So, Christine - she didn't do her part as far as making that marriage work with Raoul. She's not sure - as she says - at the end. Her love is just so strong - and, it's two different kinds of love; a love that lives on the ground and a love that lives in the air.

PC: What a way to look at it.

SB: I don't know - I just think that it is a complicated piece and it is a really beautiful story to tell. [Pause.] I just love it.

PC: LOVE NEVER DIES really develops the characters with a lot of dramatic pay-offs, as well. It is its very much its own show - and, the score is phenomenal.

SB: Yeah, it is.

PC: Having sung LOVE NEVER DIES prior to PHANTOM 25, did you discover any motifs that arise in the sequel - beyond the obvious ones - while you were singing the original score?

SB: No, I actually didn't notice anything in particular.

PC: Have you seen the Blu-ray of PHANTOM 25 yet?

SB: Yes! Cameron's office sent me a copy of the Blu-ray because that's the only one you can play over here until the US release of it because of the regions or something.

PC: Not until February 7! So, what did you think of it?

SB: I thought it was beautifully done - it is cut so well! I think they really, really captured a stage performance in a really great way on DVD. I am really proud of it. I really am.

PC: Christine really is the star of the show in this version. As magnificent as Ramin is, you really guide us on the journey of the show. That's a credit to your performance.

SB: Oh, thank you!

PC: "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" is the true Christine tour-de-force of the show here. A bravura moment.

SB: Thank you!

PC: When we spoke before the show, you said that that was the moment you were most looking forward to doing - and what an utterly fantastic final realization of that intent. Was that the central moment for the character in your portrayal of her?

SB: Yeah, I think that that is when she decides. You know, Raoul has told her something and then basically abandoned her - you know, he says, "Everything rests on you." So, this person that she thought was there for her has abandoned her, and, she has the Phantom, who has been manipulating her and murdering people around her. So, she is left completely on her own and realizes in this moment what she has - the death of her father, which she has not dealt with. And, I find that in life to be true: you can try to go on and not deal with the hard things and try to just get around it, but, eventually, you are going to have to deal with the loss of someone or whatever it is that has happened in your life - you know, everybody has been through something.

PC: We all have our own experience of the world.

SB: In Christine's case, it's the loss of her father - he was the person who was the love of her life. And, she realizes, in that moment, that she has to deal with it and she has to let him go.

PC: A powerful statement to make.

SB: I felt like it was my duty as an actress to sing that song and grieve for everybody who has ever lost someone - I felt like I was grieving for everyone, as Christine. [Pause.] That's really what I love most about what I do as an artist.

PC: What a feeling that must have been.

SB: I mean, I got to do that and it felt really real and it felt in touch, spiritually, with everything. [Laughs.]

PC: Transcendent.

SB: Yeah, it was an amazing moment to be that vulnerable, onstage, with that character. It felt like the birth of a baby or something! [Laughs.]

PC: I bet!

SB: I felt exhausted for Christine - for the character. It was an amazing joining of actress and character for me - I felt it go through me. It was an outer-body experience, almost.

PC: "The Music Of The Night" was the most sensually portrayed I have ever seen - which is really saying something. Tell me about the first Lair scene with Ramin.

SB: Hey, it's a sexual song! He seduces her in that time. It's done through music - and, that's the connection that they have that is untouchable; Raoul cannot touch that. And, I think that's why Hadley played his character so brilliantly, too…

PC: An ideal trio if ever there were any.

SB: I mean, in the rooftop scene, it is so clear that it is two people who cannot get on the same page. She understands spiritual and musical connections to people and he lives on the ground - there's nothing wrong with that, but he just doesn't feel life like she does. He wants to help her and he wants to understand, but he can't understand the connection she has with the Phantom. I think that Hadley played that so well.

PC: Raoul is such a difficult role to make an impression in and he really did. He came off as so complex and layered in Hadley's portrayal, I thought.

SB: He's so great. Truly wonderful.

PC: What was it like working with Gillian Lynne again on PHANTOM 25 after having done PHANTOM VEGAS together?

SB: Oh, it was just wonderful! Obviously, we didn't have Hal [Prince] on this, so she is really the heart of this production - she did all of the musical staging. She actually just put out a book in the UK - a memoir. She is actually a good friend and we have kept in touch. She should really be celebrated forever, I think. I love her.

PC: Since we last spoke, Michael Crawford actually did this column (read it here) and we talked all about PHANTOM 25 and I know you consider him a significant inspiration for you to perform.

SB: Oh, yeah! He and I met actually the week prior. I went to see THE WIZARD OF OZ and I met him then. He is just an amazing man and I adore him. He was so gracious and so lovely and I knew that he was going to be in the audience on Sunday - he told me that he was going to be there watching it - and, I know how difficult that must be to watch the character that you created and loved with all your heart. To watch it 25 years on like he did must have been just amazing.

PC: He said as much to me, for sure!

SB: Did he? But, yes, we had quite a bit of time to talk and that meant so much to me because, as you know, he's one of the people who made me want to do this as a career.

PC: Indeed.

SB: But, it's not for PHANTOM, it's because of the movie of HELLO, DOLLY - he played Cornelius Hackl.

PC: Of course! We've spoken about this before.

SB: That's what made me love him so much - he really did make me want to do this as a career. So, yeah, I got to say everything I ever wanted to say to him... [Laughs.]... and he was just so lovely!

PC: He really is.

SB: It was just unforgettable - to get to have that kind of time with someone that I look up to so much. [Pause.] He's an amazing man.

PC: Michael Crawford and I were discussing some of the effects that were tried out in rehearsals for PHANTOM and I was curious if Hal Prince tried out any new effects for PHANTOM VEGAS - the 7-foot stilts for Red Death or the doves for "All I Ask Of You" or the white horse for the title song?

SB: No. The only thing that they put in for Vegas which was something that Hal said he always had wanted to do, but they didn't have the technology then, was Raoul, at the end of the show, when he had the noose around his neck. It's the same as it is in the stage show, but, in Vegas, there's a cage that comes up and suspends him in the air and knives come out of the sides of it - and, that's how he's trapped.

PC: Wow.

SB: That's a really cool effect that they only have in Vegas. But, that's the only thing that was put in that Hal said he had really wanted from the very beginning. But, obviously, PHANTOM VEGAS is an extraordinary production and people should absolutely go see that one. It's amazing what they have done with the show out there.

PC: It really is.

SB: Just the updated effects and the fire and all that stuff - plus, the theater was built for that show, so it's made to look like the inside of the Paris Opera House. It's just beautiful. So, it's really a great way to experience PHANTOM.

PC: It's so fantastic there are three distinct versions of PHANTOM now, all currently available to see - the Broadway and West End version; PHANTOM VEGAS; and, now, the one for all time, PHANTOM 25.

SB: That's right! What's great about it being filmed for all time is that this show is something that should be forever. And, if people can't afford to pay and go see a Broadway show or a ticket to see it in Vegas or whatever, they can buy it - and, obviously, a DVD is much cheaper to buy. The DVD is such a great production. It's amazing.

PC: Beyond words.

SB: But, also, that's not taking anything away from seeing it live - because if you can see it live, you must! There is nothing like seeing live theatre.



Videos