Michael Crawford is my favorite Phantom! I heard him as the Phantom on my my mother's copy of the Original London Cast Recording when I was 7! I always wanted to meet Michael Crawford and ask him what it was like to play the Phantom!
0:00 Michael Crawford (King!) 1:11 Gary Mauer 2:07 John Owen Jones 2:33 Peter Karrie 3:33 Earl Carpenter 4:04 Ramin Karimloo 4:53 Hugh Panaro 5:27 Colm Wilkinson 6:22 John Cudia 7:21 Steve Barton 8:21 Peter Jöbeck
They are all very talented!!! But I have my favourites. Crawford was very smooth, and clear... and the laugh was purely genius. Mauer for the sweetness of his voice, with the bitterness of how Erik is feeling in this moment... very raw emotions, believable. John Owens Jones was very raw and stern- truly sounding angry and hurt... makes me think of how is Erik in the book. Earl Carpenter has as similar thing going on with Jones, which I admire. I even appreciate Gerard Butler, he too, had a certain rawness and powerful emotion going through his voice... Erik is a man of misunderstanding and, though I wouldn't say "evil," I wouldn't say "good," either... he is rough and stern, as Butler did good portraying. Although my favourite phantom is Matthew Cammelle... for his quickness of speech, his realistic portrayal of Erik and his emotions, his movements, and his voice gives off this radiance that really makes me think, "This is it. This is the one true Erik."
Michael Shipman Jup me too. But I can’t blame him , I would have done the exact same thing if I such a wonderful voice and technique. Plus that laugh he just had to give it his all.
IMHO, there is nothing like the first. Michael Crawford set the standard. Ramin is a close second in singing. However, IMHO, Steve Barton had the most diabolical laughter.
so...how's about that. Ramin, he's great for a reason. I preferred his 25th Anniversary performance though. JOJ though, good to put a voice to the fame. :) He's amazing. As for the ever unpopular but widely discussed gerard butler performance; I personally don't mind him but he's not my preferred phantom. It doesn't seem like he's a natural singer or at the very least, his voice doesn't fit the POTO music which is where the problem is but he was a well fine phantom. I'd be there. I recently saw the show with Ben Forster in the lead; the man's not bad at all. Love it.
I want to meet him for a different reason. Yes it's cool that he was the phantom but he did a kids movie that I loved as a kid and still do today. I would thank him for that because I never would have known who he is without that movie.
it kinda disgusts me when opera singers have really slow vibrato; like it doesn't need to be super fast, just balanced and for a lot of these Phantom's, its hard to tell if their voice is just going up and down at a fast rate, or doing vibrato. and don't tell me that those are the same because they're not exactly the same
Colm is over rated in my opinion.. I think he just has some kind of nostalgic element that some people seem to like but his performance just does not compare to Michael, Ramin, JOJ, Hugh, Peter.. etc..
I'm sure other Phantom fans like myself feel this way after those greedy, selfish, uncaring Broadway hypocrites are heartlessly closing Phantom down unless we do something to stop them & foil them to keep Phantom on Broadway till literally the end of time
Anyone who is reading the last message, ignore it. I'm just a Phantom fan dealing with that life changing news in a negative way & what I previously said isn't really true
I feel like lots of people are kind of prejudice about Gerard Butler because he firstly isn't on stage but also as he isn't a professional singer. However, we should appreciate how well he coped in these circumstances and that actually he has a pretty good voice!!!
Obvious! The guy cant sing and butchered it! Any good listener can hear there is a lot of autotuning, cutting and digitally making notes longer going on. Would gladly hear him doing it live, with all the real prostetics on his face and balancing in the dark on the eagle... he would be boo-ed out of the theatre ;)
A lot of comparison videos have been taken down for copyright by using clips of the movie. And in my opinion I like the comparisons without Gerard, because I prefer the stage version.
Katie Tucker I'm afraid I'm with you on this one. Sorry to those that like him, but the guy just can NOT sing impressively. Though I admit he did a decent job of capturing the Phantom's fits of psychotic rage that's why Ramin Karimloo will always be my favourite Phantom. His is the only version of the finale (with its "It's over now, the Music of the Night....") that still, after multiple listenings, brings me to tears from his pure emotion, AND he can hold a note with the best of 'em
All of them were pretty bad IMO. IMO the phantom would feel sad and betrayed I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have an evil laugh I'm pretty sure he'd just be mad that was just a bad addition to me even him sobbing after it would be better than a evil laugh. Phantom never came off as an evil person except when he killed the stage hand or whatever he came off as a deformed soul
Well blame that on the people who directed the show lol. When he goes "Goo!" he drops the chandelier and then that's what he's laughing at. I think the chandelier drop is more appropriate where they had it in the book...during Carlotta's crappy performance...and thus his laughing would be justified. As opposed to after he overhears them on the roof. But idk for the musical they probably just wanted something dramatic to finish the first act with. I never was a big fan of the chandelier drop in the show....it even aims at Christine!
