The Blogger of the Night

Since, for the third or fourth night in a row, I can't sleep, I'm up blogging. I figured I'd share what is probably worthless info to some of you, but very important to me. Since Phantom of the Opera is in the news right now because of the new (lousy) movie, I'm here to dispel the myths and set things straight:

Colm Wilkinson, not Michael Crawford, was the original "Phantom of the Opera." Wilkinson created the role in Sydmonton in 1985. Andrew Lloyd Webber asked Colm to take the role before Crawford, but Colm was already contracted to do Les Miserables, so Crawford became Webber's second choice.

Now, I'm grateful this happened, because Colm was phenomenal in Les Mis (I got to see him in Toronto in '98). Les Mis is a much better show than Phantom, and furthermore, we ended up with Colm playing the Phantom in Toronto anyway (which I also got to see). The only unfortunate result of this particular sequence of events is all the hysterical Michael Crawford fans who blow a gasket every time someone suggests that he was a bit of a weenie pansy Phantom, and that Colm did a far better job with the role.

(See my review of the movie to discover why I inserted the word "lousy" above.)