My favourite show of all time, so of course I think that it is brilliant and that everyone should see it. I was particularly excited to see this show again though as I think that David Thaxton, who is playing The Phantom for 6 months, is amazing. I first saw him in a ‘West End Men’ charity concert in Dunstable years ago, and his voice (as was everyone else’s that night!) was insanely good. I’ve tried to see all the shows that everyone in that concert has subsequently been in; so fast forward and I’ve seen David Thaxton in Love Never Dies, Candide, Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Miserables, and I couldn’t miss an opportunity to see him as the Phantom – especially when in my review of Les Mis last year I said that I would really like to see him as The Phantom!
Oh my goodness, he was outstanding. My favourite Phantom of all time is John Owen-Jones, but David Thaxton is a close second favourite, maybe even an equal favourite! Anyone who knows me knows what high praise this is! The depth and richness of his voice and performance is unlike any other Phantom portrayal that I have seen, and I’ve seen the show in excess of 30 times. Perhaps this is because the role is too low for most people, and they have to train their voices down to sing it, whereas it sits more naturally for Mr Thaxton? The gravelly menace that he portrays, both in his voice and his acting, is exquisite; and I have never seen such a physical Final Lair scene.
This is a brilliant show, and Mr Thaxton gives an outstanding performance; I am definitely going to try and catch this again before his run is up. The question I have is, why on earth is Mr Thaxton only doing a limited run - he’s far far too good to be the filler between Tim Howar’s runs!?!