Phantom!

The Glendale Centre Theater is "America's Family Theater" doncha know. I went there on Friday night with my parents to see Phantom! which is not my favorite musical. Not by a long shot. But my parents are not young and so I try to spend as much time with them as possible, although I admit I have my limits, which is why I turned down their invitation to Medieval Times a couple of weeks ago.

So here's the deal - none of us noticed that the show was called Phantom!, music and lyrics by Maury Leston, not Phantom Of The Opera, music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The dude's name is Maury - how good could this show be???? Well, it turned out to be pretty damned good. The original Phanton is extremely dark, but this version had quite a bit of humor. Don't get me wrong, it still ends badly, but the balance of light and dark made it much more enjoyable for me. And high five for Maury. The songs were really good. This was not a low-rent production. The cast was top notch, the costumes were terrific, and the theater's in the round, so there's really not a bad seat in the house. Shut my mouth!

www.glendalecentretheater.com