OMG. The Michael Crawford concert the other night was amazing.
It was the best concert I ever went to. If you thought watching his concert DVD was good seeing him live in person is like
a million times better. He is so freaking funny. The whole show was a Broadway theme. He started off singing "Gethsemane"
and when he finished he explained how it was a Broadway based show and how most of the songs he's going to sing are from musicals
he has never been in but when he was saying that he made it really funny. I can't remember exactly all the songs he did but
he did "Before the Parade Passes By," "Love Changes Everything," "POTO," "MOTN," "AIAOY," Dale Kristien did "Think of Me,"
and they also played the Phantom overture. He "The Impossible Dream," "Not Too Far From Here" (which I cried during), "On
Eagles' Wings," and "Papa Can You Hear Me/Piece of Sky." I can't remember the others but he was awesome.
One of the stories he told was from "Hello Dolly." Barbara
and Walter weren't talking during most of the filming because Barbara kept telling Walter how he should do his lines which
annoyed him immensely and Michael being the not-as-known star was trying to be friendly with both of them. He said he got
along well with Barbara because he did whatever she told him but Walter didn't really trust him. He said that one day they
went to the horse races as a bonding thin and everything went well up until the 4th race when one of the horses was named
"Hello Dolly" which upset Walter because it reminded him of Barbara. Michael suggested they bet on it and Walter said, "I'm
not going to bet on that son of a.mare" but Michael bet $50 on it anyway and won and I think he said that Walter stop talking
to him after that.
Another story he told was an incident that happened during
his run of "EFX" in Vegas. When he was playing the spirit of Harry Houdini he was supposed to descend from about 25ft and
sing a love duet with Mrs. Houdini (Tonight). He explained how he was sitting on a black saddle like seat and was strapped
to it and two dressers had to wrap his clothes around him after he was strapped in so the saddle wouldn't show. One dresser
was for the top and the other was for the bottom. Well the bottom dresser didn't wrap his pants correctly or something like
that but as he starts to descend, he says it felt a little colder than usual. His pants had fallen to his knees. He says the
audience was wearing a very confused expression. He said that the line he was singing at that precise moment was "Don't be
afraid. Don't be surprised. I know with me you never could believe your eyes."
He also told one of the boat stories from Phantom. It was
the first preview in London when he and Sarah Brightman were in the boat and they first come on stage. The boat is being controlled
by a guy with a remote control the size of a CD. The guy was really nervous and when they first came onstage the boat didn't
turn and they went right off stage again. Then they came back on, backwards, and the whole time Michael is trying to make
it look like he's in control of the boat. Then the engine on the boat starts to overheat and smoke is coming from under Sarah's
dress. Then he tells us how he's panicking because she's Andrew Lloyd Webber's wife and he's singing "And in this labyrinth
where night is blind, she is Lloyd Webber's wife and she's on fire." So he picks her up and puts her on the stage. Then he
stops and looks up at us and says "and she was hot" and the whole place started to laugh. So he turns and grabs the 2-½ ton
boat and drags it off stage then runs over to the organ and starts to sing Music of the Night except he's breathing really
heavily. Then he tells us how he thinks Andrew is going to kill him when Andrew walks up to him after the show. He imitated
Andrew's walk too. He put his hand on his hip and began walking on his tiptoes across the stage. He says he could tell Andrew
wasn't angry because when he's angry he uses both hands, then he puts both hands on his hips and again walks across the stage.
But Andrew said he loved it because it was so sensual. Michael then says that the stagehand was replaces but then promoted
to musical director. He called him Mr. Remote Control and introduced him as his conductor for the evening.
When he was singing "Before the Parade Passes By" during
that little musical interlude he began conducting the orchestra himself and when the song finishes he says "no that difficult.
I'm beginning to think you're overpaid" and motioned towards the conductor. Before he sang "Not Too Far From Here" he commented
on the tragedy of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
Before he began "Love Changes Everything" he was talking
about love and music and how there's a song that seems to capture love and he named a couple songs and one of them was "Great
Balls of Fire." Then he pointed at a member of the audience and said "I'll explain it to you later" which left everyone in
hysterics. He was just so extremely funny.
But seriously, it was just an amazing night. I really didn't
want it to end. Before the show started and people were sitting down my friend pointed out that the people a couple of rows
in front of us had backstage passes. We were both like who do we have to sleep with to get our own backstage passes. We were
going to hang around afterwards and try and find Michael but since my grandparents went with us we couldn't. ( But all and
all it was an amazing concert. You would never guess that he is just getting over viral colitis. His voice was fantastic.
Even my grandfather said that that was one of three shows of the many he's seen that he didn't want to end. And coming from
my grandfather that's when you know it's a darn good show. And it was. I was only upset that they didn't have a souvenir booth.
I was really looking forward to that. But I took a pic at the end of the show when he was doing his bows and my camera crapped
out after the second pic so I just hope the first two come out. It was just amazing. It was shorter than I thought it would
be though. There was no intermission. He just played straight through for an 1 ½. The only break was when they played the
overture to Phantom. It was just fantastic. Didn't get to meet him though. Oh well. But yeah it was amazing.
