While Les Miserables was my favorite Broadway show as a teenager, The Phantom of the Opera was the first professional Broadway show I ever saw. My Grandma gave me the tape (yes tape) for Christmas with a promise to take me to see it in San Francisco. I was thrilled and we had a great time. I also had a best of Andrew Lloyd Webber tape that I wore the heck out of, so his music has always been special to me.
You can then guess how thrilled I was to hear the Eccles theater was reopening with a special concert featuring Kurt Bestor, David Osmond, Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller, Lexi Walker and my old teacher Dallyn Vail Bayles. I had to get tickets right away! It has 2 more days and the massive theater gave plenty of room for social distancing with masks required. If you can afford it I highly recommend getting a ticket while you still can!
The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber – Live at the Eccles
What a tremendous night of musical theater we got! In the set pieces we got songs from shows like Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and more. All the production values were amazing including 2 wonderful dancers.
There honestly wasn’t a bad number in the group and they had a good mixture of silly songs like ‘Song of the King’ from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to tender ballads like ‘Memory’ from Cats or ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’ (my favorite ALW song) from Phantom.
My only complaints is the microphones were a little glitchy and it was sometimes hard to understand the lyrics (especially for songs I am less familiar with). Particularly with David Osmond the microphone kept giving him grief and that’s frustrating for an expensive concert of $45.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am just so happy to be back listening to live music! Well done
8 out of 10
Rachel's Musings 
Yes, I saw musicals in person in elementary school. But, my first memory was seeing Wicked on Broadway- August 2006, a musical that changed me for good. Wicked really truly was the beginning of my musical theatre journey. While Wicked sparked the love, Les Mis turned that love into more of a passion. Those two are my top two favorite musicals.
I actually saw something kinda of similar in 2014- Some Enchanted Evening. It was a musical revue of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s songs.
I’d love and R and H night. How fun
Glad to live in Charlotte. Charlotte has Central Piedmont Community College- whenever they do musicals, they feel professional.
The center of Charlotte Theater is Blumenthal Performing Arts- that is how I usually see Broadway Musicals (Belk and Ovens are their main touring theaters)
That’s awesome. I hope you support them as they reopen
Every year, a goal of mine is to see at least one musical- which usually ends up being 2-4. Usually, that ends up being at Blumenthal.
Blumenthal Tours I have seen:
1. Wicked 3x
2. Come From Away
3. Les Mis
4. Newsies
5. Aladdin
6. Lion King
7. Sound of Music
8. Pippin
9. Mamma Mia
10. Miss Saigon
11. Porgy and Bess
12. Addams Family
13. La Cage
Yes, seen other musicals- but not with Blumenthal. Either at university or in another city
That’s a great lineup! I haven’t seen a few of those like Pippen or Aladdin
Outside of Blumenthal: If I say a show again, it means I saw it outside of Blumenthal as well
1. Phantom of the Opera
2. Wicked- Broadway
3. Les Mis- Greenville, West End, and CPCC
4. Annie
5. Fiddler on the Roof
6. Music Man
7. Little Shop of Horrors
8. Newsies- CPCC
9. Oklahoma
10. Grease
11. Godspell
I forgot one I saw with Blumenthal:
1. Rent