I'm a little confused about the upcoming DVD release of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall. Some sources say that it's a concert (like the Les Miserables 10th and 25th Anniversary DVDs were). Yet the recent announcement with the trailer for the DVD said that it was a fully staged production, which makes it sound like the DVD of Into the Woods starring Bernadette Peters. Does anyone have more details about this upcoming DVD so that we can know more about what it is? I am personally hoping that it's a filmed version of the stage show rather than a concert.

It's the concert. The footage was from 2008 during Ramin's time with Gina Beck.

It was fully staged unlike the Les Mis concert. The only thing missing really was the elephant in Hannibal and the Chandelier kinda just sparked and exploded instead of falling.

Definitely, definitely fully staged. Huge amounts of construction gave the dear old Royal Albert a proper prosc, with additional boxes on the sides! We watched the live relay to a local cinema on the night. Very high quality production, everything there bar the elephant, and sparkling performances from everyone. They wheeled on four previous Phantoms at the end, three of whom were splendid - the last one had a HORRIBLE nasal, grating voice. Then on came La Brightman, and dammit she could still hit the high notes in 'Angel of Music'! Crawfie was there but didn't sing solo. Floyd-Wibbler came on afterwards, bit of speechifying, but on the whole... we've definitely got the DVD on our Amazon wish-list.

It was quite freaky to see three of the four former Phantoms singing 'Music of the Night' on the same stage where they'd sung 'Do You Hear the People Sing' as former Valjeans a few years prior.

The only slight negative was that Richard Stilgoe wasn't given full acknowledgment of his role as book-writer, just the young bloke brought in to do the song lyrics.

And that, in the preliminary ads and blurbs, it was all so aimed at the USA. Helloo, we're in ENGLAND, it's an ENGLISH musical being staged in a LONDON venue?

Not just three Phantoms. Freaking Anthony Warlow, John Owen Jones, and Colm Wilkinson!!!! And yeah...the 4th guy is Peter Joback (the new London replacement for JOJ) ...sounds like the future of Phantom for London looks bleak...

Also, the 25th anniversary of Broadway's longest running musical can't be enjoyed in America too? You guys had it set in the royal albert hall, the entire cast was English (Well...Ramin and Sierra aren't,) and you all had the means of seeing it IN PERSON. Are we not allowed advertising letting us know what's going on with our favorite musical across the pond?

Most of the cadenza (high notes) of the title song wasn't live, though... Sarah Brightman used the same playback track as she used with Antonio Banderas in the 1998 concert.

And as others have pointed out, the fourth Phantom wasn't a previous one, but the one taking over from John Owen Jones in March 2012. He was... well... how to put this nicely... one casting choice I will never understand. He's a favourite of Cameron Mackintosh, and in the right roles (like the narrator in Cabaret, or Robert in Kristina) he's very good. When I first heard he was to be in Phantom, I assumed as Raoul. And I even found that an odd casting choice. When I read he was to play the Phantom, I died a little inside. And the short stint at the RAH concert didn't improve my view on it!

Or who he shall be known as He Who Must Not Be Named.

Saw it on Monday at the Cineplex. Could not get over the quality of everyone's performance, and was so happy to see the formerly bromantic Hadley Fraser and Ramin Karimloo worstest enemies... though I do wish that they had brought in David Thaxton to play Raoul, just a little. Sierra Boggess was wonderful, and the concert was way more staged and elaborate than I thought it would be, though the cyberpunk vibe I was getting was a little odd at first.

Also, it was too loud for my tender ears. Did anyone else find that this was the case?

Most of all, I'm just sooo happy that some record of Ramin's non-LND Phantom will be on record for the future. Hurray!

Also Peter Joback... nooooooo -remembers Witches of Eastwick, Kristina, shudders-

You didn't like him in "Kristina från Duvemåla"? Granted, the role Robert is probably my least favourite role in the musical, but within those borders I think he did very well.

But as the Phantom? *dies inside* The only thing I wanna keep in mind is the grand transformation Michael Crawford went through from Helly Dolly and to Phantom. Both his voice and his body language changed. I would never have guessed it was the same guy. But Crawford's transformation started many years before he starred as the Phantom, whereas Peter Jöback has half a year to change. He's already been instructed to sing lower and more booming, as per an interview he did with a Swedish newspaper. But how much can he actually change? And will this be healthy for his voice?

Good thing is that he's only signed up for half a year, and according to himself he don't want to play the role for any more than that. I'm guessing he's mostly CV shopping, and I don't blame him for that. His management is trying to tone down his "gay style", and I guess playing the Phantom is a part of that strategy. I'm saying this as a gay supporter! But he has an undeniable queer style on stage, which is quite cool for the right kind of music - I.E. the narrator in Cabaret, his various Christmas and pop recordings etc, but not for Phantom. Again, I say this as a gay supporter. And also as a person whose half of her favourite Phantoms are gay. So I see why Jöback is grabbing this opportunity with both hands. But I don't see why he was given the opportunity to start with. He's as little Phantom material as can be.

I did not have issues with the sound in the cinema where I saw the concert. It might be due to the individual preferences of the movie theatres?

Don't worry! We all know gay people have to be able to play straight and straight people have to play gay in theatre. Neil Patrick Harris plays straight very well! Jesse L Martin plays gay very subtle and not mockingly.