r/MasqueradeNYC

Yesterday, I saw the show for the 3rd time. This time, I decided to bring m emotional support plushie, Mara, with me! I even made her, her own mask!

At carnival scene, I was able to feed the young phantom and he notice Mara. I show him Mara to which he showed me the monkey on his music box.

We played with them for 10 seconds before he gave me this crumbled up note and gave Mara a little necklace!

when they “revealed the freak” he reached out for my hand which I took and I played along. Saying thats he’s not a monster.

Last night was a good show! I can’t wait to go back! ☺️

Well ended up back at the Masquerade twice yesterday. Here was the first performance I saw, Here are all my thoughts and feelings as well as any interactions I had! Was joined by a group of internet phantom friends so this was an extra special show.

Spoilers below!

-Jeremy Stolle was on instead of Austin and I was so excited I’ve been a fan of Jeremy’s for a long time so it was very special to finally see his phantom in person
-Olivia Tarchick was back! Probably just a temp fill in for the day but was cool to see her
-my group talked to Piangi during the opening so we got to cheer bravo! At him
-This was my second time seeing Haile as Christine. She is such a beautiful, joyful Christine who really gives the vibe that when she is singing she is in her element.
-Jeremy and her were a really amazing pair
- solo manager, second time I’ve seen one.
- I unfortunately found Saman De Silvas performance as Raoul to be pretty weak, he’s an amazing singer but his acting wasn’t really there. I saw him previously and didn’t feel that way so it might’ve been an off show.
-Satomi Giry cupped my face and whispered something about the magical lasso but I was so surprised I didn’t hear her at all I’m sorry madame Giry!! 😭
-She also motioned strangling one of my friends ope
-Jeremy’s Phantom gives the vibe of a man who has been really worn down, he is just so tired, but maybe things will work out for him soon. (They won’t)
-they especially won’t after STYDI
-he was a bit reserved at first but when Haile put her hand on his face he had a very soft warm smile, and then massive freak out after she unmasked him. Man.
-young phantom led my group and I up the stairs, he was lowkey doing parkour, but we held hands for a bit as he guided me through the mirrors.
-Matt Barker is genuinely diabolical lol
-Pulled a nail out of Aurora North’s face 🫣 scary
-the guy next to me was crying really hard during learning to be lonely and like yeah moo
-Jeremy is just so phenomenal his voice is beyond, he’s a legend for a reason.
-He’s very cold while in the flys
-Very stoic during all I ask of you but in a way that he can’t even process what’s happening
-Really sad reprise, very broken, very angry lol!
-devastating wishing
-and if I said I would trade learn to be lonely for full wandering child then what
-plot rooms were Carlotta/Piangi, Andre, and Christine and Raoul.
-Got a note from Carlotta thank you my diva
-Christine got the “I’m here… I’m here” ending and Haile was covering her ears and trying to tune him out
-Great point of no return
-this unmasking 😖
-to me it feels like Jeremy’s phantom regresses and becomes a scared young boy again, and this was definitely this.
-I swear Haile said “are you okay?” After she pushes him out of the way
-brutal final lair between him and Haile
-he’s very desperate and manic when delivering the ultimatum
-but is so🧍 when Haile throws the roses at him
-he’s so like of course you’d feel that way I feel that way too
- he ripped his shirt collar open to the rose when Haile held it up to him
-99% sure Haile said “I love you” to him after the kiss but it was really quiet but several people in my group agreed 🫪
-His “masquerade” was soft spoken, not sung, and his voice was cracking a lot, it was the same for Christine I love you
-he’s genuinely crying, tears are hitting the platform
-I don’t think he actually believes Christine is back, I think it’s his way of saying goodbye to her mentally

Overall, devastating and cathartic. Loved this duo and had a great time as always <3

My second show of my two show masquerade day yesterday! I was dying to see Derrick’s phantom and I’m so glad I finally did. Here are all my thoughts and feelings about as well as any interactions I may have had. Was joined by my friend for this one!

Spoilers below

-was the last one in the room for masquerade that’s never happened to me before lol, was very cool to see it from this angle.
-Hannah Selby was on for Meg! I believe this means she made her Christine debut tonight in pulse 5 how awesome
-she was great and so supportive of Christine
-2 manger show! nkumrah was on for Firmin. He spoke to my friend and I and asked us how many crystals were in the chandelier and we were both like “ohhh I don’t know more than 100?” And he was like “trust me that was worth way more than just 100 crystals my dear“
-Kaley Ann Voorhees is my favorite Christine personally, so I was really happy to get to see her again tonight for the second time in masquerade
-I chose to see this as I really wanted to see Derrick and he did not disappoint at all.
-the acting he does with his eyes alone. WOW.
-He’s so intense but simultaneously so soft
-he didn’t carry Kaley off after music of the night he guided her away instead
-a lot of people laughing during the bedroom scene oh
-I’m still feeling in different about the wedding dance change, I prefer the bride being there I think.
-Noah Lytle however as the robot phantom/young phantom was really amazing, and I think he literally debuted today if not very recently.
-STYDI, as soon as Christine even touches his mask he yells NO
-I got the sense that Kaleys Christine was really hurt and betrayed at not only him being a real man, but that he would yell and treat her this way. She’s putting walls up immediately.
-did a ring toss and got a shot lol
-watched the ropes of judgement for the first time, I feel like I’m rarely on that side for the carnival
-Derrick is ready to fight the Barker during this flashback, he is so angry and physically moves as if to punch him when he hits young Erik’s cage.
-indoor track
-Derricks phantom is so protective of his younger self, it feels like everything he does is to avenge him.
-Pretty cute all I ask of you, Kaley is very smiley and giggling throughout it. I felt like I could see Paul’s Raoul warm up more and more until he’s also smiling and laughing at the end.
-It was kinda funny because I actually saw Paul on for the Phantom on Broadway in 2019 with Kaley as Christine. So fun reversal there.
-crazy aiaoy reprise
-Derricks phantom is just crushed and shaking. He whispers the first Christine but then screams the second Christine. It’s really guttural.
-I don’t think his eyes stop watering
-Kaleys wishing really made me emotional, she makes you feel her grief and her pain in every line delivery.
-I was on the balcony for this scene, I wish it wasn’t so rare because it’s a really cool way to experience the scene.
-Plot rooms: Christine/Carlotta and Piangi/Managers and Raoul
-Kaley makes so many little acting choices throughout this, her practicing the choreography for point of no return, she held her costume for the scene for a while and just started at it pensively.
-when Piangi went to play the piano and sing Morgan and I cheered and he was like “oh thank you I love my fans MWAH” and blew us a kiss
-This was the silliest “Don’t worry friends he has an understudy” line delivery I’ve ever heard like he was laughing with us for a moment there
-Andre came in and asked us if he should us the throat spray that maybe it would relax him and one lady in front of us said yes while we motioned no and he went “yes told you say yes when they are saying no!!!!”
-He hugged Raoul at the end and on their way out Firmin said “you cannot just hug him like that”
-Tense point of no return I loved it
-after the unmasking and the chandelier starts shaking he let out a guttural “why?”
-He seemed really surprised Christine would push him out of the way
-After the chandelier crash I got stalled up next to Andre so I said “I’m so sorry about all this” and he hugged me and said “oh thank you and I’m sorry because um your tickets will not be refunded.”
-He’s really embarrassed and ashamed that Christine would ever imply that he’d would hurt her that way during “lust for flesh”
-Kaleys Christine is so angry during final lair I love it
-He’s really begging during the ultimatum and it’s seems so delusionally sad like “i don’t want to be doing this either but what choice do I have?”
-livid tears of hate
-his eyes widened sooo big and he started to wipe away his sweat with his handkerchief in character after tears of hate like he was trying to wipe away his shame and Christine’s words
-every line he delivers in final lair is him begging, begging for her love, begging for forgiveness, begging for any type of release from his own madness he has created
-You haven’t lived if you haven’t heard Kaley’s “you decided me, I gave my mind blindly”
-Really emotional kiss
-He can’t even comprehend what just happened
-After Christine helps Raoul she said “Raoul, go!” And turned back to the phantom
-honestly I don’t get the vibe from Kaley that she wants to stay forever but she definitely wants to help him, and isn’t ready to say goodbye just yet.
-he truly believes Christine has come back 💔
-I wish I could see a ring return instead of the cloak trick between them.

Overall, this is a really manic and sad pulse. I loved it, Derrick was wonderful and Kaley continues to be my favorite in the role.

Would this tuxedo pass ?
I have handful of tuxedo but weirdly not black or white haha! Would this pass?

Whoa - does anyone know what on earth happened here?! So awful.

Is this dress ok for masquerade. I’m going very soon.

Update: wore it, no issues. Had the best time

Pics are from Masquerade, with a pic included of what I look like when I’m not sweating to death because I thought a ball gown was a good choice in the summer. Pics after that are from when I met Hugh at 54 Below.

Quick aside - if you do the standby line, it’s almost certain that you won’t be able to do the ADA track, but the front of house will still do anything they can for you.  For that pulse, they gave me a fanny pack with a bottle of water because I was sweating a lot.  It was a godsend.  However, if you really should be on the ADA track, probably don’t do standby line twice without it.  I paid for that mistake the following days.

As some of you know, I missed Hugh on the 31st after getting on the wrong train and the front of house manager was kind enough to get us into the 8:00 pulse.  We saw Nick and Alexa and they were phenomenal!  Absolutely amazing. I’d love to see their pulse again. Our butler even put us in a spot where we could hear Hugh and Francesca singing for a bit, for which I am incredibly grateful.

I absolutely adore Hugh Panaro.  He’s my absolute favorite singer and performer.  He could be cast as Cinderella and I’m still going to go.  He’s also quite possibly one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, which makes me feel a little bit braver about trying to sing again.  The music and theater worlds can be pretty cutthroat and I’m just not.  As I told Hugh when I was lucky enough to meet him at 54 Below, I just want to get my joy back.  He replied, “You MUST!” And I sort of babbled that when I couldn’t do it for myself, I’d do it for him.  Yes, that was a weird thing to say.  Yes, I cringe when I think about it.  He signed my copy of the Susan Kay book which he recommended to the other Masquerade phantoms, and he read and pulled from when he originally played the phantom.  He even signed “O. G.” After his name.  If there hadn’t been other people waiting (and I’d already gotten a selfie, an autograph, and a hug) I might have asked him to write “sing for me.”  And then gone home and died of a mix of embarrassment and joy.

So I missed his pulse on the 31st, and went for the standby line the next day.  

I arrived around 12:10 to stand by for the 1:30.  There were two people already there.  One was waiting for cast members so they could get autographs.  The other was dressed in what looked like a Dracula costume.  That’s not me being catty; that’s what it looked like.  It was definitely some kind of costume, if that makes sense.  He also had a red fake rose in his hand, which will come up again later.

Something that you should probably know about me before I continue is that I am usually friendly and kind, but I’m also terrible at standing up for myself, and I often dismiss my own discomfort as oversensitivity.  I know it’s a problem.  I’m trying to work on it.

The man in the costume struck up a conversation with me which was fine… I like meeting other Masquerade fans, and I met several people from here over the weekend who were a delight.  He asked my name.  When I told him, he said that his ex-wife’s name was a derivative or nickname from my name.  It’s not,  but ok.  Then he shared that he’d been separated for 9 years and is just now getting divorced even though they don’t believe in divorce.  This is where I started trying to politely extricate myself from the conversation but failed.  I did at least derail it for a bit and spoke about how I had missed Hugh the night before, that the standby line would be my 4th attempt to see him, and even talked about how I took my autographed book to my (extensive) sinus surgery and held on to it while repeating “Be brave, be brave” to myself, until I had to let go because I was probably going to bleed on it and the PA swapped my book out for the stuffed shark I had brought instead (Yes, I know I’m a grown woman. I don’t care.).  I did not mention that I’d rather have a needle up my nose again than continue the conversation, but I was thinking it. I’ll spare everyone further details of the surgery, but feel free to message me with questions or go find my TikTok. Apparently I took AND EDITED a 10-minute video. I remember none of it.

I don’t remember for sure how religion came up, but I think it was because I said that the kind of singing I was planning to try to do again after I finish healing is community theater and maybe some church singing (I love Bach).  He said he’d pray for me (ok that’s nice I guess) to get into the 1:30.

Keep in mind that he had a confirmed ticket for 1:30 and I was in standby, so a lot of this conversation was awkwardly shouted across the sidewalk.  At some point a friend I knew from online and wanted to meet showed up and joined/rescued me.

The front of house manager worked a miracle and got me into Hugh’s pulse.  I seriously could have hugged him.  He’s great.  I made some excited noises that I think only bats and dogs could hear and joined my friend in the confirmed ticket line.  The costumed guy came up to me and said “I prayed for you!” With an intensity that made me uncomfortable but I shrugged it off and thanked him.  I tried to keep talking with my friend but he kept asking us for help with his mask, and of course I helped. Because I’m an idiot.

Once inside I ended up separated from my friend because she was doing the ADA track and since I was in the standby line, I wasn’t.  I mostly use ADA for terrible night vision and vertigo.  Stairs are a problem.  Escalators are hell.  But I was managing okay for the most part.  Or I was until I realized that the man in the costume was following me very closely in every single scene.

Some of the cast remembered me from the night before (Ball gown and a tiara are pretty memorable) when I had attended with a male friend.  A couple made comments about “both” of us being back and I tried to say no, that person isn’t the friend from last night, I don’t know him.  Unfortunately the fact that he was hot on my heels at every turn reinforced that assumption.  I tried to tell my friend that I didn’t know the guy, but if I had been loud enough for her to hear me, I would have been loud enough for him to hear, too.  

I was trying so hard to focus on the show and how happy I was to finally get to see Hugh as the phantom, but the costumed man was distracting at best.  I’m honestly still angry that I spent so many scenes focused instead on trying to get away from him.  

This part is hearsay, but apparently he’d also been trying to give his rose to female members of the cast and was being weird about it, so there had been complaints about him prior to this coming to a head.  

I got stuck in the hall of mirrors transition before the carnival because it’s one of the spots where I really can’t see.  He popped up again and offered me his arm and I took it because I AM STUPID and once we were past the mirrors I thanked him and tried to take off to the other side of the room.  At that point, my friend showed up, grabbed my hand, and asked if I wanted to stay with her and her butler on ADA and asked if the guy was following me.  Yes, and yes.  When the butler (Ray) asked me if there was a problem I said that the guy hadn’t done anything that I could truly describe as inappropriate or out of line, but that he was ruining the experience for me.  Ray immediately spoke to someone else and I stayed safe in the ADA zone with my friend.

Matthew Curiano popped out from behind us and exclaimed, “Your Majesty!  Where is (friend from the previous night)?”  Because he knew the guy in the costume wasn’t that friend.  For those of you who don’t know, Matthew has a mind like a steel trap.  He remembers.   And he’s hilarious and one of my favorite parts of the show.

Another quick aside - the circus performer is fantastic but her act makes me queasy, especially with my recent surgery. During this pulse and the one the night before, I looked away. But guess who ended up not just in the front row, but *pulling a nail out of the performer’s face* in Kyle and Eryn’s pulse? Yes. Me. I don’t know how I didn’t pass out.

The next scene was Learn to be Lonely and guess who showed up right in front of my friend and I, facing us?  Costume guy.  I don’t know what the butlers did but that was the last time he ended up next to me.  

I should note here that I’m in my forties, overweight, and objectively ugly.  This is not a problem I’m accustomed to having.  I am still confused.

FINALLY, thanks to my friend and her butler, I was able to start enjoying the pulse and focusing on the singers.  Hugh had me in tears at the end of All I Ask of You.  His voice is so pure, beautiful, and haunting, and his acting was heartbreaking.

My friend and I were upstairs during Wishing (indoors) and when Wandering Child started, Hugh STEPPED BETWEEN MY FRIEND AND I, so I was already losing my fragile little fangirl mind, but then he PUT HIS ARM AROUND HER AND PUT HIS HAND ON MY SHOULDER and I about died.  I very lightly put my hand up to his but I didn’t want to be weird so instead of putting my hand on top of his I just sort of barely touched his thumb which GREAT JOB MEOWZZO THAT’S EVEN WEIRDER YOU DORK but his hand was on my shoulder and he was singing and I was on an entirely different planet, I think.  Frankly, I might still be on another planet.  

Things were a bit of a blur after that, but during one of the next transitions, when my friend and I were waiting for the elevator, Hugh quickly walked past us and stage whispered “He’s not real!” And I fangirled out again a little bit.  

The dressing room sequence was hilarious as always, and I discovered that the second seat from the clothes rack on the side farthest from the door is my favorite, because there’s either a vent or a fan blowing directly onto that spot and it felt amazing.  Carlotta, Piangi, and the managers were hilarious as always.  Even the phantom is funny in that scene for a minute.  And I got a letter for the first time!

Past the Point of No Return was intense, and in the final lair I ended up in tears again.  The main trio killed it, and of course Hugh’s performance broke my heart all over again.  I don’t want to go into more detail than that in case of spoiling that part of the show.  

When we entered the bar, costume guy walked past us and glared, but we kept walking to a table and didn’t see him again.  

My friend and I went to lunch at the Paris Bar which was very nice, and then we went back for the standby line again and got to see the 7:00pm,  Kyle and Eryn, who were also phenomenal.  I did too many stairs and the next day the world was very spinny and I was in pain, but it was worth it.  I would do it again.

I do hope that Hugh comes back again and I’m able to experience the entire show without being followed around by a weirdo.  But even if he doesn’t, I’m sure he’ll be in other things that I can go see, and I’ll continue going to Masquerade.  Thank you again to the butlers, the friend who rescued me, the Front of House manager, the cast, and of course, to my favorite phantom for such an incredible experience.