Past review and interview

Review of Annie in Aberystwyth, 2003

Annie's saviour Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks is played by Peter Karrie. Billed in the program as "the definitive Phantom,” Karrie twice won the distinction “World’s Most Popular Phantom" which the Phantom of the Opera Appreciation Society (POTOAS) awards annually based on a poll of its members. POTOAS’s judgement seems pretty accurate. Karrie’s Warbucks strongly recalls the Phantom in his pretence at high self-regard and control over cowed fellow mortals thinly concealing a tight Gothic knot of demoralising loneliness and psychic pain.

Karrie's tenor voice is beautiful, and his ability to act, well, while singing, is a joy to hear. On 10 October of this year, he will return to the Arts Centre to give a concert performance, but now, in Annie, he shifts smoothly from brazen belting to a softer, confessional tone. He conveys indecision and self-doubt with a voice that wavers, but only at calculated moments. His singing speaks the volumes the lyrics don’t.

Review by Rebecca Nesvet


Unmasking the Phantom, 1997
Interview with Peter

Peter Karrie was born to sing. "You don't choose singing, it chooses you," says the star of The Phantom of the Opera, which is currently wowing audiences at the Ford Centre for The Performing Arts.

The show is a must-see production featuring a terrific cast, an enduring story, a marvelous stage and spectacular period costumes. Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical has visited Vancouver before. But previous attempts pale measurably in comparison. The difference is Karrie. He is brilliant.

His powerful voice and charismatic stage presence combine for an all-consuming theatre experience. Karrie breathes life into the phantom. The captivated audience experiences myriad emotions: tension-filled passion, chilling fright, empathy, pity, longing. Karrie is easily the most twisted, frightening, pathetic, and powerfully sensuous phantom to haunt this city. The performance, like a good book, remains with you.

How does he do it?

"We are one and the same. Peter Karrie is the phantom and the phantom is Peter Karrie," he says while relaxing in his dressing room. "His laugh is my laugh. His anger is my anger. The phantom's love is my love. The passion is my passion. The phantom is a multi-faceted kind of character, but then I guess so am I in different ways. You just draw on what you've got and transport it into the scenario. Work from the inside out."

Read the whole interview.

Three Phantoms In Concert

Peter stars with Mike Sterling and Scott Davies in The Three Phantoms In Concert at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on July 2nd.

"To celebrate 20 years of the sensational musical Phantom of the Opera, 3 Welsh artists who have starred as The Phantom in the West End join forces to perform an evening of Showstoppers. Unmasked Phantoms Peter Karrie, Mike Sterling and Scott Davies and supporting cast are accompanied by John Quirk and his Orchestra, and the evening is hosted by Frank Lincoln (BBC). So why not join The Three Phantoms on their journey to the West End, Broadway and beyond for The Music of the Night. Sunday July 2nd, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff."

Tickets from £5 to £25; Box Office 08700 40 2000; Web www.wmc.org.uk



Tags: peter karrie, musicals, musical theatre, cardiff

A fan site

Met Peter at the stage door? Laura wants fan experiences for her new Peter Karrie fan website - check it out, and drop her a line!

New solo album

Peter has just finished starring in The Man of La Mancha at the Cork Opera House, and now has a new album out, and some new concert dates in the UK.



Peter Karrie: The Impossible Dream

Track listing:

The Impossible Dream
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
Luck Be A Lady
Bring Him Home
You Never Threw A Party For Me (from Amazing Grace)
This Is the Moment
The Vaults of Heaven
Close Every Door / Any Dream Will Do
If I Ruled the World
Past the Point of No Return
Music of the Night

Plus Bonus Tracks from Rasputin
Mamoushka
Rasputin's Soliloquy

Dress Circle www.dresscircle.co.uk - £14.99
Or order by e-mail on fogandgas@yahoo.co.uk, or by telephoning the Fog and Gas company on 07971 457 805, for a discounted price of £12.99

Amazing Grace

Reviews of Amazing Grace, the Mal Pope musical.

"In the hands of seasoned performers like Peter Karrie, voted the greatest Phantom ever, it becomes electric. His performance as fire and brimstone preacher Rev Peter Price has in it a fine touch of humour and his song You Never Threw a Party For Me is a breathtaking show stopper. This is the quality and excitement we need to bring to the stage in Wales." - Michael Kelligan

"However, the biggest performance - in every sense of the word - comes from musical theatre stalwart Peter Karrie, whose portrayal of the fire-and-brimstone preacher Peter Price is sensational. Given the chance to perform a showstopper with real emotional depth, he seizes it with both hands and emerges triumphant." - Graham Williams, South Wales Evening Post

"Pope took time out to introduce the audience to his guests, Ria Jones, Steve Balsamo and Peter Karrie. The fact Pope was able to entice West End Stars of the calibre of Jones, Balsamo and Karrie to perform his songs says an awful lot for the esteem they have for him and his music." - Hannah Jones, The Western Mail


Peter Karrie home page

Oliver in Aberystwyth

08/02/2005 "Oliver review"

Peter Karrie "steals the show"...

Oliver! occupies a curious place in the heart of British popular culture. At its core it is a typically Dickensian affair; illuminating the hardships and degradation suffered by the residents of London's seedy Victorian underbelly, it tells the story of how one boy, passed, sold and stolen through various nefarious hands, finally finds a home and the family to whom he belongs. Stripped of its musical trappings one wonders how Oliver! ever came to be one of the most beloved musicals of all time, and yet it is one of the few musicals that lives up to the (often) hyperbolic label of 'heart-warming', and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Summer Season production does it justice.

The story is a familiar one. The young Oliver, after escaping the workhouse is befriended by the Artful Dodger and, subsequently, many of the populates of London's criminal underbelly.

Visually the show is stunning; the set shifts and shapes, evoking the moody mid-Victorian London for which the show is best known, opening up like a veritable dolls' house, inviting us into the world of these characters. Smoke billowed out of all the appropriate corners, giving the impression of a cramped, claustrophobic circa-Industrial Revolution Britain, rather than the idealised London many of us imagine from the paintings of Turner. The choreography was quick-paced and jubilant, reaching fever pitch with songs like, 'Who Will Buy?'.

It is of course the young Oliver, and the children of Fagin's gang, who are at the heart of Oliver. Made up entirely of participants in the Arts Centre's Youth Theatre and Dance School, these kids, are definitely, more than alright. Young Emyr Evans was an absolute darling in the title role, tugging at all the right heartstrings when lamenting, Where is Love?, and Tom Rhys as the Artful Dodger lit up the stage with mischief.

Helen French as Nancy, the hooker with a heart of gold is a delight to watch. In a show that is teeming with song and spectacle, the moment she takes to the stage for As Long As He Needs Me was one of the outstanding points in the production. Helen French's voice is powerful and emotive, indicative of her rather impressive training.

Sion Lloyd, a native of Cardiff, depicted Bill Sykes as a looming, menacing force who renders all around him uneasy. It feels almost as if Phil Mitchell was transported back in time and given a top-hat, and Lloyd's portrayal serves as a chilling reminder that the streets of London weren't just home to colourful cockneys, but was also traversed by the likes of Jack the Ripper.

It is, however, the much touted West-End Star Peter Karrie who steals the show as the seedy Fagin, leading young boys into a life of crime like an askew Pied Piper. Charismatic and likeable, one suspects that the Yiddish accent he is hampered with does little but impede his singing voice, which is otherwise first-class.

This production of Oliver is glorious: the inhabitants of the workhouse might be devoid of humanity and joy, but this show certainly isn't.

Oliver runs until the 27th of August.

Melissa Dunn
http://www.theatre-wales.co.uk/

Phantom reviews

Peter Karrie as The Phantom of the Opera.

"Peter Karrie is fantastic! A truly thrilling performance" - CBC Radio

"Karrie owns the show. His performance is definitive" - Vancouver Sun

"Karrie's performance alone is worth the price of admission" - Talkin' Broadway

"Karrie's incredible multi-layered portrayal is the lifeblood of this production... it is Karrie's soul-wrenching take that gives the music its raison d' etre" - Times Columnist

"The role of the Phantom is now being played by Peter Karrie. His performance? In a word, brilliant! Andrew Lloyd Webber apparently allows his Phantoms some latitude. Peter Karrie as his 'own fix' on the Phantom. I couldn't help but make a comparison to Wilkinson - one I should add you won't have to make if you've never seen the Phantom before.

"Wilkinson played the Phantom as a 'kinder, gentler, more romantic creature'. His voice was beautiful and somehow I felt that Christine Daae would be safe with him. Mr Karrie, on the other hand, is a more lustful, passionate character with a booming voice. When he runs his hands up and down his thighs when observing Christine you know he 'wants her'. What he also accomplishes is to make you pity and feel his pain when the need arises.

"Peter Karrie is a definite 10 in both acting ability and brilliant voice. It's amazing that a former football player from Wales and the leader or a rock 'n' roll band from the '60s has become a magnificent Phantom." - CISS FM

"Central to the play's success is Peter Karrie's portrayal of the Phantom. Proving without a doubt that looks aren't everything', this Phantom has unmistakable charisma. Despite (or because of) the mask, he is a strikingly attractive, gallant figure. As his honeyed voice mesmerises her, we understand Christine's attraction. This Phantom is a man of brilliant talent and passion, tortured by his face." - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

"Peter Karrie's presence and panache on stage give the character of the Phantom depth and charm. Karrie's falsetto also gives the Phantom's tracks an eerie touch, but at the same time shows the emotional turmoil inside this ingenious monster's mind. Karrie's charm persuades the audience to see him as more than a ruthless murderer but a twisted, tormented soul." - HONG KONG STANDARD