"I shall get my hat. Cheerio!"

If you've hung around the Jane Austen blogging world for long enough, you've probably come across the Pride and Prejudice Duo Speech-- a rather irreverent piece of hilarity (rather pointedly spoofing P&P95) that never fails to make me laugh.  The speech was part of a competition in which students prepare a short interpretation of some pre-existing story (Cheaper by the Dozen is another hilarious one) with minimal costumes, props and physical contact.  The result is usually pretty amazing.

This incredibly clever trio did a condensed version of Phantom of the Opera, complete with way more of the music than I thought could possibly be crammed into ten minutes and fifty-one seconds.

"No more notes, no more ghosts!  The Phantom's gone, hurrah!"

 

I have to say, this is the cleverest group speech I've seen yet--  what with the use of the hand-mask, the stools that serve as chandelier/candlesticks/boat/falling scenery, the hilarious portrayal of Meg, the censoring (oh my WORD, the censoring!) and the amount of vocal talent on display, et cetera and so forth.  One has to wonder if Red Robin sponsored the forensics competition (heh, heh) and the ending is a bit different from the original musical (not quite as tragically romantic somehow...) but all in all, it's well worth the almost-eleven minutes.  Just watch it.

"All right, shut up.  I wanna sing now."