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The Phantom of the Opera can capture you! If it does, you will be
transported by the beauty of this piece. If, on the other hand, you
maintain a distance and objectivity when you sit in the Majestic Theatre,
you will notice the weakness of both the book and the lyrics. However, you
will still be impressed by the quality of the performances and the sheer
scope of the production. This is a very big show. It is also a very
successful show. So successful, that the statistics are as outlandish as the
concept of this virtually sung through piece played out with the largest
orchestra now playing on Broadway. It offers at least the appearance of a
gigantic cast - thanks, in part, to the use of mannequins for the big
production number (how did the actors' union allow that?). This is not just
the longest running musical currently on Broadway, it is the longest running
show in Broadway history (8,177 performances as of this morning: September
6, 2007). That's just on Broadway, however. World wide there have been over
65,000 performances and the total ticket sales figure of over $3 billion is
over twice that of the all time top grossing movie, Titanic. They
must be doing something right. |
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Storyline: A masked man of tremendous musical
talents, but horribly deformed features, lives in the catacombs under the
Paris Opera House which he treats as his own theater, demanding a salary,
the use of a private box and adherence to his casting and scheduling orders.
When the diva has finally had enough of his impositions and quits, a lovely
young chorus member is elevated to stardom. The Phantom falls in love with
her and attempts to foster her career, but he's driven by jealousy when she
falls in love a handsome gentleman. Fulfilling his promise to bring about "a
disaster beyond your wildest imagination," the Phantom brings disaster upon
himself as well.
The music is the creation of Andrew Lloyd Webber who also
wrote the score for the second-longest-running show in Broadway history,
Cats. The richness of his melodic inventiveness and his use of
repetitive themes are on full display here. There aren't as many melodies as
there are in many other big musicals, but the ones that are here are
superbly crafted and marvelously used. The lyrics are by Charles Hart who
demonstrates a felicity for recitative and comes up with some expressive
word pictures. He also exhibited sheer audacity in inserting the phrase "no
more memories" in a second act song ... after all, the show opened when
Lloyd Webber's song "Memories" was one of the biggest hits to come out of a
musical in a decade. But Hart seems to have stopped polishing his work
prematurely. There are awkward reaches for rhymes and imprecision of grammar
that should grate on the nerves of every lover of the lyric art. Take the
word "Opera," which is so important in the show, from the title to the
setting. In some phrases it is a two
syllable word. At others it has three. Inexcusable!
With a show that has been performed eight times
a week for nearly twenty years, it is remarkable that even a fairly typical
Wednesday afternoon matinee manages to feel like a special occasion. Part of
the credit for that goes to the cast currently performing the show, but much
also goes to the dedication of the Cameron Mackintosh organization and Lloyd
Webber's Really Useful Theatre Company who have clearly spared no expense to
keep the long running show from getting stale, either in performance or in
the physical production. The sets still look as sharply detailed and well
maintained and the costumes as rich as they must
have been in early 1988 when the show was the newest big hit on Broadway.
However, the new production of the show in Las Vegas has solved the problem
that the "special effect" of the crashing chandelier is not very special.
Perhaps it is time to revisit the effect here on the East coast.
Cast members come and go, as must be
the case when a show runs not months or years but decades. Some, of course,
will be better than others. But the standard established for this production
has been so strong that even those who may not be the best who ever
performed a given part are very good indeed. Howard McGillin is the
Phantom. He has sung the role more times than any other Phantom on Broadway
and, yet, manages to still deliver a performance that is intense and
absorbing. There are notable performances by Patricia Phillips as the
disaffected diva and Marilyn Caskey as the mistress of the corps de ballet
with a store of knowledge of the history of the Phantom of this particular
opera. The role of the young Christine who is elevated from chorus to diva
and ensnared in the Phantom's web is sung six shows a week by Jennifer Hope
Wills. Julie Hanson handles the role on Monday evenings and Wednesday
matinees. At the matinee reviewed, Hanson sounded as if the role was one key
above her optimum range and the chemistry between her and Jason Mills, who
played her love interest as a bit of a stuck up twit rather than a virile
champion, seemed strained. Such limitations, however, could not block the
magic of the show.
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics
by Charles Hart. Additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Book by Richard
Stilgoe and Andrew Lloyd Webber based on the novel by Gaston LeRoux. Directed
by Harold Prince. Musical staging and choreography by Gillian Lynne. Music
direction by David Lai. Orchestrations by David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd
Webber. Design: Maria Bjornson (production design) Andrew Bridge (lights)
Martin Levan (sound). Principal cast: George Lee Andrews, Marilyn Caskey,
Heather McFadden, Kenneth Kantor, Howard McGillin, Jason Mills, Patricia Phillips, Jennifer
Hope Wills or Julie Hanson.
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