by: MIRIAM DI NUNZIO
For 3 1/2 years and 1,300 performances on Broadway and in Los Angeles, Michael Crawford donned the famous black cape and white, half-face mask and breathed life into the title character of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "The Phantom of the Opera." The show became a phenomenon, and made Crawford -- already a star in his native England -- a bona fide star of the American stage.
He left the show in 1991, and toured briefly with Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night," an ensemble concert revue. He then seemed to mysteriously disappear from the musical theater stage as only a phantom could. Opting for change of scenery, Crawford signed a $ 150,000-a-week contract in 1995 as the headliner in the MGM Grand production of "EFX" in Las Vegas. Crawford suffered a serious hip injury in a show in which he performed stunts such as being sealed inside a tank of water and shot out of a cannon. He was unceremoniously let go 18 months later, when the physical pain proved unbearable. His breach-of-contract suit against the hotel is pending.
Crawford also returned to the recording studio. Fresh from successful hip replacement surgery, he released his seventh album on the Atlantic label earlier this year, a hugely successful contemporary Christian offering titled "On Eagle's Wings."
The 56-year-old actor also returned to the stage, this time in a full-out concert of the music that shaped his life as well as his career.
"I haven't worked in front of a live audience in a while, not since the show in Las Vegas," Crawford says in soft-spoken tones. "And I thought it would be nice to try something else and try traveling for a bit instead of staying in one place night after night."
That something else is a 35-city world concert tour honed from his recent PBS special, "Michael Crawford in Concert," for which he received an Emmy nomination.
"We sort of pulled all the best things from the PBS special as well as just a few numbers from the new album. We made a conscious choice not to make it an evening of music just from 'Eagle's Wings.' I really don't have a list of greatest hits, but I do have songs that people will remember, so you basically do a 15-minute segment of 'Phantom' and you build the rest around that core. We've also added a few more songs for the road show, since you aren't so strictly pressed for time as you are on an album or television."
Touring with a 40-piece orchestra, soprano Dale Kristien (who starred as Christine in "Phantom" on Broadway and in Los Angeles opposite Crawford), new age recording artist David Arkenstone and a full gospel choir (the Soul Children of Chicago are on the bill for the Midwest gigs), the concert production is bigger than most musical tours out there this summer. As in the PBS special, Crawford incorporates charming life anecdotes amid the music of Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Jerry Herman.
"A concert really has to have the right pattern," Crawford says. "It has to have peaks and valleys, big songs and small. As I would on an album, I take the audience on a journey along the road of my music."
Crawford's musical journey began in his hometown of Salisbury, England. Inspired by his Irish grandmother's love of music and his mother's insistence that the young Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith (his real name) sing in the church choir, it seems fated that Crawford would release a devoutly inspirational album nearly 50 years later.
"I was singing in churches and cathedrals around London, and none of the music really means anything to you at that young age. You don't even understand the Latin (lyrics). But when you've got a few more years under your belt, you start to realize the meaning in the songs.
"I do believe in God, but I never once said 'gospel' or 'Christian music' when it came to 'On Eagle's Wings.' I wanted to make an inspirational album, but I wanted the 11 songs we chose to touch people subtly, to ultimately touch them as any love songs would."
Early in his career, Crawford made his mark in London's West End, earning critical acclaim for "Barnum," "Same Time Next Year" and "Flowers for Algernon." The actor then turned to the cinema, landing roles in "Hello Dolly," alongside Barbra Streisand; "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," opposite Zero Mostel, and the one he'd like to forget, "Condorman."
"Please, it's a wonder you're calling me," Crawford says amid uncontrolled laughter. "Oh, I guess I called you. It's a wonder you accepted the call."
The film found the "serious actor" donning yellow leotards and 12-foot wings as the movie-title superhero.
"Maybe I'll just leave the yellow pants up there in the rafters when I'm at the United Center."
If that's the role he'd like to forget, "Phantom" remains the one his audiences will not, and the role he says he'll always treasure.
"I so loved doing 'Phantom,' " he says, his voice dropping to a near whisper. "It's still very special every time I sing 'Music of the Night' because it's always like the first time. I shall never grow tired of doing it. As I do with all my songs, you have to involve yourself in the passion of the song you are singing. When I sing this one, I really do become the character. You work very hard at trying to be remembered in this business with any role you create. So for it to happen is more than flattering. It's wonderful."