by: Cathie Lou Porrelli
For an audience often jaded by film special effect, “Phantom” mesmerizes with breathtaking visuals, soaring melodies and memorable performances.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has taken the awestruck horror of Lon Chaney’s silent film Phantom, softened it with the romance of “Beauty and the Beast,” and heightened it with operatic grandeur to produce an intoxicating and seductive theater experience.
At the center of this extravaganza is Michael Crawford in a triumphant recreation of his Tony Award-winning role as the haunting and haunted Phantom.
The Phantom’s reign of terror over the Paris Opera House has one purpose: to make his musical protégé, Christine Daae, prima donna of the company. As her self-appointed but unseen “Angel of Music,” he has groomed her for an opera career. He will do anything – cause mysterious accidents, disrupt performance, even commit murder – to make her a star.
Worse, his desire has deepened into an obsessive love, threatened by hideous face he hides behind a mask.
Crawford’s Phantom is not all murderous madman. He is a “gargoyle who burns in hell but yearns for heaven,” a “beast who secretly yearns for beauty,” he tells Christine as he spirits her to his subterranean lair after her first stage success.
As they descend deeper into the netherworld below the opera house, Christine becomes hypnotized by the mysterious masked man. He serenades her with “The Phantom of the Opera” as they float over a fog-shrouded, underground lake. Her thrall is complete as he seduces her with “The Music of the Night.”
Complicating their romance is the wealthy Raoul, a man out of Christine’s past who causes the Phantom to go on a jealous murder rampage.
As the Phantom, Crawford seduces the audience with dynamic, powerful vocals that range from soft tenderness to uncontrolled rage. The maniac is but a lonely man searching for love, and Crawford skillfully presents the duality with melancholy poignance.
As Christine, Dale Kristien simply outdoes Sarah Brightman, who originated the role on Broadway. Lloyd Webber wrote “Phantom” for Brightman, who is his wife, but the composer might have written it for Kristien. From “Think of me” onward, Kristien’s is an assured voice that thrills with each aria. Her duets with Crawford are breathtaking.
Where her songs with Crawford are darkly obsessive and sensual, those with Raoul, portrayed by Reece Holland, contrast sharply. Theirs is a pure love, untainted by the Phantom’s madness. Holland’s fine vocal ability shines throughout his performance, particularly in “All I Ask of You,” the young couple’s testimony of love.
Minor roles provide light comedic moments throughout “Phantom.” There’s the prima donna Carlotta, portrayed with conceited affectation by Leigh Munre, whose egomania is matched by that of the blustery Italian tenor, Ubaldo Piangi (Gualtiero Negrini.).
The opera owners, Monsieurs Andre and Firmin (Norman Large and Calvin Remsberg, respectively), cower in comic deference to the Phantom’s insane demands.
Though most of “Phantom’s” music is memorable, visual images linger long after the curtain falls, thanks to the direction of Harold Prince, production design by Maria Bjornson and lighting by Andrew Bridge.
As the Phantom steers the gondola ferrying Christine to his lair, candles rise through the fog while “The Phantom of the Opera” builds to a crescendo and giant candelabra loom out of the mist.
The lavish production number opening Act II, “Masquerade,” is a colorful New Year’s Eve revelry. Taking place on the opera house’s huge marble staircase, this opulent number is saturated with color and light in stark contrast to the dark recesses of the Phantom’s lair.
“Phantom of the Opera” is virtually sold out through July 4, when some balcony seats become available. Orchestra seats are sold out through late November.