.jpg)
Artwork for the U.S. Tour of "The Phantom of the Opera."
Some of you may recall the strange affair of The Phantom of the Opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical debuted in
The male lead only had half a face. The score was heavily operatic, hardly mainstream. And yet, everyone came to know about the show. Its massive and eclectic band of fans range from aficionados of musical theatre to people who count it as the only musical they have ever liked. The original cast album became the best-selling cast album of all time.
The U.S. Tour of The Phantom of the Opera is currently gracing the stage at Gammage Auditorium, but after November 22, the company will pack up their 27 truckloads of scenery, costumes, candles, one-ton chandelier, dry ice and smoke machines and move on. So if you wanted to buy tickets but haven't gotten around to it yet, do it soon. There are still good seats available.
This national tour has been visiting cities all across the U.S. for almost 17 years. Should there be any concern that, after all that time, things might become a bit stale at the Paris Opera House?
Not with this magnificent cast.
Tim Martin Gleason, who plays the title role here, should know something about the challenges of keeping things fresh. Gleason started in the ensemble of the Broadway cast of Phantom in 2001, and went on to play Raoul for over three years. He then originated the role of Raoul for Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular. Then, he returned to New York to join the show for another year and a half - as Raoul.
For those counting, that means that Gleason has played the role of Raoul over 2,600 times.
Perhaps during that time, he took a moment or two along the way to ponder the various unique facets he might bring to the role of the Phantom, were he to play it.
Gleason's Phantom loves being the Phantom. He revels in the terror he incites, and relishes his role as master puppeteer. The first time offstage voices intone "He's here . . . the Phantom of the Opera," he gleefully conducts them. When Christine hits that impossibly high note at the end of the title song, he lip-syncs along, his deformed mouth stretching wide open with the wordless shriek, like a grotesque marionette.
This physicality drives home that this Phantom loves to feel important, and is blatantly narcissistic. In his view, everything that happens in the opera house is centered around him - and that's how he likes it. In his reality, even Raoul (here played with swashbuckling determination by Sean MacLaughlin) falls in love with Christine only because of the Phantom's influence as her voice teacher. Upon discovering the two are in love, he plaintively and presumptuously whines, "He was bound to love you when he heard you sing."
His obsession with Christine is fueled in part by sexual desire, but even more so by his obsession with his own image. She is his front, the beauty who performs his works of genius to the world, and his need for her as a woman seems overshadowed by his need to have a continued vehicle to perform his music. He is convinced that he cannot produce without her cooperation, that "she alone can make his song take flight."
Trista Moldovan's Christine may be haunted by the Phantom, tortured and stalked by him - but at the same time, he does tend to make a girl feel pretty special.
An ingenue who has been recently orphaned, Christine responds to the Phantom's obsession with her with the desperate lust of one looking for something to fill up a hole in one's spirit. Moldovan - a television and stage actress with large, doelike brown eyes befitting an ingenue - seems completely enthralled by the Phantom's affections. There is some fear, but most of the time she betrays an eagerness for his visitations. "He's with me even now," she says, and a smile plays at the corners of her lips.
She is half woman, but also half abandoned child, so why shouldn't she be just a little excited that, where once all attention surrounded resident diva Carlotta Giudicelli (the golden-voiced and hilarious Kim Stengel), now everything is about her? And how many women have found the qualities of a needy, obsessive "bad boy" as irresistible as they are repellent?
Taking Gleason's post as Raoul, MacLaughlin provides the contrast needed between the wildly dramatic, dangerous Phantom and the "suitable suitor." His Raoul is a good person and an appealing character, determined to defend his lady and fight the good fight honorably. But when he and Christine declare their desires in "All I Ask of You," it is clear that he is offering warmth, shelter and safety, not the head-turning obsession that the Phantom exhibits for her, every waking moment.
Obviously, we expect that the voices are going to be perfect, and they are. The music is glorious, and the special effects elicit the appropriate cheers and excitement from the audience. But most exciting is to see the electric charge to Gleason's Phantom and Moldovan's Christine, the indication that there continues to be stretching and exploration of the inherent complexities of two well-known characters. We are familiar with the concept of the Phantom as a tortured soul and Christine as a terrified young girl, and that still comes across here - but like all real people, they also have emotions and motivations that can be mixed, self-serving and contradictory.
At first glance, Phantom is a show about special effects, dazzling music, and a gothic love story, but in the hands of intelligent professionals, the story offers continual fodder for thought and discussion. Perhaps this is why, after over two decades in existence, The Phantom of the Opera is still alive and well, and indeed, still changing and growing.
After all, if you're the Phantom, with that insatiable thirst for fame and power, can you really bow out when they're calling your name?
For tickets, visit Ticketmaster or call (800) 982-ARTS (2787).
Comments