Long ago, children, when I was an editor of Theatre Crafts Magazine, I interviewed the technical crew who were installing the massive scenery for The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre. I recall one of them telling me, “We’re building this to handle eight performances a week for the next 20 years.”
“Really,” I chuckled. “That sounds awfully optimistic.”
So here we are, some 30 years later, and the show still is thrilling audiences at the Majestic. There are Broadway shows and Broadway shows—and then there is the incomparable Phantom of the Opera: Awesome in scale. Luscious with melody. And it’s kinda crazy, too.
[Read Jesse Oxfeld’s ★★★★ review here.]
Like a fevered pulse, a deep, dark current of madness throbs through the score, story, and visual wonders of this grandest of all current Broadway musicals. It is, after all, the 19th century tale of a mysterious musical madman who terrorizes the Paris Opera House as he promotes the career of Christine, an ingenuous songbird whom he adores. Tempestuous divas, skeptical producers, and even Raoul, the dashing Vicomte de Chagny who woos Christine, cannot thwart the Phantom’s inexorable will as he lords over and lurks around these opulent premises.
The gas-lit footlights flare, looming shadows arise, and, high above everyone, the glittering chandelier ominously flickers and sways.
Igniting and illuminating such melodramatic doings and furiously sweeping them along is the high-octane music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber in his most inspired mode. Luxuriously orchestrated, these unabashedly plush songs and atmospheric underscoring align in a fine, quivering key with the ultra-heightened story and the spectacle that enfolds it. Perhaps the opera parodies that follow the amusingly florid Hannibal sequence are not as witty as they might be but, after all of these years, the intoxicating power of songs such as “The Music of the Night” and the thunderous title number remains irresistible.
The tons of scenery and costumes designed by Maria Bjornson are as magnificent as anybody would ever wish them to be: Those dozens of candelabra eerily rising out of the mists of the Phantom’s underground lair. That imposing staircase and gorgeous get-ups for the swirling “Masquerade” sequence. Or the twisted grandeur of those entwined figures and faces that comprise the golden proscenium framing the action, every acre of it lit with spooky artistry by Andrew Bridge.
Fusing all of these myriad elements together brilliantly is Harold Prince’s dramatic staging, which is gracefully supplemented by Gillian Lynne’s choreography. Sure, sophisticates may get the giggles over the show’s excesses, but no one can ever say that they’re not getting their money’s worth from this Broadway ticket.
Dismayed by the relentless mediocrity of these new musicals lately manufactured from movies and animated features? Maybe it’s time to be mesmerized once more by The Phantom of the Opera.
A recent visit reveals that the production remains in tip-top performance shape, populated by actors whose faces recall Victorian-era daguerreotypes and whose voices do justice to Lloyd Webber’s romantic tunes. A tall and resonant Ben Crawford effortlessly cuts a commanding figure as the Phantom. Ali Ewoldt appears touchingly frail as the ever-endangered Christine even as her sweet voice and spirits prove resilient through every twist of the corkscrew plot. Looking like a cross between John Wilkes Booth and Edgar Allan Poe as Raoul, Jay Armstrong Johnson ably navigates his role’s heroic vocal and emotional demands. All imperious gestures and stares, Raquel Suarez Groen sharply portrays the unlucky prima donna whom the Phantom detests. Subsidiary roles are depicted with a strong sense of urgency by the ensemble even as the scenery smoothly unfolds its wonders and the music floods the theater.
Incidentally, locals might snicker about the show being a tourist attraction these days, but the audience who saw a Thursday matinee with me were beautifully behaved. Never once did a phone ring or a camera flash during the performance. The ushers and security staff who I encountered were pleasant in their duties. I wish that every Broadway theater I attended were as well-managed as the Majestic, which remains an elegant residence for The Phantom of the Opera.
The Phantom of the Opera opened January 26, 1988, at the Majestic Theatre. Reviewed: September, 2018. Tickets and information: thephantomoftheopera.com
