Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – At 30 years, Hal Prince’s original production of PHANTOM remains a marvel of stagecraft and supreme escapist entertainment

• By drediman
• August 24, 2018
• No Comments

Ali Ewoldt and Ben Crawford in “The Phantom of the Opera” at the Majestic Theatre.

This week, I had a chance to revisit Broadway’s longest-running show, the Tony-winning musical The Phantom of the Opera, which continues to haunt the Majestic Theatre 30 years since opening to much fanfare way back in 1988.  The musical is based on Gaston Leroux’s turn-of-the-century novel of the same name, which tells the story of a deformed genius who haunts the Paris Opera House and his obsession with a young woman in the corps de ballet. He seduces her by giving her voice and music lessons – establishing her as a rising star of the operatic stage – only to lose her affections to one of the opera company’s chief benefactors (who also happens to be her childhood friend). The musical features lushly romantic, instantly recognizable music by Andrew Lloyd Webber (one of his finest efforts) and flowery lyrics by Charles Hart, as well as a serviceable book by Richard Stilgoe and Mr. Lloyd Webber. Despite these men’s accomplished contributions, the main reason to revisit The Phantom of the Opera is to witness Hal Prince’s ravishing original vision for the musical once again. His award-winning direction is a true marvel of stagecraft and the key element that maintains the musical’s status as one of the supreme escapist entertainments in Broadway history.

Outside of the ongoing West End and Broadway productions, there are few places in the world (if any) where you can catch Mr. Prince’s celebrated, historic original staging (which also features balletic choreography by the talented, recently-departed Gillian Lynne). I’m happy to report that the production remains in excellent shape. Mr. Prince allegedly spruces up his productions of The Phantom of the Opera on a regular basis, and it shows. His work honors, thrillingly and often times wittily, theatrical conventions of the past (e.g., campy opera scenes, ingenious depictions of Victorian theater trappings), while attaining an intoxicating and invigorating cinematic sweep that’s to this day unrivaled by mostly anything else on Broadway. This is even more impressive given that the production predates the hefty use projections to create such effects. And of course, the late Maria Björnson’s iconic original designs remain a sight to behold – conjuring up spectacle in boldly evocative and efficiently theatrical ways (I particularly think the use of drapes is stunning). Indeed, the hulking machine at the Majestic continues to work and look magnificently.

As for the 30^th anniversary cast, I thought were one of the strongest I’ve encountered in recent years. Ben Crawford now dons the mask, and he’s superb. The title role requires its player to portray a wide range of unbridled emotions – obsessive love, despairing loneliness, soaring passions, and underneath it all, childlike sensitivity. Without any of these extremities, the show falls somewhat flat. Luckily, Mr. Crawford not only possesses a powerful set of pipes, he’s also as fully committed to the role’s intensity as some of the most memorable Phantoms I’ve seen (like the sensational Hugh Panaro). As his young muse, the sweet-voiced Ali Ewoldt affectingly plays Christine in the Emmy Rossum mode – almost too young, with a budding sense of maturity (Ms. Ewoldt is also notably the first Asian American actress to play this demanding role). Relatively new additions to the cast are Jay Armstrong Johnson as Christine’s other love interest, Raoul, and Raquel Suarez Groen as the standing leading lady of the Paris Opera, Carlotta. The typically warm Mr. Johnson makes some rather fascinating, albeit not altogether successful acting choices; his viscount is oddly wooden and devoid of charisma, thereby deliberately re-focusing the romance between Christine and the Phantom. As for Ms. Groen, she possesses a robust soprano and uses it to deliciously in the musical’s diva-in-meltdown-mode part. The opera house’s managers continue to be played with panache by Laird Mackintosh and Craig Bennett, who have commendably kept their performances fresh. Last but not least, the nearly 30 musicians in the pit continue to comprise one of the largest (if not the largest) orchestras of any show currently on Broadway, and they continue to do Mr. Lloyd Webber’s richly-orchestrated score proud. The theater was quite full the night I attended, even now during the slower summer months, boding well for the production. I’m beginning to doubt that we’ll be seeing another show play the Majestic in our lifetimes.

RECOMMENDED

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Broadway, Musical
Majestic Theatre
2 hours, 20 minutes (with one intermission)
Now and forever!