![]() ![]() The tour’s assistant director, Rainer Fried, a veteran Phantom tour director of 30 years’ experience, unabashedly calls it magic. Those who have seen the show - this writer watched it for the second time in Manila before meeting the cast and crew - or even the film would agree that The Phantom Of The Opera cannot be put in a box. Perhaps the dramatic flair has seeped across into real life but, undeniably, the statistics and fervency of its fans do speak for itself. Your body just sizzles when the first notes are played, it just takes you!” she says.Īt this point, to be a little cynical is forgivable, as one cannot help but wonder if they are over-selling it. And I can say, I was just blown away, even just at the overture. Broadway phantom of the opera cast movie#“It was so embarrassing to tell him that I had not, I had only seen the movie version and heard of the songs … so, he got me tickets and I went. Interestingly, Picerno’s first live Phantom experience was rather recent, when Harold Prince - she was working with Prince, the director of the original production, in 2017 on Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom in which she starred as an older Daae for its US tour - asked if she had ever watched the show. Playing the 1880s rising opera star Christine Daae is New York-based soprano Meghan Picerno. If you can elicit stillness in a performance, that is the greatest honour - except when they break into applause of course - where people just sit there with a drawn in expression. It is the silence, there is no other show that gives silence the way this one does. “You could not get that with Grease, The Musical,” Roxmouth grins, adding more seriously, “I was one of those people when I saw it for the first time in 2004, so I know how that felt. Literally every day we are contacted by people on social media, sharing how special the evening they watched the show was for them, even weeks later.” “I have never been in a show that affects people so strongly. Matt Leisy, the British-American actor who plays Viscount Raoul de Chagny, agrees. ![]() “When someone stages a gothic musical, it draws comparisons like ‘oh, that’s very Phantom’ but, in turn, Phantom reminds you of nothing else - it is a show that starts with an auction and then suddenly there’s a chandelier, then there’s a boat and a ghost … it’s insane, it’s from a golden age of theatre that people are still trying to emulate today.” ![]() “ Phantom is an adjective in itself in the musical theatre world,” says Jonathan Roxmouth, who stars in the titular role for the second time. Watching it through a 21st century lens brings with it a heightened awareness and discomfort of seeing a broken madman trying to control every move of an innocent young woman Certainly, when Options was invited to visit the cast and creative team of the tour in Manila, the show’s larger-than-life legacy loomed over our conversations about the production itself. Known for its ardent fandom - perhaps comparable to the hypnotic spell the phantom casts on his ingénue Christine Daae - there has been no end to discussions on the enduring popularity of the show. Having just completed its foremost engagement in Manila, the Philippines, this week sees its month-long run in Singapore begin and after the stop in Malaysia, the show will travel to Tel Aviv in Israel and Dubai. Marking another first, the musical - which is inspired by French author Gaston Leroux’s 1909 novel - will make its debut in Kuala Lumpur this June, as part of an ongoing world tour. Most notably, the US production is the longest running musical in Broadway history and at 33 years and counting, the UK production is the second longest running musical in London’s West End. Since the chandelier first rose from the stage to the iconic and haunting overture at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End on October 9, 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Operahas chalked up a multitude of impressive achievements, accolades, and records. ![]()
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