THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511260065
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Long : 145 lines
The phantom has been unmasked.
``The Phantom of the Opera'' had its official press opening Saturday in Chrysler Hall with the highest advance ticket sales of any theatrical event in local history - climbing toward $5 million - and with enough advance expectancy to more than match each dollar.
The result is not disappointing.
This is a spectacular show of technical wizardry that evolves into an extraordinary production by any standards. There even seems to be some integrity in the excess.
Try as you might, it is very hard to find production or musical cutbacks in this very expensive edition. As a production, it compares well enough with the two previous ``Phantoms'' I have experienced - the London version, in the second year of that run, and the Broadway opening night edition, a night to be remembered by any measure, with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman at their most intense.
Here, even the parking lot attendants get into the spirit. They are decked out in ivory phantom masks.
Adapted from Gaston Leroux's 1911 novella, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is more romance than horror story. It reflects the childlike simplicity of the composer - for both the good and the naive sides of his energy. More opera than conventional musical, 90 percent of it is sung.
Bruised by the critics from both sides of the Atlantic, Webber has been accused of borrowing from everyone from Puccini to Sondheim. Yes, the melodies did sometimes seem familiar, even seven years ago when the show was new to this country. If so, so what? Melodies are difficult to find in the theater these nights - and even more difficult to find in opera. ``That's All I Ask of You,'' the score's best work, fairly soars with unabashed romanticism. And, yes, there is a bit of dissonance there for the modernists - all two or three of them.
What remains at this point in ``Phantom'' watching is only to attempt to analyze Phatom-mania - the appeal that made this show a phenomenon even before it trod the local boards. The answer is manyfold - obsessive love, lost love, unrequited love, pitiable love all wrapped in tons of stage draperies, a falling chandelier and other sights of great inventiveness. The sets are designed by Maria Bjornson.
As we enter the theater, there is no chandelier to be seen. A spoken prologue, set in 1911, reveals that an auction of old opera relics is taking place - among them the ornate chandelier that was once involved in ``the famous disaster.'' As simulated pipe organs blast out the opening chords of the overture, the chandelier rises to the ceiling of Chrysler Hall, swinging ominously as it climbs. It is a stunning opening, although the sound should have been more overpowering in that moment.
Hal Prince's imaginative staging, which has been faithfully recreated for this company, sweeps the action along from one opulent moment to the next, even choreographing the curtains - some 2,700 yards of them. We get a tour of the Paris Opera House, vintage 1881, from top to bottom - the underground lair to the rooftop, overlooking a star-lit Paris. There are three separate opera parodies as well as numerous spoof-like commentaries on the overblown opera of the 100-year-ago era of corny excess. ``Hannibal'' is the opera-within-the-opera that is in rehearsal when we enter.
Intent upon hearing better music than he's hearing upstairs, the phantom, hideously deformed from birth, pushes the career of his new love, a shy chorus girl named Christine Daae. He has tutored her to become a great star and will take no nonsense from the opera managers, who insist upon starring the fading diva, Carlotta Giudicelli. Sending notes signed only O.G. (opera ghost), he demands that Christine be given center stage. When they don't obey, he causes the chandelier to fall, a few deaths to occur and worse. Along the way, he learns that her real love is the handsome Raoul.
Going berserk with self-pity, he kidnaps her yet again - taking her to his lair beneath the opera house. Mistaking her nonphysical love for him for mere pity, he, in spite of his murderous nature, evolves in the last act as a pitiable fellow. We are persuaded to pull for him to get the girl every step of the way. The Phantom is a suggestion that there is hope for ugly guys everywhere.
One by one, the spectacles are trotted out. The phantom steps through a mirror to woo Christine. Across sprawling catwalks and through Andrew Bridge's darkly lit shadows, beauty and the beast descend into the depths and, via a magically moving gondola, float across an underground lake from which hundreds of candles seemingly rise from the water. Candelabra rise to light his lair. The much-hyped chandelier crash is the finale to Act I after several delightfully teasing false alarms. It is more a casual descent than a crash - minus shattering glass effects.
The Act II opener is, if anything, more of a stunner. It's one of director Prince's ``storm the audience'' ploys in which he employs the entire cast, some 36 or them, to descend the massive staircase of the Paris Opera House in multicolored costumes.
Thomas James O'Leary is vocally up to the demanding role of the Phantom. He lacks the weighty passion of a Michael Crawford but is more effective in suggesting the vulnerability of the afflicted creature. He lacks the towering physical presence that should, perhaps, be the Phantom's, but he moves with a slithery grace - complete with hand gestures that suggest conjuring powers. He has a deep, resonant reach for ``Angel of Music'' and ``Music of the Night'' and a pianissimo falsetto for his reprise of ``All I Ask of You.''
The show, though, is a showpiece for soprano vocal tricks, evidenced by the fact that Webber composed it specifically for his then-wife, Sarah Brightman. Adrienne McEwan, in the role of Christine, faces the awesome challenge in that, as a singer, she is asked to go from hesitant novice to, under the Phantom's tutelage, reaching the very heaven of perfection. The latter is a tall order but suffice it to say that McEwan is noticeably capable of both dramatic contralto and intricate coloratura - with all registers in secure-enough control. Her particularly brilliant moment comes with ``Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.''
John Schroeder, in the sometimes thankless role of Christine's conventionally handsome lover, effectively suggests he can drop the proper exterior when his lover is threatened. Much-needed humor is supplied by Julie Schmidt as Carlotta, the diva who despises the upstart Christine. ``Notes'' and ``Prima Donna'' are among the score's few moments of wit.
Yes, the score is rather saccharine when one lush ballad follows another. It is true, too, that some of the songs seem interchangeable. The plot, too, is sometimes murky.
If we wanted, we might well ask things like: Why does the Phantom kidnap Christine early on and, even after she's seen his face, let her go? Why does she continue to remain in the opera house, even when threatened? Why does he go to such trouble to set her up as the diva of his opera and then kidnap her before opening night? These and other murky turns prohibit real tension, but romance, after all, is the name of the game here, and who has ever effectively explained romance?
The melody lingers, as does the the emotion, after we leave. There is sadness to counter the spectacle when Christine sings ``Pitiful creature of darkness/What kind of life have you known?/God give me to show you are not alone.''
The Phantom is not likely to be alone for the next seven weeks in Chrysler Hall. Although the thrills are by no means cheap, any defenses against him are eventually stripped away by the spectacular theater effects that hail a turning point in national theater touring.
``Phantom's'' success in this outing may well hail a new era in longer runs, and more expensive productions. It has been a long time in coming. Its arrival is worthy of celebration. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
Thomas James O'Leary and Adrienne McEwan give riveting
performances.
Photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
The Phantom, played by Thomas James O'Leary, sings to Christine,
played by Adrienne McEwan at the Thanksgiving performance of ``The
Phantom of the Opera'' at Chrysler Hall.
by CNB