New Production of "Phantom of the Opera" Plays Memphis’ Orpheum Theatre; Andrew Lloyd Webber Reminisces on the London Premiere

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Theater

Published on Monday, 27 November 2017 16:38

Written by Ellis Nassour

Production photos by Matthew Murphy and Alastair Muir

Sixteen years ago, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart’s The Phantom of the Opera became the longest-running show in Broadway history, surpassing Webber’s “now and forever” Cats’ 7,485 performances. On January 26, POTO continues its reign into a fourth decade, seemingly “now and forever.” 

POTO, produced by Cameron Mackintosh (Mary Poppins, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Cats,) and Webber’s Really Useful Company, is not only one of the most successful Broadway road shows ever but also one of the largest. This new production, co-produced with NETworks Presentations, as dazzling and dramatic as the original, launched in November 2013. It returns to Memphis’ majestic and historic Orpheum Theatre November 29 through December 10. The musical first took Memphis by storm in November 1997, with thousands of theatergoers from throughout the region making it a sold-out smash. It returned to the Orpheum by popular demand in 2001 and 2014.
                                        

The Tony Award-winning Best Musical has additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, who co-wrote the book with Webber, based on Gaston Leroux’s Le Fantôme de L’Opéra. The classic story tells of a masked madman, terribly disfigured from a fire at the Paris Opera, lurking beneath the catacombs of the building [which actually exist, along with – as depicted in the show, an underground  lake] and reigning terror over all. He falls madly in love with soprano Christine, and devotes himself to creating a new star –  employing all manner of the devious methods at his command. That includes murder and, when he doesn’t get his way, crashing a massive chandelier onto audiences.
It’s estimated this reimagining of the romantic thriller has been seen by over 2.5-Million across country. There’s reinvented staging by director Laurence Connor (Broadway’s School of Rock, and Miss Saigon revival); and scenic design by Paul Brown.                    

The tour, with choreography by Scott Ambler and lighting by Tony Award winner Paule Constable, has a cast of 30, an eight-member corps de ballet, and 14-piece orchestra under musical supervisor John Rigby, making it one of the largest productions on the road.  
                                        
                                   

Tenor Derrick Davis is the infamous masked Phantom. He appeared on Broadway and tour as Mufasa in The Lion King; and regionally as Curtis Taylor Jr. in Dreamgirls. His CD, Life Music, is available on Amazon. For a preview of his stunning voice, check out: Derrick Davis sings “The Music of the Night” from “The Phantom of the Opera."

Canada’s Eva Tavares, portraying Christine Daaé, the ingénue at the center of POTO’s love triangle, is a triple treat talent: singer, actress, and choreographer. In March, she was featured in the Toronto world premiere of Richard Maltby Jr., David Shire, and Lobo M’s musical Sousatzka, book by three-time Tony Award nominee Craig Lucas (especially known for The Light in the Piazza), based on the 1962 novel, Madame Sousatzka (filmed in 1988, starring Shirley Maclaine).
In the role of the debnoir, love smitten Vicomte de Chagny Raoul is Texan Jordan Craig, who received training and has performed many roles with Houston Grand Opera.

On Broadway, in January, it will surpass 12,500 performances before an estimated 18 million at Broadways’ Majestic Theatre – where it opened in 1988 with a then-record advance of $18-million. Two years earlier it premiered on London’s West End, where it’s still thriving.
A world-wide theatrical blockbuster, it’s estimated 140 million people in 35 countries (15 languages) have surrendered to what many feel is Webber’s best score. The  two-disk original cast album spent five years on trade charts; and a single-disc highlights recording spent over six years on Billboard’s Pop Album chart.


Back in 1984 as the show was premiering on London’s West End, advance sales and preview audience reaction suggested an unstoppable hit. Webber, on the other hand, even after blockbuster hits Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, and Evita, was far from certain.



“I wish I could say I had the best time of my life during those heady days,” he
states. “Phantom is the only show I’ve done that was entirely unchanged during previews. Our brilliant director Hal Prince was so certain we’d be a hit that he suggested we take a holiday and return for the opening.

“At openings,” he continues, “even when you feel you have the public with you, you’re at your most vulnerable. I couldn't bear to sit through the show.” Cameron Mackintosh, co-producer, with Webber’s Really Useful Company, found him and got him back for the curtain call. Amid the thunderous applause, Webber yearned to have loved ones around him.
But (then) wife, Sarah Brightman, playing Christine, was onstage basking in audience adulation with her Phantom, Michael Crawford. “While all were celebrating,” Webber says, “I felt alone and frightened.”
It didn’t help when the first review, by the London Sunday Times critic, read “Masked balls.” States Webber, with the memory still vividly ablaze, “Those were the only words. Most composers, let alone producers, would be suicidal to receive a notice such as that. Amazingly, it didn’t faze [co-producer] Cameron [Mackintosh] on bit.”

Ever the optimist, Mackintosh telephoned “while having a jolly good breakfast” and in a fortuitous prediction, stated to Webber, “Nothing any reviewer writes can after the fact that Phantom has chimed with audiences.”
               

Webber, was used to critical snipes. He points out POTO’s reviews “were wildly polarized between those who really did or really wouldn't surrender to the music of the night.” What was most upsetting was ruinous gossip that Brightman, an alumna of the West End Cats who’d been onstage since her teens, got the role because she was his wife.

 “The fine line between success and failure is perilously small,” says Webber. “I’m struck 30 years hence with the phenomenon Phantom has become. Much credit goes to the [Tony Award-winning] late Maria Björnson for her opulent design and costumes. And would another choreographer have understood the period as well as former prima ballerina Dame Gillian Lynne (Cats)? Many said the chandelier moment could never work. It turns out to be the most theatrical moment I ever conceived – a moment that can only be achieved in live theater.”

Legendary, multi Tony Award-winning director of the West End and Broadway productions Harold Prince says he was instantly hooked on the idea that Leroux’s classic was musical material. “To my surprise. Andrew's initial idea for the score was to use famous classical works and write only incidental music. Much to my delight, he later decided on an entirely original score - one of his   greatest.

“However,” he adds, “the superlative score wasn’t Andrew’s only contribution to Phantom’s success. It was his instinct to take the story one step further and make the emotional center of the show a love triangle.That struck a chord with audiences. It’s the crucial difference between our musical, the novel, and other versions of the story.”

The Phantom of the Opera has won more than 70 theater awards, including seven 1988 Tony Awards and three London Olivier Awards. Since 2010, it’s become one of the most accessible musicals of all time with hundreds of high school and university productions licensed through R&H [Rodgers & Hammerstein] Theatricals.

Tickets for the Memphis engagement of POTO are available at the Orpheum box office or by calling (901) 525-3000, www.orpheum-memphis.com, and via Ticketmaster, where service fees will apply.

Trivia: As anyone who’s toured the Paris Opera has seen, there’s a private box
reserved only for the Phantom at every performance – just as he demands in the musical.

Interested in how Memphis’ Orpheum first got The Phantom of the Opera and other big musicals, such as Les Miserables and Miss Saigon? Check out their video: https://www.facebook.com/theorpheum/videos/10154789869450947/

• < Prev
• Next >