He created a perfect soundscape, no matter where one sat-helped by a loudspeaker system so sophisticated that one could hear the Phantom talking and whispering and pleading from various places all over the Academy of Music as if he were wooing all of us, rather than only the young innocent Christine. Perhaps one of the biggest surprises was the sound design by Mick Potter, who managed to spook the audience with his unexpected, meticulous sounds from unexpected places. An orchestra of 52 players under the musical supervision by John Rigby created a feast for the ears, and the cast displays a wonderful ensemble spirit while letting each star shine, with Derrick Davis as the Phantom and Eva Tavares as the object of his desires. Sure enough, the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, a magnificent opera house with fine acoustics-as expected-was sold out on opening night. No wonder Phantom has become the longest running show in Broadway history. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, a French Romantic/Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, seems to have served as the godfather to The Phantom of the Opera Hugo’s novel had as much of an appeal in 1831 as Phantom in 2017. He’s in love with a beautiful young soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes his obsession. The melodramatic plot centers around a mysterious, disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath Paris’ Opera Populaire.
Based on a widely-read French novel, Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux, first published as a serialization in 19 and later developed into various stage and film adaptations, the story eventually morphed into Lloyd Webber’s musical in 1986 with lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Photo by Matthew Murphy.Īnd so Mackintosh, the master magician among producers, has created yet another version of the most popular of musicals in his stable, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. Decades after a musical has been written and shown to be successful, Mackintosh “constantly restages the same musicals in new productions, with fresh directors and casts,” even though, as he told the Financial Times last year, “Musicals are expensive to keep running.” Derrick Davis and Eva Tavares. There’s a reason Cameron Mackintosh is the world’s most celebrated and most influential producer of theatrical shows. It’s sensible, actually, because the real thing will last longer than something shoddy.” – Cameron Mackintosh, in an interview with the Financial Times I think that’s my biggest bequest-that I imposed my standards. “I’m not going to take this on the road unless it’s as good as what people have read about, with the same lighting and the same sound.
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