“Pantages Perfect for Phantom”
By Robert Crew
From The Toronto Star, Thursday, September 21, 1989
Imagine a stage arch decorated with huge, golden sculptures of lascivious nymphs and satyrs. Imagine a stage filled with singers in glittering period costumes. And imagine a huge, 1,200-pound chandelier hurtling down toward it, lights a-flashing.
Think what you will of Andrew Lloyd Webber, it’s hard not to be impressed by such coups de theatre. The man, and the creative team around him, certainly knows how to make an audience gasp.
All this is by way of introducing something of which you can hardly fail to be aware: a big musical called The Phantom of the Opera that opened at a renovated theatre called the Pantages on Victoria St. last night.
Never in Toronto’s theatrical history has a show come to town with more hoopla. But then there’s nothing in any way small about the Webber blockbuster that has set cash registers spinning in London and New York as well as here. There’s more of everything: more cast (36), more musicians (30), more expectations, more hype. And more for tickets, with a top price of $75.
Value for money? Well, for those who like that kind of thing, Phantom is a veritable Wonderland of entertainment, a roller-coaster ride of sights, sounds and emotions that rush past you, rarely giving you time to draw breath or (perish the notion) to think. It’s fun to go along for the ride, but it’s not something you’d want to do every day.
The story is from Gaston Leroux’ ripely melodramatic novel and tells of Christine Daae, a young chorus girl at the Paris Opera, who suddenly steps into a leading operatic role. Her musical coach is the mysterious Angel of Music, the “ghost” of the opera, who has fallen in love with her.
The Phantom is a disfigured but multi-talented fellow who lives many storeys down, in an unusual apartment across a lake, magically lit by more than 100 flickering candles.
Christine is drawn to him, but also loves a far more handsome young guy with a title, the Vicomte de Chagny. But she alone has the power to heal and to redeem the murderous monster.
Its dark appeal runs very deep. This is the stuff of demonic possession, of beauty and the beast legends. It is also an exploration (not exactly a penetrating one, to be sure) of the duality of man’s nature, of the devil and the angel warring for one’s soul. It’s a leit-motif that Webber also uses in the music.
Ah yes, the music. It’s relentless and insists that it be heard. But strip away the crashing chords, the pastiche and the parody of styles, and there’s probably only a couple of truly memorable numbers; the title song and “The Music of the Night”.
Fortunately, there are several performances to remember. Irishman Colm Wilkinson, who created the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables is our Phantom. I saw Michael Crawford’s much acclaimed Phantom in New York, and Wilkinson is superior.
Crawford was ethereal, Wilkinson is solid, rooted, powerful. He has a compelling stage presence and a full singing voice that is also capable of subtlety and detail; his rendition of “The Music of the Night” is exquisite.
He’s also a good, instinctive actor. His switch from raging insanity to bewildered, loving tenderness in the final scenes with Christine caught me in a way Crawford never did.
The repatriation of Toronto-born Rebecca Caine to play Christine is also an inspired move. Caine has a full, sweet voice that is easily a match for Sarah Brightman’s (the London and New York Christine), and she’s a better actress, projecting warmth and compassion.
Excellent work, too, from Byron Nease as the strong and dashing Vicomte, Lyse Guerin as the booming but temperamental star soprano Carlotta Giudicelli, and Kristina Marie Guiguet as the sinister Madame Giry. Gregory Cross and Paul Massel provide touches of comic relief as the two new owners of the Opera.
Some raggedness has yet to be smoothed out, at the lavish masquerade ball scene and elsewhere. And there are several occasions when people are inaudible.
With the exception of the sardine-packed foyers, the theatre is comfortable and well suited to this lush and erotic work. Sight lines appear to be good. In short, the Pantage is perfect for high-tech, fashionable, see-and-be-seen entertainment.