Re-imagined 'Phantom' remains a glorious excess
“Moderation is a fatal thing ... nothing succeeds like excess.”
Oscar Wilde wrote those lines for his 1893 play “A Woman of No Importance.” But they pertain unquestionably to “The Phantom of the Opera,” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 blockbuster, which marks its 29th year on Broadway in January.
Applied to “Phantom” - one of the most popular and biggest-grossing musicals of all time - Wilde's observation would feel like a backhanded compliment if it weren't true.
Like the grand opera traditions it spoofs, “Phantom” - with lyrics by Charles Hart and book by Richard Stilgoe and Webber - is the glorious embodiment of excess. From its melodramatic plot (based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel) and bombastic ballads to its stunning costumes and stellar effects (including the famous falling chandelier), this musical about the pursuit of art represents excess with a capital E.
And it's absolutely delicious.
The Broadway in Chicago production marks the return of producer Cameron Mackintosh's lavish, re-imagined, North American tour, which last played the Cadillac Palace Theatre in 2014. The cast - including leading man Broadway veteran Derrick Davis, Katie Travis and Jordan Craig - is new, but this show looks every bit as sumptuous as it did then.
Credit rests with the late designer Maria Björnson (who won a Tony Award for her dazzling, jewel-toned costumes) and with Paul Brown and Paule Constable, who designed sets and lighting for the tour.
Turn-of-the-20th-century grandeur inspires Brown's gilded opera house and its majestic, mirrored ballroom, invitingly lit by Constable. The Phantom's subterranean abode - accessed by a treacherous-looking stairway that extends and retracts - is a murky, mist-filled lair that suggests an abandoned house at the edge of a graveyard.
Briskly directed with a dose of sly humor by Laurence Connor, the production boasts beautiful, balletic choreography by Scott Ambler.
While the swirling sound of the organ sends a shiver up the spine, for my money, the finest musical moments come in the first verses of such power ballads as “Angel of Music” and “All I Ask of You” before the lush orchestrations by Webber and David Cullen become overwrought. That said, this production is exquisitely sung.
A fine singer and commanding presence, Davis' Phantom is every bit the tortured artist. Alienated by his disfigurement, resentful at his inability to get his music heard, he also suffers unrequited love for Christine (Travis, a lovely soprano) the young protégé he enthralls.
As Christine's childhood friend turned lover, Craig is a classically heroic Raoul, powerhouses Trista Moldovan and Phumzile Sojola provide vocal fireworks and comic relief as reigning diva and divo Carlotta and Ubaldo.
After 30 years, spectacle remains “Phantom's” animating forces, but it will always be the vocal prowess of singing/actors like Davis and the other principals that will sell the show.
“The Phantom of the Opera”
★ ★ ★
Location: Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, through Jan. 8, 2017. No 8 p.m. show Saturday, Dec. 24; no shows Sunday, Dec. 25. Also 2 p.m. Dec. 22 and 30 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 26. No 7:30 p.m. show Jan. 8
Running time: About two hours, 30 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $50-$140
Parking: Paid lots nearby
Rating: For teens and older