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Phantom of the Opera a feast for the senses

Massive cast perform in musical production at Q.E. Theatre
Phantom
Derrick Davis and Katie Travis are featured performers in Cameron Mackintosh’s new staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic musical The Phantom of the Opera, now in its fourth year on tour.

Broadway Across Canada presents Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of The Phantom of the Opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, on stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre until July 23. The show runs Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday evening at 7:30 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Visit broadwayacrosscanada.ca for tickets and information.

A touring production of The Phantom of the Opera currently in Vancouver is not for the faint of heart.

Poignant love story aside, sparks literally fly during the performance.

That’s right, this reinvented Phantom is part musical, part pyrotechnic show.

When the Phantom is enraged you really feel his wrath, by way of flames suddenly bursting outward and upward from the stage.

Notable theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh is the mastermind behind the opulent spectacle. The unveiling of each intricately detailed set and the stunning, not to mention Tony Award-winning,      costuming is a feast for the eyes.

A one-ton, crystal-encrusted chandelier looms above the audience, plummeting 10 feet per second over the first few rows at the Phantom’s command. The phantom of the opera, indeed, is here.

The show opens with an auction scene at the Paris Opera House in 1905 to sell off the theatre’s vaults, while a masked figure lurks in the catacombs. The delicate sound of a music box with a cymbal-clapping monkey lightens the air.

Soon the music and drama crescendos and the pageantry of The Phantom is on full display in the midst of a masquerade ball. This particular production at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre is performed by a cast and orchestra of 52, making it one of the largest on tour in North America.

Underneath the special effects is the classic love story and enchanting score. Die-hard Phantom fans will need self-restraint to stop from singing along to the familiar Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes “Think of Me,” “The Music of the Night,” “Angel of Music” and “All I Ask of You,” performed with Broadway-calibre brio by leads Derrick Davis (Phantom), Katie Travis (Christine) and Jordan Craig (Raoul).

While exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit the opera house, the Phantom falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine, and devotes all his energy to creating a new star by nurturing her extraordinary talents and by employing all of the devious methods in his underground arsenal.

With Christine under the Phantom’s spell he pulls her through the mirror and lures her in a gondola across a subterranean lake leading into his secret, smoky candlelit lair beneath the opera house.

More theatrical wizardry is employed when stairs magically appear in the mist, jutting out one by one from a massive moving wall used to transport actors from the opera house to Phantom’s lair.

Davis, who plays the Phantom, has been quoted as saying performing with a mask covering half his face felt odd at first, but now he feels naked on stage without it. Prior to joining the tour, Davis racked up theatrical credits though such shows as Disney’s The Lion King, Dreamgirls and Show Boat.

The newfangled Phantom production had already been seen by more than 2.5-million people across North America before it arrived in Vancouver last week. Laurence Connor, co-director of the 25th anniversary production of Les Misérables, lends his directing experience to the Phantom creative team and together they work their magic using advances in theatrical technology.

Seventy-five stagehands are tasked with getting the enormous sets, including a pair of two-story rotating opera boxes, from the 20 transport trucks to the stage. Meanwhile, 35 other stagehands work behind the scenes during the show to pull off the theatrical feat. The main scenic wall weighs 10 tons and rotates around the stage, meanwhile music and other audio for the Phantom is amplified using more than 200 speakers, 50 of which are used just for the surround sound package.

Mackintosh has simultaneously mounted electrifying theatre shows around the world, including Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Cats. He was knighted by the Queen in 1996 for his far-reaching musical theatre contributions.

Mackintosh’s original production of Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera continues to be performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London and has relished in a recording-breaking run at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway.

There are currently seven productions of The Phantom of the Opera around the world: the flagship London production (30 years and counting), New York (29 Years and counting), Sapporo (Japan, 28 years and counting, in repertory), Budapest (Hungary, in repertory), Hamburg (Germany), Prague (Czech Republic), Stockholm (Sweden) and Mackintosh’s new production, now in its fourth year on the North American tour.