After 11,159 performances on Broadway, and billions of dollars of ticket sales worldwide, it is probably time to halt the critical carping and accept that theatergoers love the kitsch-heavy, empty spectacle that is The Phantom of the Opera.
The producer of the theatrical blockbuster, Cameron Mackintosh, has such faith in the drawing power of this beauty-and-the-beast tale that he has commissioned a new redesigned and redirected production to tour the colonies, attracting a new generation of viewers and lots of Phantom groupies interested in a return visit to the Gothic romance fable.
Just slightly ahead of the holiday rush, Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center is hosting the show through the end of November.
Based on the 1911 novel by Gaston Leroux, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, aided by his lyricist Charles Hart and librettist Richard Stilgoe, tells of a former architect and would-be musician, disfigured from birth, who hides behind a half-mask, removed from the prying eyes of the public.
But he has become smitten with ingenue Christine Daaé, whom he hopes to elevate to opera stardom and lure into his clutches. He is essentially of a non-violent nature, but the Paris Opera impresarios refuse to take his demands seriously, so he is compelled to cause havoc backstage and on.
As road companies go, this is a lavish physical production that certainly conveys the opulence of the Paris Opera House and the creepy subterranean world beneath it. No, Paul Brown’s designs are not as breathtaking as the late Maria Björnson’s were, but he has upped the danger level of the mammoth chandelier that the phantom sends hurling towards the orchestra seats at the end of Act One.
Almost as iconic — but missing in action here — are the elaborate candelabras that once rose out of the underground lake as the phantom transports his comely protegée to his lair. A curious omission, but nothing that jeopardizes the narrative.
Nor is Laurence Connor’s staging as evocative or as clever as Harold Prince’s original direction, but it does the job. The costume ball scene at the beginning of the second act, for instance, is sufficiently menacing and first-time viewers are unlikely to miss the way Prince insinuated the Phantom into the midst of the revelers.
On the plus side is Paule Constable’s shadowy lighting, augmented by Nina Dunn’s video and silhouette projections. And Björnson’s sumptuous original costumes have been coordinated and duplicated skillfully by Christine Rowland.
Lloyd Webber has long borrowed musical themes from Puccini, and more so than with his other musicals, the cribbing is appropriate here. Sure, it is hard not to hear the notes of “School Days” in the opening bars of “The Music of the Night,” but the show also contains some of the composer’s loveliest melodies, from the duet between Christine and her former suitor, Raoul (“All I Ask of You”) to her prayer on her father’s graveside (“Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”).
In between is a lot of his recitative, married to mostly clumsy lyrics by Hart. Still, Lloyd Webber does know opera, as his parodies of Verdi, Mozart and various atonal moderns attest.
Cooper Grodin and Julia Udine sing well as the Phantom and Christine — particularly her — both tackling punishing difficult vocal assignments. Connor apparently cast both of them for their singing skills, for neither takes his character beyond a two-dimensional cartoon and the crucial sexual tension between them is about a quart low.
Still, their abilities are a moot point since both were replaced — after a lengthy period of touring — for the final week of the Broward Center run.
In fairness, it must be said that the opening night audience seemed to truly enjoy this production and cast, or at least it leapt to its feet in an “I-got-my-money’s-worth” standing ovation last Friday evening. Personally, I went away once more impressed by the stagecraft, but unmoved by the human drama.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Through Sunday. Tickets: $34.75-$159.75. Call: (800) 745-3000.