“Opera Australia’s Phantom of the Opera introduces the first new staging of the musical since its premiere in 1986….it has depth and levels, light and shade, love and anger in a way the original production didn’t quite fully develop.“ – Suzanne Mackay 4.5 /5 stars
Andrew Lloyd Webber done well.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera was, as I remember it, the first of the spectacle musicals and sits smack bang in the middle of the opera/operetta divide as an opera for the everyman. It’s played all over the world in its original form and the set, costumes, choreography and characters have been the same, each viewing like visiting the family, familiar but not necessarily groundbreaking. Opera Australia’s Phantom of the Opera introduces the first new staging of the musical since its premiere in 1986, after playing on Broadway and the West End and like a Shakespeare play, there are only gains from revisioning the classic.
The stage is smaller but the themes are richer, it feels somehow more limited in scope but with a lot more depth. As the Phantom, Josh Piterman is able to bring both a sense of menace and of pathos, the tension between he and Amy Manford’s Christine is palpable and I found myself both wanting her to run, but for the first time I also had a sense of why she keeps getting pulled back into his orbit. By the time she unmasks him and he is small, pitiable and scrambling for his pages on the floor, he’s almost pathetically redeemable.
The tendency for Lloyd Webber’s composition to verge on the trite and repetitive is used to effect in this production, as each step towards the darkness of the operas underworld becomes richer, heavier, more opulent. The costumes tell a story in and of themselves, using the colours and textures of circus sideshows with a hint of gothic horror, which transports the audience to a different world, highlighting the fantasy and fairy tale elements of the story in a way the previous production did not. The repetition of the piece then acts as more of a screwdriver, twisting and pushing us into the darkness every time the refrain repeats. That being said, even with the depth of this production, the first half feels like it needs some judicial editing and could lose a good fifteen minutes without losing any depth.
The performances don’t miss a beat, the cast move seamlessly around the space, making the stage seem spacious when it needs to be and oppressive in all the right places. Blake Bowden as Raoul is both dashing and caring, while Jayde Westaby’s Madame Giry stands out with an extraordinary ability to hold the stage. Giuseppina Grech is delightful in her indignation and hits the right blend of comedy and drama and that goes to the core of what is so beautiful about this production, it has depth and levels, light and shade, love and anger in a way the original production didn’t quite fully develop.
I hope this production is the beginning of a trend, and more classic or popular musicals are reimagined so we can go back home and find things are refreshed and renewed.
Suzanne Makay, Theatre Now
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