We saw The Phantom of the Opera presented at The Fabulous Fox Theatre on March 7, 2015. I had long desired to see this Broadway presentation of the classic novel by Gaston Leroux. I had this yearning for a two-fold reason. First, the show has had such good press and reviews over the years I was sure it must be at the pinnacle of theatrical delight. Secondly, having read the book I was curious to see how they were going to adapt it to stage. This curiosity was driven by the beauty and the beast paradigm that the show’s advertising seems to apply to the Opera Ghost and to Christine Daaé. My reading of the book gave me no such impression. While Leroux attempted to bring the reader around to a position of pity for Erik at the end of the book, in my opinion Erik’s misdeeds outweighed the one act of good that he did out of love(?).
The stars of this presentation were Chris Mann as the Phantom of the Opera. Mr. Mann is a graduate of the talent show, NBC’s The Voice. He was Christina Aguilera’s finalist on that show.
Katie Travis played the role of Christine Daaé, and Storm Lineberger was Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny.
To put it bluntly, I was deeply disappointed in the performance. We have season tickets to the Broadway series at The Fabulous Fox Theatre. I mention this because over the last few years we have seen many shows of varied ilk. Some of the shows I was wildly enthusiastic about, and few were just okay. This was the first show that I was looking at my watch wanting it to be over.
There were several reasons for this. While all of the voices were good, none were remarkable. Maybe it was my ignorance, but I was expecting something a little less operatic. Ms. Travis sang so high that much of time neither of us could understand her. I found myself wishing for subtitles like they have at opera presentations. Many times there were so many concurrent voices that they sounded discordant. Perhaps this was intentional, but it left me squirming in my seat. Having read the book I knew the flow of the story line. As a stage adaptation they necessarily had to take liberties with the original work. I was fine with that, but my companion had difficulty following the story line. While many great works of art take some study to really appreciate, the basic narrative should not be a mystery.
I did find the set amazing. It was on a rotational base that was spun to bring each of the varied scenes into play. I loved the staircase that magically appeared step by step as the Phantom carried Christine down to his abode across the lake. Also the scenes in the boat as the lake was crossed at various points in the drama gave a wonderful presentation of eeriness as the boat swirled through the fog.
Perhaps with a different cast and production company I would have enjoyed it more. All in all though, not one of my most favorite nights at The Fabulous Fox Theatre.