Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” is the biggest in everything. For the past 20 years it has been the longest-running musical on Broadway, surpassing even Lloyd Webber’s own “Cats.” It has had the largest New York audience of any show, numbering 12.5 million people. Its box office of $675 million makes it the largest gross of any Broadway musical. Internationally it has topped $5 billion, grossing more than the highest- grossing movie “Titanic” at $1.2 billion. It has played more than 8,000 performances since its opening in 1988.
The current touring company is the longest-running touring production in U.S. history, now celebrating its 15th anniversary.
“The Phantom of the Opera” began life in London at Her Majesty’s Theater on Oct. 9, 1986. It won every major British theater award, including the Olivier and the Evening Standard awards. The original London cast album was the first in British musical history to enter the charts at number one. Since its release it has sold 25 million copies and gone gold and platinum in both the United States and Britain. The show is the most successful venture of all time, and Broadway/San Diego has brought it to the Civic Theater downtown now until Aug. 10.
David Hansen, the production stage manager of “Phantom,” gave this writer a firsthand look backstage at what it takes to put together such an enormous show.
You’ll be curious about the famous chandelier that drops from the ceiling to scare you to death. Hanging above the first few rows of the orchestra, it is rigged with cables and wires to come crashing down onto the stage. Controlled completely by computers and aimed on a trajectory to the stage, unseen stagehands dressed in black “catch” the 10-foot-high crystal chandelier.
There are 141 candles that rise out of the stage to form the eerie lake in the Phantom’s lair. These, too, are controlled by backstage computer keyboards that make the candles appear and disappear on cue.
The lighting is an important part of any show. In “Phantom,” more than 470 lighting instruments are used to produce 75 special lighting effects and 10 moving light curtains.
The beautiful gold sculptures on the false proscenium are made of plastic for lightness. Behind the proscenium are hidden ladders and a catwalk where the Phantom appears. Also up there are some lighting men strapped to special hanging seats to adjust the lighting effects. They are never seen, but they are vital to the show.
A false deck is built over the original stage floor, This is a 10-inch-high platform that contains some of the special effects and pipes for the fog machines and some of the tracks that guide the sets to their proper locations during a scene. There are 10 fog machines that use dry ice for the effects. The phantom’s boat is moved by a stagehand with a remote control, and it only looks like the Phantom is paddling with a handheld staff.
Numerous copies are made of the principal costumes as backups. Several wigs are made for the cast for emergencies. The modern-day microphones are hidden in the wigs!
There have been eight film productions of “The Phantom of the Opera” over the years. The most famous ones were the first with Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin in the 1925 silent version, the 1943 production with Claude Rains and Susanna Foster made on the famous “Phantom” stage, which still exists on the Universal lot; and the Joel Schumacher-directed 2004 version starring Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Minnie Driver and Patrick Wilson.
The new play was adapted from the original Gaston Leroux novel. The book is by Richard Stilgoe and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics are by Charles Hart & Richard Stilgoe. The show stars Richard Todd Adams as the Phantom and Bruce Winant and Sara Jean Ford.
Tickets are available at the box office, (619) 570-1100, or at Ticketmaster, (619) 220-TIXS.
The Civic Theater is at 3rd & B streets downtown.
