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The iconic white mask is still there. So, too, the crystal chandelier that famously crashes at the end of the first act. And those histrionic, undeniably memorable tunes are all intact. But veteran impresario Cameron Mackintosh's new production of The Phantom of the Opera lacks vital intrigue.
The production boasts slicker sets, moodier lighting and a lot more fog and pyrotechnics than Hal Prince's 1986 original. The new sets rotate, unfold like dollhouses and shoot flames at the rafters, making for a satisfyingly over-the-top series of coups de théâtre.
Among these, the production's tenderest romantic moment coincides with its most impressive eye candy. During the duet "All I Ask of You," two lovers sing on the roof of the Parisian Opéra Populaire, beneath a gargantuan statue of a goddess holding a harp. Rays of light rain down between the harp's strings like sunbeams parting the clouds of a Wagnerian forest. It's a perfect, poignant bit of stagecraft, amplifying the musical's theme of a divine (or diabolical) muse watching from above.
Pithy symbolism aside, however, the heart of The Phantom of the Opera is a love triangle between its title character, his soprano protégée Christine and her admirer Raoul. And in this touring production, there isn't enough vocal or dramatic chemistry between the performers to get you fully involved. The flat characters and voices can't muster enough heart to deliver the devastating, melodramatic climax we expect from composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom.
As Christine, Katie Travis sings with a bright, agile soprano, but her dueling suitors, Chris Mann (from The Voice) as the Phantom and Storm Lineberger as Raoul, struggled through with underwhelming voices and breathy singing. Mann sang the climactic high A-flat of his big number, "The Music of the Night," in a forced, hoarse tone. He and Lineberger sometimes only got a single word out before having to breathe again, and both singers bastardized any word with the "oo" sound in it, turning it into a nonresonant, nasal "iewwwww." The result was far from romantic.
Such vocal issues aren't entirely the two men's fault; Lloyd Webber shoulders considerable blame. Aiming to infuse both roles with the dark, rugged sex appeal of a lower voice but also the sweetness of higher notes, Lloyd Webber wrote both parts in an awkward range that's too low for a tenor but too high for a baritone. Even accomplished singers struggle.
Mann's Phantom has another glitch. Gym-fit and freshly 33, the actor is just too young and hunky. Back in 1986, when Michael Crawford created the role, he was a 44-year-old veteran of stage, film and television, with a distinguished bearing to match his hefty credentials. Crawford's older, more damaged Phantom made his mentor-ingenue chemistry with Christine more perversely Freudian.
Christine's dilemma—to choose the spookily sophisticated Phantom or the bright-eyed Raoul—should be creepier, more profoundly existential and tragic. Although Lineberger, this production's Raoul, is 10 years younger than Mann's Phantom, they seem the same age onstage. This leaves Christine with a much simpler choice: a dashing hottie who wears a mask, or a dashing hottie who doesn't?
And in this production, it's hard to care about what she decides.
SEE IT: The Phantom of the Opera is at the Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 248-4335. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Saturday, 1 pm Thursday, 2 pm Saturday, May 20-23. $34-$129.
WWeek 2015