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cynicmcshruggyshoulders · 13 years ago

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How Phantom’s Perfect Timing Lead to Lightning in a Bottle.

Who knew that this man would become the biggest threat to Cats since Mrs. Mooney?

We have now reached 2013. The earth is not in ruins and we are not all disintegrating into the lava-covered streets, as the Mayans originally predicted.

Although, let’s be real, even if they were right and the earth was crumbling around us, Phantom of the Opera would still be standing and the demons roaming the earth would be walking out marveling at how the car-renting, 25 year old production still doesn’t look a day over 9. I don’t know what would be worse: that those demons wouldn’t be lining up to see Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf or that they would actually be right.

It’s actually fascinating when you think about it. Like a Real Housewife of [insert blank], Broadway musicals these days are built to run longer, but they show their age a lot sooner.

Think of any musical that has been running on Broadway for more than 5 years. If you saw that show in its first year (or, if we’re being generous, it’s second) you had fond memories of a cast bursting with energy and creativity and audiences walking in with the expectation of something new. Flash forward a few years and the casts, while just as talented, lack that full-bodied spark of the original and audiences walk in with the expectation of the safe.

When it comes to musicals, most theater-going tourists seem to take Officer Lockstock’s once-humorous-now-frustratingly-on-the-nose motto to heart: “Only expect the expected.”

That’s why it is all the more impressive that Phantom of the Opera, soon to be approaching it’s Dirty Thirties (could it possibly be called the “cougar” of Broadway?) has maintained so well on the Great White Way. Even I, Cynic McShruggyShoulders, revisited the masked emo and his underground loft a few years ago and I walked out shaking off my goosebumps.

How is this possible? Why is it that seeing Joey the Horse run wild through the English meadows of War Horse lost its magic the second time around only a year into the run, but dammit when Christine makes her way down to that lair during the title number, my jaw is on the floor of the Majestic? Pure and simple: a perfectly assembled team got together at the exact right time to create a musical that was exactly what the world wanted at that exact moment.

Here we have Gay Pride week. Or an Act 2 opening number. Same difference.

Phantom of the Opera is, quite possibly, the most successful case of perfect timing leading to said “lightning being caught in a bottle”.

But first, let’s take a hop, skip, and a beat back in time and attempt a brief rundown of how we got to this now-indestructible epic.

In 1987, American musicals were having an unsuccessful time of it. Musicals with big ambitions but limited means like Grind, Rags or A Doll’s Life came and went without so much as a blip on the radar. The British musical was enjoying a more lucrative ride. Cats, the real-life-song-and-dance Nonesuch (look it up), was confusing and overwhelming audiences around the world and Les Miserables was ripping out theatergoers’ hearts, placing it on that turntable and pounding it with high belting emotion. But while Cats could offer an escape and Les Mis catharsis, neither could offer old-fashioned grandeur or sweeping romance.

Enter Phantom. With its simple boy-loves-girl-girl-loves-boy-band-member-chandelier-takes-a-tumble plot and classic Webber, sweeping score, the show had the basic recipe for a decently successful musical. Say what you will about Andrew Lloyd Webber (and chances are that I’ve said them all… twice…in the last 24 hours), but the man knows how to write a lush melody and he has a damn good sixth sense for projects that could make a killer musical. Whether all of those projects turned into killer musicals (anyone care to take a quick listen to By Jeeves? I didn’t think so) is another story. But no one can deny that when he’s good, he’s good.

However, it was the secret ingredients of legendary director/producer Hal Prince and designer Maria Bjornson that took the show over the edge. Before I go on, if you need me to explain to you why Hal Prince is legendary, you should probably just exit out of this page and continue watching American Horror Story or The Big Bang Theory. There is simply not enough space on the internet to explain the foundation that is Hal Prince. Needless to say, I want you to think of any famous musical that premiered sometime between 1955 and 1980. Hal Prince probably had something to do with it. He’s kind of like the Citizen Kane of theatre. If you needed to look up that reference, then definitely read no further.

Together, Prince and Bjornson (and a quick shout out to Andrew Bridge and his “velvety” lighting design, as described by bad ass Frank Rich) created stage pictures and cinematic transitions that still boggle the mind: the ballet class behind Christine’s dressing room in “Angel of Music,” “Masquerade” and the entire title song. Prince’s vision allows audiences to take a peak throughout the entire Paris Opera House from the wings to the flies and Bjornson brought it all to life with a unique color palette and an infatuation with drapes (seriously, Lowe’s or Overstock should get a shout out during intermission).

Isn’t that lighting so “velvety”?

I would venture to say that if any other director and designer had attempted to mount Phantom, the show would have run less than half as long (which still would even out to a so unimpressive 10 years). Not because there aren’t amazing directors and designers out there or that Phantom is such a weak show that it can only rely on the smoke and mirrors framing it to survive (you can decide that on your own). But rather that because the specific pairing of Prince and Bjornson (and Bridge! Never forget Bridge!) worked so well that the results of their collaboration are completely unreachable. Every detail that they invented is so right and so in tune with each other that watching it play out in front of you is like watching American Beauty turned up to 11 playing LIVE: You can barely wrap your head around what you’re seeing and before you can finally say “aha!” Prince and Bjornson are onto the next scene. I mean, come on! Even a hard-hearted message board poster has to give credit where credit is due.

The romance, scale and grandeur of Phantom is reminiscent of a cinematic lush love story of the 50’s, like Sabrina meets Age of Innocence and it was exactly what audiences were craving in London in 1987 and on Broadway in 1988. And in 2004, just when it seemed that it was time to put the chandelier in hock, a well-timed, if not well-made, movie adaptation helped audiences remember just what it was that made them fall in love with the masked stalker. And thus, another decades worth of performances was added.

It’s easy to stand outside and grunt how “unworthy” Phantom is of the title “longest running Broadway musical.” And I suppose in a world where A Chorus Line is number 5 and Sweeney Todd isn’t even cracking the top 200, that bitterness is justified. Lord knows I rant about Grey Gardens not even making it past 6 months. But believe me, if you find yourself in the Majestic again (and the show you’re watching is not the 2020 revival of The Utter Glory of Morrisey Hall…look it up), I will bet you money that you can’t walk out of there and not find some justification for those 25-year-old fog machines.

Go on, do it. I bet you. I think I’ll use your $20 to buy 2 pounds of caramel at Dylan’s.

Clearly, someone shops at Hot Topic.

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