Phantom flies again
The history of The Phantom of the Opera has always been slightly confused and now it’s getting more so. Just as news hots up that Andrew Lloyd Webber is certain to launch his own Phantom sequel next year — reverting once again, after a serious falling out, to the novella of The Phantom in New York by thriller writter Freddie Forsyth — we hear that another Phantom musical is heading this way from, of all places, Portugal.
How brazen can you get? The composer is Peter Raben, who died a year ago and is best known for writing the scores for the kinky movies of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The international tour of Phantom of Paris takes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Australia before fetching up in the West End in 2009 or 2010.
No doubt, to confuse the matter further, someone will revive Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera, the Stratford East show that Lloyd Webber first planned to produce — using an already composed pastiche operatic score — as a vehicle for his then new wife Sarah Brightman.
Instead, egged on by Cameron Mackintosh and Jim Steinman, he composed his own new score and the rest, as they say, is history.Except, of course, it’s not history. It’s still running.
Over Christmas, we were treated to a televised musical theatre fest with all the Marias and all the Josephs from the talent shows presided over by ALW and his panel of judges, Bill Kenwright, Denise van Outen and John Barrowman. This turned out to be one almighty and pretty shameless publicity jamboree for ALW’s West End shows, climaxing in Lee Mead and Connie Fisher duetting with “All I Ask of You” from Phantom.
Andrew licked his lips at the final clinch and said the performance had given him a good idea…no doubt his casting people will be lining up Lee and Connie for the new Phantom…or perhaps they will go into the old Phantom first to boost the not too flagging box office figures in the spring…
I still remember the first night of Phantom in October 1986 as if it was yesterday. I had asked Cameron where the chandelier was going to be suspended in the stalls. “Right above your seat!” he chortled, relishing my anxiety and discomfort. But it was a famous first night, one of the greatest in the history of the West End and one I think that no new musical since has come near replicating or rivalling.
I was thinking about this while reading the obituaries of Hugh Massingberd, the convicial man of letters and country houses who died on Christmas Day. Hugh revolutionised obituary writing in our newspapers on the Telegraph and was a tremendous theatre buff. He especially liked Lloyd Webber’s Phantom, returning to it time and again, impervious to the cynical jeers of his clever friends and street-wise colleagues.
The show became a fairly good film, but advance reports of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd suggest that Sondheim is going to be much better served on celluloid than was ALW. The standard of filmed stage musicals has never been higher, new bars being set first by Chicago and now by Hairspray.
Evita and Phantom also both made fairly good films, but neither is indisputably great. In a funny way, I prefer the callow ingenuity of the Jesus Christ Superstar film, scripted by Melvyn Bragg and directed by Norman Jewison, in which the story is told by a bunch of fit-up actors who have drawn up their caravans for no very good reason in the middle of the desert.
Now, whatever happened to the film of Blood Brothers, I wonder?
January 6th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Greetings, Mr. Coveney! Much obliged for the liking of the JCS ‘73 film, which is apparently unpopular these days in most circles compared to Webby’s lamentable revival. If you find time, join the forum at our site. We always love to have JCS/ALW historians around.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Good evening Mr Coveny,
I was most interested reading your comments on stage musicals and their transfer to screen versions, such is the timeless appeal of adapting movies to musicals, and some are now coming full circle, screen to stage and back to screen again! I was chatting to Mark Shenton about Sweeney Todd (I haven’t seen it yet) and I found it difficult to come up with a modern movie musical that left any sense of real satisfaction for me. Perhpas Sweeney will…!
Because despite the obvious talent that abounds, and however some of the films are clearly expertly executed, what makes a musical exciting to me when performed live in a theatre is what is always missing from a movie musical. On stage, the singer has to hit the notes, right there in front of you - there is no overdubbing, no second go at it, no (well, perhaps a little) reverb, but no processors or editing. In a movie soundtrack, you know that hours have been spent in a studio getting it to sound - well, just too perfect perhaps…
And maybe ALW’s shows are too “theatrical” for an easy conversion to screen. “Phantom” as a glorious stage experience has an appeal that it’s enviable global success is testament to. The movie looked glorious, but somehow lacked that ingredient that makes the show what it is. Perhaps that is why his shows work on stage, when they do!
But no matter how beautifully done, no matter how brilliantly conceived or realised, I don’t see how a movie musical can ever come close to being in the same room as the performer as they recreate their performance before your very eyes.
All the best
LMW
Composer & Lyricist