Less-familiar 'Phantom' soars
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"PHANTOM," Hale Centre Theatre, through April 18 (801-984-9000); running time 2 hours, 30 minutes (one intermission)
WEST VALLEY CITY — Forget everything you think you know about Phantom, other than:
He lives under the Paris Opera House
He loves beautiful music.
He is in love with a woman named Christine
He wears a mask.
He seems to hate chandeliers.
Those are pretty much the only similarities between the Tony Award-winning "The Phantom of the Opera," by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and "Phantom" by American composing duo Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston — which just opened at Hale Centre Theatre.
Kopit and Yeston were working on their version of the Gaston Leroux novel at roughly the same time as Webber, who had deeper pockets and beat them to the punch. Though never making it to Broadway, "Phantom" has lived on in numerous productions around the world.
This Phantom seems like a really nice guy. His name is Erik. He makes some jokes, likes poetry and doesn't want to hurt anyone — only doing so when absolutely necessary — and then feels bad about it.
Musically, "Phantom" is a touch more classical and lyrical at times. Some of the songs are beautiful and soaring while others are less memorable. If you leave not remembering some songs, it has nothing to do with the talent on Hale's stage — which from top to bottom was solid.
Under the musical direction of Kelly DeHaan, the performers sounded fantastic.
Jonathan Scott McBride wore the mask on Wednesday night (double cast with Justin Bills). His wonderful tenor voice is clear, strong with nice warm tones. He did a very good job of capturing the pain, humor, hurt and love of Phantom.
And Wednesday when he stumbled into a few prop mishaps, he handled it like a pro.
Jennifer Neff (Jenny Latimer) is the love interest, Christine, and it's easy to see why.
She is as lovely as is her voice — which was especially evident in "Home," and during "Sing Can you Sing." a very impressive display of runs, trills and through-the-roof high notes.
There are moments in the script where Christine doesn't have much to do, other than be concerned — Christine's challenge is to find multiple ways of showing that.
Joseph Paur also delivered a nice performance as Carriere, Phantom's caring ally (a character not in the other version).
Other standouts were the couple providing the comic relief: Marcie Jacobsen (Maurie Tarbox) as the opera diva Carlotta and Kelly DeHaan (Bruce A. Bredeson) as Cholet. Paul Cartwright as Phillippe, the other man in Christine's life, was charming singing with Christine in "Who Could Ever Have Dreamed?"
Director John J. Sweeney did a very nice job of staging the show on Hale's tricky arena stage — keeping the action moving and making great use of limited space.
But the show starts to get bogged in the technical wizardry for which Hale is so famous. The moving stage was used sparingly, which was nice, but each time they used it, it was slow — making for some long set changes and sometimes distracting movement. Wednesday night's show had a lot of sloppy light cues and a couple of late sound and prop cues, which will no doubt be fixed quickly.
The major prop piece, the chandelier that Phantom sends plunging to the stage, looked good — but it falls too slowly to get the full impact, feeling a touch anticlimactic after the scene's buildup.
Bravo to Tamara Clayton for her beautiful period costumes and to Cynthia Johnson and Cathrine Morrey for the gorgeous wigs.
This is a good production, and the audience seemed very appreciative at seeing a new face on an old friend.
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