![]() ![]() The period glitz is an eye-popping delight, with the onstage and backstage atmosphere artfully heightened but not cartooned. The show has a flashback structure, opening in 1911 with an eerily effective auction of props from the Paris Opera and jumping back to the 1881 melodramatics when the supernaturally gifted dungeon-dweller terrorized the theater. Lloyd Webber and co-librettist Richard Stilgoe have put the emphasis on the beauty-and-the-beast theme and develop an affecting yarn in the scarred recluse’s obsessive passion for the beautiful opera chorine. The bonus this time is that the glittering technical wizardry and pop-opera music have been wedded to a strong story and characters.Ĭhill-seekers may be disappointed, because this is a romantic “Phantom” in which the title hero is a sensitive artist ravaged by unrequited love, and not a rampaging early slasher. No, it’s not “South Pacific” or “Fiddler On The Roof,” but it’s a major achievement in the musical theater and a high water mark in the phenomenal Lloyd Webber career. ![]() ![]() Given the near-hysterical anticipation aroused by this latest, big bertha West End musical smash, “it’s not that good” will probably become a familiar refrain along the byways of Broadway. ![]()
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