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| SOMETHING
OF THE
NIGHT
NEAT TRICK
Like Jack Nicholson in
As Good As It Gets, Cage’s Roy
suffers from a form of
obsessive compulsive disorder.
the phantom of the opera
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’S ‘MUSIC OF THE NIGHT’ HAS BEEN THRILLING AUDIENCES AROUND THE WORLD FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES. NOW, 15 YEARS AFTER IT WAS FIRST DISCUSSED, ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’S THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA GETS THE FILM
VERSION IT DESERVES, THANKS TO ITS COMPOSER TEAMING WITH JOEL SCHUMACHER. SAM CONNOLLY REPORTS.
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IIn a career in which success has been measured in millions, The Phantom of the Opera has been Andrew Lloyd Webber’s crowning glory. Since opening at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London on October 9, 1986, the show has had 65,000 performances in 18 countries, and taken over $3 billion at the box office. The Phantom has won three Oliviers (the West End’s top award), seven Tonys (Broadway’s equivalent) and is now the second longest-running musical in the history of the Great White Way (Lloyd Webber’s Cats still holds first place). In a little over a year, a $25-million theatre will open at Las Vegas’ Venetian Hotel. purpose-built to run a special, 90-minute version of the show, on the assumption that tastes may come and tastes may go, but The Phantom will run and run. And all this for a musical whose basic theme is lost love and loneliness.
“One of the reasons this tragic love story has been part of our culture since Gaston Leroux wrote his novel is because we identify with the Phantom,” declares director Joel Schumacher, as he puts the finishing touches to the movie version of the show, which he wrote along with Lloyd Webber himself. “The Phantom is a physical manifestation of whatever human beings feel is unlovable about themselves. He is a heart-breaking character – much like the hunchback of Notre Dame and the Beast in Beauty and the Beast.”
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