Chad’s Grade: C+
It’s hard to believe that the “Phantom of the Opera” is still playing on Broadway, some 30-plus years after its debut, making it the longest-running musical in history. It’s a bit of a running joke now, but back when it opened in 1986, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical seemed so fresh and inventive. Audiences were spellbound by its sweeping score and astonishing stagecraft that mixed classic opera with a rock concert’s energy and a magician’s sleight of hand. It instantly joined the ranks of “A Chorus Line,” “Les Miserables,” “Rent,” and “Hamilton” as big musicals that broke into the pop culture landscape.
Lloyd Webber was at the peak of his powers in the 1980s, following a string of hits with Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, and Starlight Express. During his brief marriage to famed soprano Sarah Brightman, he wrote the Phantom’s operatic score to highlight her unique voice, almost mirroring the Phantom writing for his muse in the musical. Webber retooled the famed Gaston Leroux novel from the perspective of Christine, a budding young singer who’s both terrorized and seduced by the mysterious masked creature lurking in the Paris Opera House. The musical version heightens the gothic romance, where the Phantom is less a deformed creature and more a brooding, tragic figure engulfed by a mad genius. Webber and his production smartly cast film and stage actor Michael Crawford as the Phantom, who played the role with fierce physicality and sings with flashes of anger, sadness, and rage. It was a career-defining performance, and when paired with Sarah Brightman as Christine, they made the musical a must-see event.
Of course, Hollywood showed interest, and a film version was discussed shortly after the musical opened on Broadway in 1988. The first director approached was Joel Schumacher, as Lloyd Webber was impressed with the filmmaker’s use of music in his 1987 hit “The Lost Boys.” The stylish vampire film utilized Gerard McMann’s “Cry Little Sister” during critical moments in the narrative. And the vampire’s cave-bound lair bears a passing resemblance to the Phantom’s underground cavern.
Unfortunately, the movie musical was a dead genre in the early 1990s. Complicating matters was the divorce of Webber and Sarah Brightman, who was set to star with Michael Crawford. The musical fell into development hell, with such varied filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Shekhar Kapur (director of 1998’s Elizabeth), and Hong Kong auteur John Woo (who wanted John Travolta as the Phantom). Along with stars like Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Antonio Banderas expressing interest.
It wasn’t until the one-two punch of 2001‘s “Moulin Rouge” and 2002’s “Chicago” that the movie musical awakened from its long slumber. Hollywood was scouring for musicals to adapt, and “The Phantom of the Opera” was at the top of their list. But Lloyd Webber was protective of his magnum opus and decided to finance the project himself. Despite the 15-year lag time, Webber convinced Joel Schumacher to return, allowing the director to cast younger, sexier actors in the role on the condition that they could sing the challenging score.
Set at the Paris Opera House in 1870, the story charts the Phantom’s obsession with young dancer Christine Daae as he trains her to sing his music, become a star, and ultimately his bride. The Phantom’s plans are dashed by the arrival of the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, a childhood sweetheart of Christine and the Opera House’s new patron. The reunited pair rekindles their romance, driving the Phantom into a jealous rage. The “Phantom of the Opera” (as the chorus girls dub him) begins terrorizing all who inhabit the Opera house, aided by the mysterious ballet mistress Madame Giry. Soon Christine finds herself torn between the safe arms of Raoul and dark desires attracting her to the masked Phantom.
Director Schumacher found himself backed into a corner with adapting the massively popular musical. Do you simply film the stage version or use the tools of the cinema to transform the material into a movie? With Lloyd Webber financing the project, the typically daring director chooses the former. I kept waiting for the Schumacher of 1987’s “Lost Boys” to show up. Instead, the 2004 Schumacher seems more influenced by the hyper-glitzy circus of Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge.”
The stage show was drenched in shadow, with the incredible Maria Bjornson’s gothic sets making the Opera House look gargantuan. Yet Schumacher’s opening pan shot makes the film’s Opera House tiny and cramped by comparison, with rich colors on brightly lit sets. The film would’ve benefited from the stylized atmosphere of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” or Robert Wise’s “The Haunting,” where danger was lurking just outside the frame. And Schumacher can create brooding films like his underrated 1990 horror thriller “Flatliners” and his two Batman entries.
Also problematic is the operatic nature of the musical. Like most Lloyd Webber productions, this is mainly sung, with a few passages of dialogue. With wall-to-wall music, Christine and the Phantom never get any quiet scenes showing these lost souls connecting, with only “The Phantom of the Opera” number describing their relationship in the past tense. It’s the musical equivalent of telling and not showing. You never buy into their relationship, creating a lopsided effect on the love triangle with Raoul, who gets several sweet moments with Christine.
But the movie is kneecapped by the casting of Gerard Butler as the Phantom. Butler is not a trained singer, made even more apparent when his co-stars are accomplished vocalists. To his credit, Butler leans into the operatic material, singing with a theatrical relish, and he looks the part. When he crashes the masquerade as the “Masque of Red Death,” it’s a striking image with the appropriate air of menace. But he doesn’t have the voice to handle this kind of material, and his energetic performance suffers as a result.
The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. Emmy Rossum makes for a lovely Christine with a beautiful pristine voice. She’s no Sarah Brightman, but when she sings her first solo number, “Think of me,” both her co-stars and the audience take notice. And Patrick Wilson is simply dashing as Raoul. Raoul always came off as a bland Harlequin hero on stage, but in Wilson’s hands, he sings with such warmth and sincerity that you can see why Christine falls for his charms.
The film’s MVP is easily Miranda Richardson, who plays Madame Giry, the Opera House’s mysterious ballet mistress. Speaking in a stylized French accent, her constantly shifting alliances between the Phantom and Christine give her scenes an extra kick. She knows exactly what kind of movie she is in and relishes every moment.
There are moments when Schumacher’s visual flair does dazzle. The movie opens like a storybook fairytale, with the prologue of the 1911 opera house auction shot in grainy black and white. When the battered chandelier is unveiled, the film bursts into color, and the long decayed opera house transforms into its prime glory, set to the musical’s organ-drenched overture. And the big masquerade set-piece is creatively staged with sweeping shots that show off the beautiful costumes by Alexandra Byrne.
The screenplay is credited to both Webber and Schumacher, and they do make some minor deviations that help the film. The famed chandelier crashing sequence was smartly moved to the climax (the stage version had it close Act One). We get glimpses of how the Phantom pulls off his magic tricks, like chorus girl Meg discovering the dressing room’s mirror is a passage to the Phantom’s underground lair. And in the film’s only original sequence, Madame Giry recounts her first meeting with the Phantom as a child caged in a freak show circus and ultimately helps him escape and hide in the opera house.
That’s the movie’s big flaw; they tinkered where they needed to transform. If you’re a loyal fan of the stage musical, this is a handsome filmed version of the show. But for those who wanted to see the thrill of the theatrical experience through a cinematic lens, the film version of “The Phantom of the Opera” leaves a lot to be desired.
OSCAR BAIT SONG:
Of course, Lloyd Webber and original lyricist Charles Hart crafted a new song for the film, entitled “Learn to be Lonely.” It’s a sweet but forgettable tune sung by Gerard Butler’s Phantom after Christine first sees him without his mask. The scene was shot but was removed from the film as it stops the narrative cold (the scene is available on the DVD & Blu Ray). In the finished film, it’s sung by co-star Minnie Driver over the end credits. They did receive an Oscar nomination, ultimately losing to the much superior “Al Otro Lado del Rio” from “The Motorcycle Diaries.”
ACTORS WHO CAN’T SING:
Gerard Butler was one reason I created this category. I’ll be fair and say that he can carry a tune with more vocal training, and he does a great version of “Past the Point of No Return.” For my money, I would’ve cast Jared Leto as the Phantom. Not only is he a good actor, but his rage-filled vocals in his rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars are a perfect match for the brooding opera ghost. Another odd casting choice was Minnie Driver, who is horrible and over the top unfunny as the villainous diva Carlotta. Despite having a good singing voice (she sings the new tune Learn to Be Lonely), Driver couldn’t handle the challenging score and was dubbed by opera singer Margaret Preece. Seriously, where was the casting director for this movie?
OTHER VERSIONS:
Back during the original 1986 promotion push for the London version of the show, Lloyd Webber commissioned none other than Ken Russell to direct a music video (see below) for a rock/pop version of the “The “Phantom of the Opera” number. If you’re hoping for a crazy “Tommy” reinterpretation of Lloyd Webber’s music, please temper your expectations. The video has little razzle-dazzle of the usual Russell visual imagery featuring Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley of the band “Cockney Rebel” singing the Phantom role. Russell also directed a more standard version of Brightman lip-syncing “Wishing you were Somehow Here Again” through a lush graveyard.
And as for the rest of the musical score, there have been so many covers and versions of the songs from Phantom that it would be impossible to list them here. You’re probably safe to stay with the original cast recording with Crawford and Brightman, although the film versions of “Past the Point of No Return” and “Think of Me” are worth your time. And as for the truly awful 2010 stage sequel, “Love Never Dies,” well, that’s for completists only. Listen at your own risk.