This Phantom does not even have that half. The gag is the Opera Company have only spent money on what the audience will see: half an elephant. Normally, the elephant prop is turned around to reveal stage-hands sitting inside it. Instead of Piangi mounting an elephant in rehearsals for the Hannibal Opera, he gawkily steps up onto a bench. These look slightly drabber, slightly less polished. Amici productions have got this off the ground with an impressive set of funders, and by buying in the production from partners in theatres across the country who shared the costumes, sets, props, etc.
Sure, the program is as glossy as always, but this Phantom just can’t compete with the Cameron Mackintosh produced Phantoms, nor was it ever going to. Is it unfair to compare this Phantom to the professional versions? Many Phantom lovers in the audience, with memories of other Opera Ghosts, will. I was shocked when he went on to become one of the new members of the Wiggles. Obscurely, my favourite Phantom is Simon Pryce, the understudy who accompanied Anthony Warlow when Phantom last played here professionally at The Civic in 2008. But again and again, it is the interpretations of the different performers, and the chance to feel the music of the night, that keeps this Phan returning. I’ve seen it enough times to anticipate the conveyor-belt blocking of this ‘McMusical’, the template that has been replicated again and again over the show’s 30 year lifespan. I’ve also visited Phantom of the Opera in New York, London, and… New Plymouth.
Amici’s pro-amateur production is the third version of the show I’ve seen in Auckland. The moment Rob Guest’s mask was ripped from his face to reveal the Phantom’s awful disfigurement is a childhood memory burned into my mind. I should declare my Phandom up-front: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece – yes, masterpiece – is a long-standing favourite.
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