michael crawford phantom of the opera movie

Photograph: John Lamparski/Ĭhildren perhaps understand the mechanisms of nostalgia better than anyone, given that a month for them passes like a year does for adults and Phantom plays on that sentiment shamelessly. This all seemed tremendously impressive at the time.Īctor John Caudia and composer Andrew Lloyd Weber at The Phantom's 9000th performance on Broadway in September 2009. He is the angel of music, but he looks like the devil. For example, the Phantom is flesh and blood and also 'there, inside your mind'. The characters are archetypes in a way that speaks to the timelessness of mythology. Phantom is quite posh, or at least, it struck me as such when I saw it in 1986 at the age of 10, when it opened in the West End with Michael Crawford in the lead. Of all the composer's hits, it is the one that strives most greedily for the status of a higher art form. When he wrote Phantom, Lloyd Webber had been separated from his writing partner Tim Rice for 10 years – the last big musical they'd worked on together was Evita, in 1976 – and the lyrics are by Charles Hart. But if it catches you in the right mood, it can raise your spirits like only a juggernaut musical from the 80s can, which is to say, with all the subtlety of a plunging chandelier. It is, like all Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals (with the exception of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), easy to mock and, once the tunes have entered your head, hard to expunge. The Phantom of the Opera is a perfect expression of the time it was written in – an era of dry ice, big ballads and high altitude hair.

Michael crawford phantom of the opera movie