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The Phantom of the Multiplex

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The Phantom of the Multiplex of 'the ]\lIultlplex What it took to bring How DO YOU MAKE a movie version of the biggest stage musical of all time? the blockbuster Very, very carefully. Which is why, on a Friday after- Broadway musical to noon in June, the film Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera a theater near you (that's right-the composer's name is BY I<ENNETH MILLER part of the title) is getting its sound- PHOTOS: © ALEX BAILEY/WARNER BROS. PICTURES 107 RD JANUARY 2005 track polished to a shimmering lus- IN FACT, THE PHANTOM has struck ter. In a corner of the Fox lot in Los countless times since appearing in the Angeles, Lloyd Webber, who dreamed 1911novel by Frenchman Gaston Le- up the Phantom stage show (as well roux. Leroux's book spawned a string as such hits as Cats and Evita), and of plays and films, including the 1925 director Joel Schumacher (Batman silent screen adaptation starring Lon Forever,Phone Booth) sit in a tiny dub- Chaney in the title role. The story, bing room, perspiring over vocal tim- in case you've missed all these pro- bres and orchestral mixes. As well ductions, takes place mostly in 19th- they should: In the world of Holly- century Paris, at the fictitious Opera wood musicals, such seemingly minor Populaire, and revolves around a mys- details can separate a blockbuster from terious masked figure who haunts the an expensive flop. catacombs beneath the opera house. "The question is: How do you give people the s.ame chills and thrills in a different medium?" Phantom, the movie, has an in- The Phantom, we learn, is a hideously credible heritage. The stage produc- deformed musical genius. He grows tion, which won a Tony Award for obsessed with a young soprano named best musical, has grossed $3.2 billion Christine, becomes her tutor and de- worldwide since its 1986 premiere, velops a hypnotic influence over her thanks to 100 million th~atergoers in as he transforms her into a star. When 22 countries. As the action unfolds Christine's childhood sweetheart, the on a monitor in front of them, Lloyd Viscount Raoul, arrives to reclaim her Webber-a bushy-browed Brit in a affections, the .stage is set for an epic neat plaid shirt and khakis-cranes showdown. forward to listen; the silver-haired In his '80s update of the tale, Lloyd Schumacher, in jeans and biker boots, Webber added catchy tunes and spec- languidly reclines. Both men smile as tacular production values. But his most actress Minnie Driver, playing Car- crucial innovations concerned the lotta, a high-strung opera star, begins characters. First, he emphasized Chris- an Italianate hissy fit. Both gasp a mo- tine's romantic dilemma-should she ment later when the screen goes give herself to the nice-guy nobleman black. Though the sound man blames or to passion incarnate, in the person a computer crash, Schumacher offers of the Phantom? Second, he developed a more sinister explanation: "The Leroux's Phantom into a full-blown Phantom strikes again." antihero. "The Phantom's disfigure- 108 ment connects to a very primal thing in us," Schumacher observes. "It's a metaphor for whatever we think is unlovable in ourselves. We all iden- tify with the Phantom." Getting 21st-century moviegoers to make that connection involves a whole new set of challenges."Film can do things theater can't," says the director, "and theater can do things film can't." Onstage, for example, Christine's de- scent from her dressing room to the Phantom's underwater grotto can be shown, simply, by using a rolling gon- dola and ramps that lead down to a pool; theater audiences fill in the rest Casting the film was a big task as of the details themselves. On-screen, well. Christine had to be a beautiful that dreamlike journey must be literal adolescent, but utterly unlike the and realistic. "The question is: How worldly girls'who populate most teen do you give people the same thrills flicks. The Phantom had to be young and chills in a different medium?" and virile enough, despite his defor- 109 RD JANUARY 2005 mity, to constitute a convincing love tensively, permanently, annoyingly interest-but he also had to convey perfect Patrick Wilson," as Lloyd Web- depths of suffering and madness. Raoul ber calls him. At the time, Wilson was had to be handsome, wealthy, kind and a rising Broadway actor (he'd played brave, but believably human. ''And,'' the dad in The Full Monty and Curly in says Schumacher, "they all had to sing." Oklahoma!) with a modest film career. After considering mor~ than 100ac- But his sword-fighting skills and riding tqrs, some of them major stars, the experience, not to mention his flaw- filmmakers decided on three relative less voice, wowed the filmmakers. unkhowns-a risky ~hoice for a $70 The production headed off to Lon- million movie. Emmy Rossum, who don's Pinewood Studios. There, across landed the role of Christine, was just eight sound stages, lay sets that 16 when she auditioned; she'd sung dwarfed anything in the West End or For all its technical wizardry, Phantom will succeed or fail on the strength of its performances. with Placido Domingo at the Met, and on the Great White Way. Conceived played Sean Penn's murdered daugh- by production designer Anthony Pratt, ter in Mystic River, but had never head- the sets contained 73 tons of steel, 92 lined a major film. miles of lumber and 3,500 gallons of Gerard Butler had played a bad guy paint. Pratt's set of the Opera Popu- in Tomorrow Never Dies and the title laire included a rooftop studded with role in Dracula 2000. His singing ex- giant gargoyles; an 880-seat theater; perience, however, was limited to gigs a warren of dressing rooms and re- with a pub band in his native Scot- hearsal studios; the catacombs; the land: Launching into his audition Phailtom's watery lair-and, of course, ("Music of the Night") at Lloyd Web- the giant chandelier that he hurls to ber's London town house, Butler re- the theater floor in the climactic scene. calls, he began to panic: "I'm singing Actually, the chandelier came in one of the most famous songs of all triplicate: There was a high-end ver- time for one of the most accomplished sion for day-to-day filming, a "stunt" composers of all time, and I have no replica for the crash-landing sequence, experience or training." Though his and an electric version for scenes set right leg was shaking, he won the part in 1919. of the Phantom-and began voice les- Shimmering with 20,000 Swarovski sons immediately. crystals, the chandelier measured 17 The role of Raoul went to "the ex- feet tall by 13feet wide, weighed 2.2 110 PHANTOM OFTHE MULTIPLEX tons-and ~ valued at $1.3millio~. computer problem, and Minnie Driver The score is similarly impressive, has flounced offscreen. As a rapt performed by 127 musicians hand- crowd listens, Rossurri takes up where picked by Lloyd Webber himself. "In the diva left off, filling the Opera Pop- this movie," the maestro says, "the or- ulaire with her melting soprano. Lloyd chestra is a special effect." Webber and Schumacher lean toward For all its technical wizardry, the the monitor again, adjusting, polish- Phantom movie will succeed or fail ing-and hoping their Phantom will on the strength of its performances. strike it big. Back in the Los Angeles dubbing G:miit Read our review of the film at room, the sound man has fixed the rd.com/phantom. CALLING DR. FRANKENSTEIN Some scientists, such as Albert Einstein, who authored the theory of relativity, are given the Nobel Prize. For others, such as David Schmidt, . who created a partial solution to why shower curtains billow inward, there's the Ig Nobel. Here are some recipients of the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize. Jillian Clarke, for investigating the scientific validity of the five- second rule, which is about whether it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor. Donald J. Smith and his father, the late Frank J.Smith, for patenting the infamous hairstyle known as the comb-over. Ramesh Balasubramaniam and Michael Turvey for exploring and explaining the dynamics of Hula-Hooping. Ben Wilson, Lawrence Dill, Robert Batty, Magnus Whalberg and Hakan Westerberg for showing that herrings apparently communicate by passing wind. WORD POWER ANSWERS On page 38, we challenged you to sort out the synonyms for the word origin. Our solutions: source, root, beginning, inception, seed, nascence, fountainhead, derivation, genesis. 111.
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