Phantom of the Opera for community theatre groups

[aussieskates]

I belong to an Australian Facebook website that does theatre reviews and announces upcoming auditions for local community theatre groups.

Today two different Melbourne companies are planning to stage Phantom of The Opera next year. Is it just me, or is staging a show that relies on spectacle and tremendous singing skill as a car accident waiting to happen?

It is always a risk, but how could it be done at a level where audiences wouldn't be unfavorably comparing the Broadway production to something smaller.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Shrug. Les Mis requires spectacle and singing, but amateur groups have been handling that without the world ending. I don't normally compare a community theatre production against the Broadway one. Is that an Australian thing?

[TheatreDiva90016]

And are the rights even available?

[CJ N2N]

The rights are available for high schools and colleges (my own high school did it two years ago) but I thought they weren't available for community theaters... Then again, it could be different in Australia.

[AEA AGMA SM]

And there are a lot of versions of The Phantom of the Opera, so these companies may just be stating they are doing the show, not necessarily the Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

In googling this I saw the OP was complaining about this on another site, and on there he posted a link to one of the Austrialian productions, and it says it is the Lloyd Webber version.
CLOC Musical Theatre