Review: PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Soars Into The Hippodrome

The Hippodrome is a lovely place to see a show. I suggest parking in one of the nearby garages. There's an open lot on Eutaw street, but I find the payment process cumbersome. Though I usually park in the Hippodrome-attached garage on Fayette Street, I need a quicker getaway this evening and plan to use the Eutaw garage to the North of the theater. Instead, I find street parking, free after 6pm.

It generally astounds people that I haven't seen PHANTOM, LES MIS or AVENUE Q, but since I also haven't seen Casablanca, Ben Hur or Weekend At Bernie's, this doesn't trouble me. I have fresh eyes for the show, as the only rendition of Phantom I've seen was on television on a Sunday afternoon in the late '70s, starring Lon Chaney or maybe Claude Rains, which I mostly disremember.

Advisory to frequent readers: there is no borscht in this review.

The Hippodrome has a coat check, if you'd rather not share seating with large winter outerwear, and the bar is open pre-show serving fancy cocoa cocktails. All the staff and volunteers are friendly, knowledgeable and expediently helpful. We find our seats, and to my delight, the pre-show set gives us something to look at: a cobwebby scrim and behind it, lush, suggestive Baroque pieces with gingerbread and curlieques, much like the interior of the Hippodrome. Though the popular trope is that writers are people-watching fanatics, I spend the time before curtain looking at the carvings inlaid in the ceiling.

After the house dims, however, I switch to gawping at the tech and scale of the show which are, in a word, magnificent. It is a spectacle of spectacles, and set designer Paul Brown deserves his own ovation. The sound, brilliantly executed by the Hippodrome techs and cleverly imagined by designer Mick Potter, creates an immersive environment which gives the unseen title character location and substance, possibly moreso than when he is actually visible.

The show opens with a prequel of sorts, a chandelier descends and thenceforward comes stunning visual after stunning visual, intricacies and surprises of the set unfolding smoothly and silently, and aren't we grateful for stage hydraulics. The late Maria Bjornson's costumes (now under the care of costume co-ordinator Christine Rowland) are creations of layered opulence, some of them assuming lives of their own, including a dressing gown that ripples like a waterfall and a kilt that coyly pretends to misbehave but is actually meant to reveal more than the legs of dancer Shane Ohmer, who is wonderfully watchable even when fully dressed.

You like a fabulous parade of costumes? This production has it. Want brilliant tech, including pyrotechnics and convincing sunrises? Here it is. Beautifully choreographed, skillfully performed dance sequences? Yes indeed. Wigs, makeup, shoes, onstage costume changes? Yup times four. Soaring vocals, masterful conduction and delightful orchestration? This show. I recommend it, with altitude.

And now, a moment for unpleasantries. Andrew Lloyd Webber is not my favorite. Aside from the thrumming Phantom theme, I find the music unmemorable. The characters lack depth and the story is so thin on backstory that it doesn't matter it's chockablock with holes. These flaws are known as 'book problems', and I assume devoted fans of the musical skip right over them.

The excellent sound quality is not at all to blame for the unintelligible lyrics, but the actors, in the hands of director Laurence Connor, physically communicate the gist of each scene. I find much of the show to be comparable to watching an opera in a language I don't speak, which may be a stylistic choice. The lyrics I do understand hint that lyrics aren't really the point.

Each of the performers is well cast, and of varying 'types' so we easily keep track of what might otherwise be indistinguishable characters. The performer substitutions indicated by tiny slips of paper in my programme are seamless and invisible. Everyone displays powerful, accurate vocals. Jacquelynne Fontaine as prima donna Carlotta has an impressive voice plus some surprise comic moments, as does a very sniffy footman, actor uncredited. Blocking and choreography blend and interact with the movements of the set. It's immersive, lavish and splendid, with such fascinating details that I'm sometimes diverted from the main action.

That PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has been around so long is due to factors other than the unapologetically paternalistic and dated nature of the core story. This is a fantastic production, (the intended, classical use of the 'fantas' wordbase) and well worth seeing. If you're a Webber fan, you will love this show. If you're not a Webber fan, there are many, many reasons to love it anyway.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA runs January 27 through February 7

Saturday January 30 and February 6 shows at 2 and 8 pm

Sunday Sunday January 31 and February 7 at 1 and 6:30 pm

Dark on Monday February 1

Shows at 8pm Monday February 2 through Friday February 5

The Hippodrome Theatre is at 12 N. Eutaw Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Open Monday-Friday, 11am-3pm. On performance days, open 11am-intermission.

Tickets: 800-982-2787

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

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