January 2006 Archives

Run, don't walk to the Schoenfeld to get tickets for one of the highlights of the seaon. Dick's back and Chita's got him: Dick Van Dyke, that is.

The stars of Bye, Bye, Birdie are reunited for the first time in 45 years [onstage, at least] in a special edition of Rivera's autobiographical revue, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. There are three more performances to catch the award-winning duo: two shows today and Thursday night.

Rivera and Van Dyke in Bye, Bye Birdie>
Making this week all the more special, Rivera turned 73 on Monday. Last night she was feted with a post-show birthday celebration at Times Square eatery and theatrical hangout Tony's Di Napoli [home of the Broadway Wall of Fame].

The reunited duo's first performance last night met with thunderous applause. Van Dyke is warmly saluted in The Dancer's Life but, says Rivera, "what a special thrill and absolute pleasure it is to have actually have back on stage with me." They were Rosie and Albert in 1961's Tony-winning Best Musical BBB. "I loved every performance of Birdie," added Rivera. "Working with Dick was sublime and I'm thrilled we're together again onstage!"

That season, Van Dyke took home the Best Featured Actor Tony, even though he was in a starring role [his billing was below the title, a stickler rule for the Tony nominating committee in those days]. Rivera, even though she was the female lead, was Featured nominated - one of those still very hard to fathom faux pas by a Tony nominating committee.

Lisa Mordente, Rivera's daughter, and choreographer/director Tony Mordente, who is Rivera's former husband, staged Van Dyke's guest appearance.

Last night, a mutual friend said to Mordente, "The biggest mistake you ever made was divorcing her!" Mordente was quick to note, "No, you got it all wrong. She divorced me!" Rivera cracked up laughing and they embraced warmly.

Attending Rivera's birthday celebration were Van Dyke, wife Michelle, Ben Stiller, Robin Givens [now co-starring in Chicago], Lee Roy Reams, [Birdie] composer Charles Strouse, cast members of The Dancer's Life, veteran choreographer/dancer/director Deedee Wood [who worked with Rivera in Can Can] and a slew of the show's producers, including Marty Bell, Martin Richards, Chase Mishkin, Marlyne Sexton, Tracy Aaron and Pat Addiss.

Van Dyke said he was "delighted" to be back on a Broadway stage. "Chita was amazing then, but look at her now! Isn't she incredible? It's as if time has stopped. She's ageless!"

His last Broadway appearance was more than 25 years ago, in a revival of The Music Man.

Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, of course, celebrates the life and career of one of Broadway's most beloved treasures. It's written by four-time Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally and directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele. The show has songs from the revues and musical Rivera has appeared in, such as West Side Story, The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman, with new songs by Tony and Drama Desk-winning composers Lynn Ahrens and Steven Flaherty. Mark Hummel is music director.

The show is a two-hour tour through some major landmarks in American musical theater fashioned by some of our greatest choreographes, composers and directors: Robbins, Bernstein, Fosse, Champion, Kidd, Prince and Kander & Ebb.

Van Dyke had small roles on Broadway until BBB catapulted him to stardom. He later starred in the film adaptation, which focused more on the body parts of Ann-Margret. That film was Rivera's second disappointment re: going from stage to screen. She lost out to Janet Leigh. When WSS segued to the big screen, Rita Moreno got the role of Anita; and received the 1961 Supporting Actress Oscar. Sadly, on Broadway, Rivera wasn't even nominated for a Tony - another hard to fathom faux pas by a Tony nominating committee [co-star Carol Lawrence was nominated in the Featured category!].

Van Dyke went on to become a TV legend with his classic Dick Van Dyke Show co-starring Mary Tyler Moore; and starred in such film blockbusters as Mary Poppins [1964] and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang [1968] and such TV specials as the 2003 adaptation of D.L. Coburn's The Gin Game [co-starring Moore]. From 1993-2001, he starred in Diagnosis Murder, on CBS with son Barry in a co-starring role. Van Dyke can be heard in the animated Batman: New Times and Curious George.

At the peak of his stardom, Van Dyke didn't forget his BBB Rosie. In 1973, Rivera appeared with her Broadway Albert and Hope Lange on The New Dick Van Dyke Show.

"I was Dick's neighbor," she says. "It was a great opportunity, but I didn't have a lot to do. On one show I came in loaded with groceries to find Dick all doped up on Novocain after being at the dentist. I had to rouse him." She adds, laughing, "My lines were, 'Dick. Dick? Dick!' I knew I had to make the most of it, so I really rehearsed ways to have the most impact. 'Dick!! Dick?? DICK!' We did it and it worked; but I immediately felt it was time to throw in the towel. Done in by three Dicks, I headed back to New York!"

TV's loss became Broadway's treasure - receiving eight Tony nominations and taking home two of the Awards.

Visit http://www.thedancerslife.com/ for Rivera news, recent video of a production number from CR:TDL and must-see archival film.

THE PUBLIC CELEBRATES WITH SONG

The Public Sings: A 50th Anniversary Celebration, a one-night-only event showcasing the rich history of musicals produced by the Public Theater, takes place Monday [January 30th ] at 7:30PM at City Center.

Among those scheduled to appear are: Zach Braff, Betty Buckley, Lea DeLaria, Savion Glover, Eartha Kitt, Donna McKechnie, Idina Menzel, Donna Murphy, Rosie Perez, Natalie Portman, Tonya Pinkins, Billy Porter, Meryl Streep, Mary Testa and Lillias White.

Five-time Tony-winning director [and a Tony winner for his book of Passion] James Lapine is director.

Lapine has a decades-long relationship with the Public. He wrote/directed 1981's Twelve Dreams and directed an acclaimed revival of A Midsummer Night's Dream [Delacorte, Central Park, 1982]; Golden Child [1996], which transferred to Broadway; and A Winter's Tale [1989].

Public Theatre founder Joseph Papp in Central Park's Delacorte Theatre>

The Public's musical history includes: Two Gentlemen of Verona [1971], Threepenny Opera [1975], I'm Getting My Act Together And Taking It On the Road [1978], The Pirates of Penzance [1979], The Human Comedy [1983], the Tony-winning Best Musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood [1984], the quite-daring-for-it's time The Knife [1987, written and directed by David Hare and starring Mandy Patinkin as a husband and father of three children who undergoes a sex change], Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite [1993], a revival of On the Town [1996], LaChiusa's The Wild Party [2000] and Elaine Stritch at Liberty [2001].

The benefit event is produced by David Binder and will feature a tribute to Public found Joe Papp and songs from such signature Public musicals as Hair, Runaways, A Chorus Line, Bring in ëDa Noise, Bring in ëDa Funk and Caroline, or Change.

Support for The Public Sings has been provided by Time Warner, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Target, JPMorgan Chase, the Altria Group, Bloomberg, ConEdison, News Corporation/New York Post, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Starr Foundation, Viacom Outdoor, The New York Times, New York Public Radio-WNYC and, among many other corporate and charitable entities, the Shubert Foundation.

Oskar Eustis is the Public's artistic director and Mara Manus is executive director.

Prices range from $5,000 to $1,000 [these include premium seating, pre-performance cocktail event, post-performance cast supper with gift bag). For benefit tickets, call (212) 539-8633.

Limited down-the-scale seats for $750 and $500, which include pre-performance cocktails, all the way, way, way down [up, up, up] to $20 are still available. Tickets are on sale at the City Center box office or by calling New York City Center CityTix (877) 581-1212 or (212) 581-1212. For more information please visit http://www.publictheater.org/.

ENCORES! ENCORES WITH MAJOR CHANGES

City Center's new season of acclaimed series of concert revivals of musicals, Encores! opens February 9 with Robert Wright/George Forrest/Alexander Borodin's Kismet [1953], starring Tony and Drama Desk Award winner [and multiple nominee] Brian Stokes Mitchell, multiple Tony and Drama Desk nominee Marin Mazzie and multiple Tony-nominee Tom Aldredge.

Marin Mazzie, Brian Stokes Mitchell with Encores! artistic
director Jack Viertel and Kismet director Lonny Price>
Many, many years later, Wright and Forrest were the driving force behind Grand Hotel, which took two decades to get to Broadway - with the added help of Maury Yeston and director/choreographer Tommy Tune.

The leads are no strangers to working together, having appeared on Broadway in Ragtime, Man of La Mancha and Kiss Me, Kate. Mitchell portrays the handsome but slippery poet Hajj; Mazzie is Lalume, the "voluptuous" daughter of Bagdad's wazir.

Danny Gurwin [Little Women, Urinetown, The Full Monty] is the Caliph and Aldredge appears in the feature role of Jawan.

... ........ .... ...................... ...................... Danny Gurwin with Sutton Foster in Little Women>

But there's more. Talk about a big show: the cast will feature Elizabeth Parkinson [Movin' Out], Rachelle Rak [Dirty Rotten Scoundrels] and a featured cast and ensemble of, get this, 30. Oh, my, and WOW!

The engagement, which runs February 9 - 12, is directed by Lonnie Price, and marks Sondheim musicals veteran Paul Gemignani's debut as music director. Encores! artistic director is Jack Viertel.

"I wanted to do Kismet to hear the score performed as it should be, with a forty-piece orchestra," says Gemignani. "No one can afford to do that on Broadway anymore."

Gemignani music directed Encores! 1999 Do Re Mi. He served as music director and conducted 35 Broadway shows, including On the Twentieth Century, Evita!, Crazy For You and the acclaimed Kiss Me, Kate revival. In 2001, he was honored with a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

................................................The late Alfred Drake, a Broadway heart-throb and Tony winner>

Kismet, with a book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, opened on Broadway in December, 1953 and ran 583 performances [nearly a year and a half], winning three Tony Awards including Best Musical. It starred theater legend Alfred Drake as Hajii, Joan Diener [later to star in the original Man of La Mancha] as Lalume, Doretta Morrow as Marsinah and, as the Caliph, Richard Kiley, who went on to become a major Broadway musical star [La Mancha; Redhead opposite Gwen Verdon; No Strings, opposite Diahann Carroll.]

Set in exotic Baghdad, Kismet is an Arabian Nights-style comedy with a lush, romantic score that includes the classics "And This Is My Beloved," "Strangers in Paradise" and "Baubles, Bangles and Beads."

The upcoming productions are Kander and Ebb/Joe Masteroff's 70 Girls, 70 [1971], March 30 - April 2; and George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's 1931 Pulitzer-Prize winner for Drama Of Thee I Sing, May 11 - 14.

"Of Thee I Sing has one of the best overtures every written for a Broadway show," notes Gemignani. "Gorgeous music by George Gershwin. I'm looking forward to conducting that score with our orchestra."

Since its inception in 1994, Encores! has presented the works of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Bock and Harnick, Burt Bacharach, Kander and Ebb and Comden and Green. The series is the recipient of a special 2000 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre and, among many other honors, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

Kismet's performance schedule will be: 8 P.M. on Thursday, February 9; Friday, February 10; and Saturday, February 11; and 2:00 P.M. on the 11th as well as 6:30 P.M. on the 12th.

Lead sponsorship for Encores! 2006 season is provided by Newman's Own. Season tickets and available single seats are available at the City Center box office, through CityTix at (212) 581-1212, or online at http://www.nycitycenter.org/. Prices range from $90 to $25.

[Photo: JOAN MARCUS]

35TH ANNIVERSARY THEATER HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Tony Award winners Zoe Caldwell, director Jack O'Brien and choreorapher/director Susan Stroman will be among the presenters at Monday's 35th Anniversary Theater Hall of Fame inductions in the rotundas of the Gershwin Theatre. [Chita Rivera, who was set to be a presenter, has had to decline.]

John Lithgow is among the 2005 inductees>

HOF member Marian Seldes will introduce Liz Smith, who will host the event. Additional presenters will include costume designer Jane Greenwood Edwards, veteran theatrical agent Lionel Larner and film/stage director Arthur Penn.

2005 inductees are: Graciela Daniele, Sir Peter Hall, John Lithgow, costume designer William Ivey Long, Sada Thompson.

Posthumous inductions will honor groundbreaking set designer Ben Edwards, playwright William Gibson and Dorothy Loudon.

.................................................... .......The late, great Dorothy Loudon, a Tony winner for Annie>

The 2005 Founders Award for Outstanding Contribution to the American Theater will be presented to Donald Seawell, Broadway and West End producer and founder and chairman of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

The Theater Hall of Fame was founded in 1971. Eligibility requires the theater professional having at least 25 years on Broadway and five major production credits.

Inductees are voted in by members of the American Theater Critics Association and the Hall of Fame. Terry Hodge Taylor is executive producer.

IN THE CONTINUUM CONTINUES

Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's blistering play about the devastating problem of AIDS among African and African-American women, In the Continuum, has been extended until February 18 at Greenwich Village's Perry Street Theatre [31 Perry Street, west of Seventh Avenue].

Gurira and Salter also co-star, portraying black women in crisis, albeit a continent away. They give two of the most extraordinary and moving performances in recent seasons.

The play has been named one of the Best Plays of 2005 and was chosen by The New York Times among their Top 4 picks, New York Magazine's Top 3 and Newsday's Top 10.

In the Continuum, which transferred to the Perry Street after its critically-acclaimed sold-out world premiere at 59E59 Theatres, is co-presented by Primary Stages. The director is Robert O'Hara. A U.S. and African tour is planned.

Tickets are $60 and can be purchased by calling SmartTix, (212) 868-4444 or online at
www.SmartTix.com. $20 student tickets are available one-hour prior to performance.

ANNIE VETERAN AND EMMY AWARD WINNER RELEASES CD

A veteran of Annie in her youth and now an Emmy-winning daytime drama star [As the World Turns], Martha Byrne has released her third CD, The Other Side.

Byrne, whose voice has been compared to Tori Amos, Dido and Sarah McLachlan, sings ten original tunes, some paying tribute to the actress' TV alter ego, Lily.

After beginning her acting career on Broadway in Annie, she followed with numerous TV roles in series and MFTV films. Last year, Byrne hosted the 11th Annual Daytime Television Salutes St. Jude Children's Research Hospital benefit, helping to raise $250,000 for the Memphis-based hospital and research center founded by Danny Thomas.

The Other Side can be purchased online at Byrne's website, http://www.marthabyrne.net/, or by calling (800) 662-9763.

Outside the Majestic Theatre, there were hundreds of media capturing the arrival of celebrities emerging from their limos onto the red carpet as audience members in elegant evening wear and sparkling jewels paused to observe and gawk.

There was jubilant celebration in the balmy January air, but with a bit of a twist.

It could not have been more gala or filled with more heart-pounding excitement if it was an opening night. But this was The Phantom of the Opera.

Big things, well, at least, in theatrical history, were afoot.

If not an opening night, then it was a sort of reopening night - after 18 years; and the beginning of a new era.

Inside, against the backdrop of Maria Bjˆrnson's decadent faux proscenium of golden Gothic erotica, all those cascading curtains and swags and, under the brilliance of that gigantic chandelier, amid the flamboyance and color of Bjˆrnson's gorgeous costumes, Vitoria, the white cat, materialized from the Heavenside Layer [and the tutus of the ballet corps] to pass the torch to Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

The cast for the 7,486th record-breaker: Howard McGillin,
Sandra Joseph and Tim Martin Gleason are Front Center,
starting behind the T in Phantom>
Having played it's record-shattering 7, 486th performance, it left Cats one notch behind to become the longest-running show in Broadway history.

This specially-staged post-curtain call skit, with Howard McGillin, the longest-running Phantom in Broadway history, front and center, marked the record-breaking performance that had the electric buzz of the January 26, 1988 opening night. In fact, Lloyd Webber said he was more nervous than on opening night.

There was a special record-breaker Playbill, a brand new record-breaker souvenir book with stunning oversized color photographs and a tickly feathered mask for every member of the black-tie audience.

....................... Howard McGillin and Sandra Joseph ride the gondola into the history books>

The show is still remarkably tight [in a production that has few slags]. The production design by the late Bjˆrnson, famed for her work in the world of opera, has been beautifully maintained.

What a far, far cry from the Gypsy Run Through, the last dress rehearsal, way, way, way back on that cold, wintry night when a very nervous [director] Hal Prince paced backstage, praying that everything in that early era of computer-driven shows would work.

It didn't. Not long into the first act, the ghost of the Phantom struck. One of the huge swags [curtain drops] fell right onto the middle of the stage. Amazingly, no one was hurt and eventually the show went on. But not without incident.

As the Phantom snatched his student from the dressing room of the Paris Opera and the segue began that takes them to the bowels of the catacombs below, amide the mist from dry ice and the candelabra, the gondola went berserk. It followed a trajectory of its own, crushing candles in its wake with sparks of electricity flooding the stage.

There was fear from backstage that a fire might erupt. It didn't and, in the truest sense of tradition, the show went on.

There was some fear and trepidation in the audience when it came time for the Phantom to crash that chandelier, which had been wobbling quite a bit throughout the first act. But not to worry. For weeks, the rigging had been tested and retested and tested again.

....................................................................................... a grateful Michael Crawford> ALW, his heart quite heavily pounding and as nervous as always, said it best:"It was a magical evening!" Surely it was, to celebrate his finest hour and, probably, his most lavish show and, certainly, one of his very best scores.

During the interval, as he sipped the gratis Phantom of the Opera Champagne in the aisle of Orchestra Right, he rehearsed his post-performance remarks with the brilliant Gillian Lynne [Cats], who did the choreography and musical staging.

Onstage, after six company calls and the strains of "Memory" had faded, Lloyd Webber, after thanking director Hal Prince and lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, introduced a series of surprises: Tony Award winner Judy Kaye was the grand marshal of a long roster of Carlottas; then came the Raouls.

In Sarah Brightman's absence, Patti Cohenour, [now in The Light in the Piazza] who was Brightman's alternate and her first replacement, led an array of Christines. McGillin then brought on nine of his Phantom alum.

The historic curtain call:
Tim Martin Gleason, Howard McGillin,
Sandra Joseph>
It was ALW's honor, as he put it, to introduce Michael Crawford, the original West End and Broadway Phantom, who had much praise for Bjˆrnson, who died four years ago, and thanked ALW and director Hal Prince for selecting him "for the role that changed my life."

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER SCORES ANOTHER RECORD-BREAKER: With performance 7,486 tonight [January 9], The Phantom of the Opera becomes Broadway's long-run champ. Cast, Front, Center, starting sixth from L: Howard McGillin [Phantom], Sandra Joseph [Christine] and Tim Martin Gleason [Raoul].

Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera will soar into the theatrical history books tonight with its 7,486th performance, becoming Broadway's longest-running show.

The Cameron Mackintosh/Really Useful Group production shatters the record held by ALW's Cats, which was produced by Cameron Mackintosh and ALW. It's the first time the two longest-running shows are by the same composer.

Tonight's performance will be followed by an onstage presentation devised by the musical's creators to uniquely mark the occasion. The SRO performance, with original Phantom Michael Crawford and many POTO veterans in attendance, will be followed by a gala masked ball in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria.

Howard McGillin and Sandra Joseph
ride the gondala into the history books>
It seems POTO, not Cats, will be Now and Forever. On Thursday, January 26, the show will mark another milestone by becoming the first Broadway production to reach its 18th Anniversary.

In addition to the name above the title, the show's lyrics are by the not-so-often ballyhooed or mentioned Charles Hart [who co-wrote the lyrics of Aspects of Love with Don Black] and Richard Stilgoe. The "book" is by Stilgoe and ALW.

Harold Prince, who first met ALW when he wanted to direct Jesus Christ Superstar and who worked with him directing Evita, is director. Musical staging and choreography is by Gillian Lynne, the brilliant associate director and choreography of Cats. Orchestrations are by long-time ALW collaborator David Cullen and ALW.

Much credit for keeping the show in the black goes to the Japanese, who originally came in such droves the Infrared Sound people introduced a new interactive product: a sort of Cliff Notes version in that language; eventually, in two others.

But POTO wouldn't still be drawing audiences if the production team hadn't been doing something right. The show - all those ab fab curtains, the "travelator," Maria Bjˆrnson's lavish costumes and sets and, last but certainly not least, that chandelier - has been well maintained and its running time has been kept tight.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Celebration: POTO's Act Two "Masquerade" and, tonight, a masked ball>
Prince takes a peek now and then, but the real credit for the fine-tuned day-to-day attention to detail goes to the production supervisors and Lynne, who does more than look in on the dancers a few times a year. She's a stickler for structure and gives pages and pages of notes.

[I only hope the Shuberts got the cleaning contractors into the auditorium to dust that magnificent faux proscenium and the banks and banks of lighting.]

There is a sadness among the POTO vets that not only is Bjˆrnson gone, but also Steve Barton, the original Raoul and a one-time Phantom [he later starred in the original Roman Polanski Vienna production of Dance of the Vampires, before it was bowdlerized for Broadway].

Howard McGillin, the man behind the mask>

Mackintosh, ALW and Prince invited back acclaimed Phantom Howard McGillin, who has played the title role on Broadway more than any other performer - donning all that make-up and the mask for nearly 1,400 performances over almost four years.

Joining McGillin are a returning Christine, Sandra Joseph, who, in addition to 1,200 times on Broadway, has played the role throughout the country; Tim Martin Gleason, from the current national tour, as Raoul; Anne Runolfsson [diva Carlotta]; Marilyn Caskey [a previous Carlotta, now stern ballet mistress Madame Giry]; original cast member George Lee Andrews [Monsieur AndrÈ]; and Tim Jerome [Monsieur Firmin]; At certain performances, Rebecca Pitcher, most recently Christine in the national tour, plays Christine.

The 35-member cast also features two other performers who've been with the show since 1988: Mary Leigh Stahl [wardrobe mistress] and Richard Warren Pugh [Don Attilio].

As of January 9th, the four longest-running Broadway are: The Phantom of the Opera; Cats (7,485 performances); Les MisÈrables (6,680) [also produced by Mackintosh, and rumored to be returning for a limited engagement]; and A Chorus Line (6,137).

POTO has proven to be a real boffo box office champion. It ended 2005 by shattering two records: having its highest-grossing year ever on Broadway, as well as the highest-grossing single week in its 18-year history [and a house record for the Majestic]. Of course, you have to keep in mind that when the show opened, the top price was $50. Now, it's over $100.

After 9/11, its future, like so many shows, wasn't so secure, but it made an incredible bounce back and is consistently among Broadway's highest-grossers. The film adaptation, instead of hurting its theatrical prospects, seemed to help. The film, a virtual scene-by-scene recreation of the show, was a bit of a box office dud in the U.S., but broke records in many theatres overseas.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, at home at his estate in Sydmonton Court in 2003,
plays a Broadwood piano. The portraits are Dante Gabriel Rossetti:
L, Portrait of a Lady, 1870; R, A Vision of Ammetta, 1878 [inspired by
Boccaccio's sonnet "Of His Last Sight of Ammetta"]>

In addition to his peerage title of Sir Andrew, Andrew Lord Webber has been called many things, as he laughs all the way to the bank or into his multi-million dollar wine cellars or into the headquarters of his chain of West End theatres or as he collects another art masterpiece.

"The Messiah of the middlebrow," "a composer who writes the same three notes over and over" and "a spectacularly limited talent" are only a few of the brickbats thrown by his detractors.

On the opening in 1988, then New York Times critic Frank Rich derided the show as "impoverished of artistic personality and passion."

In conversation with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, whom Lloyd Webber approached originally to be his POTO lyricist [he declined because of his deteriorating health from a long-term battle with cancer, from which he died in 1986], the composer noted his lack of friends and respect. "Why do people take an instant dislike to me?" he wondered to Lerner.

Could it be his aloofness or paranoia that everyone is against him? Or maybe his ineptness in handling some delicate public relations situations, such as his treatment of Patti Lupone after her success on the West End in Sunset Boulevard?

. . ............................................. .. . . . . . .As if they could never say goodbye, but they did:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................ . . .ALW and Patti Lupone before the Sunset casting fisaco>

Or how he discarded original Sunset lyricist Amy Powers, whom he plucked from obscurity in a BMI musical theater workshop, without even so much as a phone call or giving proper credit for her two remaining contributions to that show? Or his treatment of Roger Moore, who was to be a co-star on the West End in Aspects?

Ironically, in spite of his prodigious output [13 musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, both with lyrcist Tim Rice] and commercial success, no name in musical theater elicts such negatively from critics.

Lloyd Webber has often been accused of "purloining" musical motifs from such masters as Puccini, Mayerbeer and, in the case of a major motif in his now-famous POTO cresendo, English composer Ralph Vaughn-Williams.

He's also been accused of simplicity, sentimentality and, most often, excess, as in those soaring duets, such as POTO's "All I Ask Of You" [which, I have to admit, I find breathtaking!].

A critic recently wrote that a common trait of Puccini and ALW is their ability to place "a melody in a character's mouth that can make an audience react in an almost Pavlovian way. It's a gift that cannot be learned or duplicated. One either has it or one hasn't."

The public either adores his work or absolutely despises it. However you feel, you can't take away the fact that ALW is the most popular composer of modern musical theater. One or two sidesteps to the contrary, he has his pulse on what theatergoers want.

How else to explain POTO's popularity? Or the loyal fans, whom over the years, have seen the show multiple times - in a couple of instances, over 100 times! According to its own research, and who can argue with that, POTO is already the most successful stage musical of all time.

It would seem the public can't get enough of it. In some cities, theatres have had back walls ripped out to extend their stage houses so they could accommodate the musical. Wherever the show sat down for several months, it was a boon to the local and regional economy. Hotels, restaurants benefited as tour buses arrived with theatergoers from miles and miles away.

Though the show has seemingly toured or played everywhere, here and abroad, there's still life in the old boy, as will be seen this Spring in Las Vegas with the all-new reconceived lavish 90-minute co-production between ALW's Really Useful Group and Clear Channel Entertainment [directed by Prince] at the Venetian Casino Hotel and Resort. The show will play in a $30-million, state-of-the-art theatre designed specifically for the production.

Needless to say, POTO is Lloyd Webber's all-time champion. Probably only Evita comes close in popularity and commercial success.

Attendance at Broadway POTO's is an estimated 11 million. But the show's international success is more staggering. Worldwide attendance: estimated in excess of 80 million. Worldwide gross: $3.2-billion. It's the most successful entertainment venture of all time, surpassing not only other stage shows, but also far surpassing the world's highest-grossing film, Titanic [$1.2- billion] and such blockbusters as The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park and Star Wars.

Director Prince, discussing POTO's popularity, noted "to have a hit, you have to tell an audience something they want to hear. Andrew's works always wind up reassuring us that love is good, hate is bad, villains suffer and heroes ultimately are rewarded."

But neither the West End or the Broadway Phantom opened to across the board raves.

[I recall my English guests on Opening Night in London jumping out of their seats at the interval to be among the first at the bar. One groaned, "Didn't you say this was a musical? But how can it be without dancing girls?" When it was pointed out that there were dancing girls - and a dancing guy, my friend, then the English editor of Penthouse, blurted, "Dear chap, those are ballerinas!"]

More than anything, The Phantom of the Opera is a marvel of marketing - a model all musicals could follow in the how-to of putting audiences in the seats. Long before its opening nights, it had sort of buzz that, more recently, The Producers generated. The title became a household term. Before the show opened, seemingly everyone everywhere knew something about it.

POTO had its world premiere October 9, 1986 at Her Majesty's Theatre on London's West End, where it still plays. It won every major British theatre award, including the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical.

After nearly a year in London, the hype was so intense, the show, capitalized at $8-million, opened here with a then-record advance of $18-million. It became one of our major tourist attractions.

Opening Night, January 1988: Director Prince, Crawford, ALW, Brightman>

The New York production starred Crawford and, as on the West End, Sarah Brightman, then Mrs. ALW, as Christine. [Patti Cohenour, currently in The Light in the Piazza, was the original New York Christine alternate and the first replacement for Brightman]. The musical swept the 1988 Tony Awards, winning seven, including Best Musical. It also took home seven Drama Desk Awards.

Crawford, a veteran of West End musicals, was lauded by critics and achieved matinee idol status. However, it's been said by veterans of the show that soon he became quite the tempermental star - and was distant to boot. You spoke only in whispers near his dressing room, which remained closed. Vists were rumored to be by appointment only.

[If at all true, his comeuppance was certainly the embarrassment he suffered starring in 2002's ill-fated and awful Dance of the Vampires, where he let down a number of loyal fans.]

But Crawford does appear to be a changed man, and he is very mindful of and polite to his legend of fans - always taking the time to sign autographs and pose for photos.

In an interview, Crawford was quoted as saying that neither he or Lloyd Webber had an inkling of the show's long-run potential. "Not to this extent," he noted. "I don't know that anyone could have predicted the long, long term success."

Lloyd Webber recently told Playbill: "The Phantom has defied all gravity...It's one of those things that I know I will never, ever repeat in my career...it just seemed to catch a chord, catch a nerve that when you start writing you can't predict."

But, according to Crawford, something began to kick in during London rehearsals and he felt like the show would be "an extraordinary experience...very, very special."

So special in fact that the original London cast recording was the first in British musical history to enter the charts in the Number One position. It has since gone both Gold and Platinum in Britain and the U.S., selling over 40 million copies worldwide.

Crawford credits the show's vast popularity to the fact that the Phantom, instead of repelling audiences, actually touches them.

He has compared it to a "beauty and the beast cultural phenomenon, " further noting that audiences don't have trouble identifying with the story because, as he was quoted, "we've all loved and have lost." He further reported that he had received countless letters from people who wrote that they felt unloved because of their looks.

Long-time Phantom [and the most recent before McGillin's return] Hugh Panaro [soon to be seen in Lestat] agrees. "Growing up in Philadelphia, I was chunky and teased constantly about my weight. I was called vicious names. It's something that stays with you, something you don't forget. I can tell you the name of every kid on my block who made fun of me! If I was as extreme as the Phantom, I'd probably have thrown darts of flame at them!"

But that experience, he adds, was an asset to understanding the character. "When people ask me how it was playing him, I reply, 'joyful.' Some have been taken aback by that remark, but it was a joyful experience - and free therapy. If you're having a bad or angry day, you could let it all out. On our off days, I didn't know what to do. I didn't have any place to display my neuroses."

Onstage, it was very serious business. "You really had to pay attention," reports Panaro. "There were dangers everywhere, with dogtracks and gaping holes that open with the stage shrouded in smoke. At various times, and in split seconds, and in the dark I scaled some pretty great heights and ran amok on a catwalk high above the audience. I'm a born daredevil, so I enjoyed those moments. Sometimes, I could hear gasps. They were well founded, but, knock on wood, I was never been injured. Of course, there are all sorts of safety precautions."

He explains that the surprise element is vital for the show to really succeed with audiences. Panaro came up with various ways to disguise himself as he would get into various niches around and above the stage so audiences - especially those in the boxes - won't detect him before it was time. He described one such moment, high, high above the proscenium as "like being in an MRI machine. You lay totally still and can't move a muscle." In one spot, he even rigged a water bottle he could nip on.

Panaro knows the musical has more than its share of detractors, "some are even friends of mine. They say it's nothing but spectacle, but that's not what keeps audiences coming back after all these years. The show has heart and soul. It touches people. My favorite scene is the last, because it's the only time you hear how the Phantom became this angry, violent, murdering man. It began in childhood when his mother slapped a mask on his face because he was so horrendously ugly and she couldn't stand to look at her baby."

For him, the most moving moments came during the final sequence, when he would glance into the first rows of the house and see the hankies coming out. "I understood, because it's almost impossible not to feel for the Phantom. For the majority of us, life is not that dramatic, but his character is a magnified version of all of us. We walk through life with that wounded child in us. Because of my emotional scars, I know I do. But, in the Phantom's case, as Christine says, it's in his soul where the real distortion lies."

Though POTO is based on Gaston Leroux's classic novel, Lloyd Webber was actually inspired to do an original musical after seeing Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera, which used opera motifs, in 1984. In fact, he attempted to work with Hill, then set out on his own. Then, of course, there's the other Phantom, by Maury Yeston, which has been hugely successful in regional theatres.

In early stages, ALW set out to conceive a tongue-in-cheek musical in the style of The Rocky Horror Show, with motifs from 19th Century operas by Massenet and Delibes. That changed after a conversation with Rocky Horror director Jim Sharman, who suggested that the Phanton stopy was ripe for the type of lush, romantic score Lloyd Webber is now famous for.

The story has been told onstage and onscreen in many variations, but basically it's about a terribly disfigured opera buff, who considers himself a great composer and vocal coach, who lurks in the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who don't conduct business as he sees fit. He falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano and dancer, Christine, and devotes himself to making her a star by all means at his command.

Panaro points out there's also an emotional hook: "Other aspects aside, The Phantom of the Opera is a love story, except in this case boy meets girl but never gets her."

There have been big changes at Phantom, at least in the backstage creative process. Thanks especially to the ingenuity of the show's make-up supervisor Thelma Pollard, the Phantom's make-up is now a snap. Early Phantoms had to be worked on for hours, but thanks to Pollard's innovations with prosthetics, she has reduced the time in the make-up chair to forty-five minutes or less.

Trivia: The 11 Broadway Phantoms have been Crawford [January 9, 1988], Timothy Nolen [October 10, '88], Cris Groenendaal [March 20, '89], Barton [March 19, '90], Kevin Gray [December 3, '90], Mark Jacoby [February 22, '91], Marcus Lovett [May 24, '93], Davis Gaines [July 4, '94], Thomas James O'Leary [October 11, '96], Panaro [February 1, '99 and April 14, '03] and McGillin [August 23, '99 and currently].

More Trivia: Charles Hart, now seriously dating Jane Krakowski, the drop-dead gorgeous Tony winner [Featured Actress] for the Nine revival, featured star of Grand Hotel and TVs Ally McBeal, is the lead lyricist on Phantom. As a 25-year-old, he was plucked from obscurity [eeking out a living as a keyboardist and vocal coach] from to be wordsmith. And, in his little London flat where he could not open the windows because it was adjacent to the rail yards, he toiled away in the nude.

Statistic: POTO has raised over $1-million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. For much more information, visit http://www.thephantomoftheopera.com/.

[Current production photos: JOAN MARCUS; McGillin photo: ELLIS NASSOUR; Andrew Lloyd Webber photo:
Royal Academy of Art Magazine; Reuters; TIME Magazine;1988 opening night curtain call: MARTHA SWOPE ]