Taking leave from the Broadway production, Maree Johnson (Christine in the very first Sydney Phantom, taking over from Marina Prior) gives us her Madame Giry. There are some notable show veterans on hand, too.
The leading trio – Joshua Robson (the Phantom), Georgina Hopson (Christine) and Callum Francis (Raoul) – are making their Phantom debuts.
Phillips has cast a mix of new stars and old hands. Under Tylesova’s eye, on a stage that’s more than twice as large as any indoor stage in Australia, nothing about the drama is made to seem puny. Phantom is a simple story, and often in the hands of actors in pairs or threes. In the hands of designer Gabriela Tylesova, the set – with its sweeping staircase and tower of theatre boxes – feels surprisingly intimate. Her set (a tower of baroque theatre boxes topped with a sharp beak of broken proscenium a staircase sweeping across the backstage and down) makes this outsized experience feel surprisingly intimate. The bulk of the credit should go to designer Gabriela Tylesova for making Phantom work as well as it does. How does a story that revels in the subterranean stand up against a glittering skyline? What chance does a lake of dry ice have in a harbour breeze? Where the heck is the hanging point for the swinging chandelier? It’s a drama of interiors – physical and psychological – and gloomy ones at that. Josh Piterman will be stalking Sydney Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre later this year in Australia’s first look at the refreshed Phantom that reopened on the West End in 2021.īut first up is this supersized one-off staging, directed by Simon Phillips and mounted on a huge pontoon anchored off the Domain’s Fleet Steps, before an audience of up to 3,000 per night.Ī Phantom al fresco? It doesn’t seem a natural fit.
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