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STAGE:
AN INTERVIEW WITH COLM WILKINSON
The Star of Broadway's Les Miserables Takes
The Phantom to Toronto
Theatre Week - September 25, 1989
After four years, Andrew Lloyd
Webber's first choice for the lead in The Phantom of the Opera will finally play the role. Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean in the Broadway and London casts of Les Miserables, will don the Phantom's mask in the Canadian production which opens in Toronto on September 20.
When Lloyd Webber's crashing, chromatic, Grand Guignol pipe organ chords fill the theater and the
black curtains covering the proscenium arch fall away, it will be more than just a flashback
in to the past of the Paris Opera House. It will be a thrilling unveiling of the restored
2,100-seat Pantages Theatre.
Anticipation is growing. Ticket sales during the past week have averaged an incredible $200,000 a day. By opening
night, advance sales are likely to reach $25 million, the largest in the musical's history and a new Canadian, if not world,
record. Canadian producers Cineplex-Odeon Corporation in association with Tina
VanderHeyden and the Really Useful Theater Company have reassembled
the original creative team including director Hal Prince, set and costume designer Maria Bjornson and lighting designer
Andrew Bridge.
Wilkinson's casting has excited musical theater communities in New York, London and Toronto. Considered one of the world's
greatest singing actors, he sang the role of the Phantom during the first workshop production at Lloyd Webber's country estate in
Sydmonton, England in July, 1985. It was a one-hour, one-act production and included a falling chandelier.
Later, Lloyd Webber and Prince held a sing-through with a make-shift cast including Wilkinson and Sarah Brightman, Lloyd Webber's wife who went on to create the role of Christine. Lloyd Webber and Prince loved Wilkinson's
work, but the Irish tenor was about to open in Les Miserables and was unavailable.
On the way back to London, co-producer Cameron Mackintosh told Wilkinson that if Les Miz flopped, he could do Phantom. Of course, Les Miz was a smash and the role of the Phantom went to Michael Crawford.
Sitting on the sofa in his bright, confortable dressing room in the
Pantages Theater's basement, the 44-year-old Wilkinson admits he is sensitive about inevitable comparisons between him, Crawford and others who have played the Phantom. So is director Hal Prince. "They're very different, aren't they?" he hedges.
"As good as Michael Crawford's voice is, his timbre is somewhat different. Wilkinson has an element in his stage
personality that is threatening. I love that in actors, wondering whether there's a fuse that's going to go off."
"That's 'cause I'm always asking him for more money," jokes Wilkinson when told of Prince's comment. "If you want to talk about comparisons, it seems to me like it's going to be a putdown of what other people have done. I can't tell you how
encouraging [Hal Prince] is to me. From the word go, I just explained to him very honestly that it's a very sensitive position for me to be in. Obviously, I'm going to be dressed the same as the others. I'm going to be singing the same songs.
It's the same blocking. You can't be up climbing around the portcullis when you're supposed to be in the boat. "He's actually encouraged me to be totally myself and find my own way.... As for comparisons, I'll do it my way. I did the role first in Sydmonton. If people talk about copying, they're copying me as far as I'm concerned."
Wilkinson began rehearsing the role seven months ago in New York. He began by walking around the stage and Prince said,
"That's it. Don't do anymore with it. Just what you're doing now, that's strong enough. I don't want any of that sort of balletic movement stuff." All Wilkinson was doing was moving to the music and to
the emotions he felt.
It's not surprising that with Wilkinson, less is indeed more. He has a strong charismatic stage presence and an extraordinary two-and-a half octave tenor voice which can rage with power or seduce with a whisper. He has the potential of giving the definitive performance of the role.
The Phantom opening isn't the only project on Wilkinson's plate. BMG Music recently released Wilkinson's latest album, a collection of show tunes called Stage Heroes recorded with the
London Philharmonic at London's legendary Abbey Road Studios. Included are his stunning renditions of "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables and "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera. Other songs include the theme from Man of La Mancha,"Somehere" from West Side Story and songs from other musicals such as Chess, South Pacific and Porgy and Bess. "I like the album very much," says Wilkinson. "I'm very picky about what I do and hypercritical."
Wilkinson originally wanted to record an album of classic pop songs such as "Long and Winding Road" and "Bridge Over Troubled
Water." But the record company wanted him to do an album of
Continued...
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