The Phantom of The Opera

Review: The Phantom of The Opera Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber Directed by Rainer Fried Produced by The Really Useful Group and Crossroads Live Venue: Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre Date: 16 March 2025

Few things in life are more awe-inspiring than a string orchestra and synth attacking a silent audience in darkness with a sustained B flat minor chord and launching into the descending scale. Plowing through chord after chord, the overture of The Phantom of the Opera is nothing short of magical, and it throbbed like a rock heartbeat at the NMACC’s Grand Theatre during the Andrew Llyod Webber musical’s maiden run in Mumbai in March.  

Even after almost 40 years since it premiered in 1986, Webber’s operatic ornamentation has the ability to make your brain’s neurons fire away and dance in a way they have never before, foretelling the grandiose nature of this gothic romance. If there was a museum of theatreland, this piece of music would rank among one of its most coveted curios. 

Set in the late 1800s, Phantom of the Opera is a tragic story of Christine Daaé, a young and talented soprano, and the Phantom, the mysterious masked man who is said to be the ghost of the grand Paris Opera House. The musical explores the Phantom’s intense love (some say, obsession) for Christine who is on her way to become the stardom. Christine, however, falls in love with her childhood friend and patron of the opera house, Raoul. The Phantom’s unrequited love results in a series of unfortunate events, threatening closure of the opera house. 

The first time I watched Phantom was in May 2014 in London as a college student on an exchange programme who had just begun to discover theatre. The year before, my musical theatre friends and I had devoured the cast albums, and on empty Saturday evenings, you could hear echoes of Music of the Night and Angel of Music (where only one of us sang like an angel) through the hallways of my university. So, when I sat in the first row at Her Majesty’s Theatre, overlooking the 30-piece orchestra pit, and saw the chandelier, a signature element of the musical, “crash” on to the stage from the centre of the theatre ceiling eliciting panicked and awe-filled gasps around, I cried at the sheer spectacle of it all. 

This time, however, I was far, far away from the (pared down) pit, at the rear mezzanine, so far away that the actors’ faces looked like Saturn in the night sky – shining bright but I could not make out their rings with the naked eye.

Spectacle often gets a bad rap, but you can’t help marvel at the commitment to it in a show like Phantom. In the West End, the chandelier is integrated into the theatre's architecture. So, this time, when the chandelier wasn’t used as a fixture of the architecture of the Grand Theatre at NMACC (which is understandable), I missed that bit of grandiosity (You can check out how the chandelier crashes in different cities on Youtube). Instead, the chandelier was suspended above the front of the stage, which featured large, ornate set pieces replicating the grand façade of the opera house. 

Some scenes took place on ramps upstage, which were barely visible to those sitting in the upper balcony. In those moments, I was momentarily pulled out of the world of the musical, trying to make sense of what seemed like an unnecessarily long blackout, only to realise the action simply wasn't visible to me. Nonetheless, the production still retained its majestic nature with its opulent sets and props, the costumes, and the vocal gymnastics every performer engaged in. If anything, the singing and performance is what made the production larger than life.

As someone who has worked in stage and production management, the transitions between scenes and costumes were mind-numbingly smooth and seamless. The descent into the Phantom’s lair, with the appearance of the sea of candles was breathtaking to watch. The protagonist of the musical, Christine Daaé, affecting a costume change in the 15 second instrumental interlude of Think of Me was like watching butter melt silkily on a warm pan. The mysterious disappearance of the Phantom at the end left me wide-eyed wondering how they achieved it. 

What stood out most was the precision of all performers, particularly Jonathan Roxmouth as the Phantom and Grace Roberts as Christine Daaé. When Roxmouth as the elusive Phantom sings Music of the Night, his tender voice gently touches a part of you buried deep inside your gut and proceeds to pull it out, like a fisherman wheeling in his line with mastery and devotion. Played brilliantly in contrast was The Point of Return where he turns menacing, his voice, spine-chilling with the threat palpable. 

The Phantom’s character is sometimes misrepresented as a disfigured man who is obsessed with Christine, his ingénue, and makes many attempts and threats to prevent her from being with Raoul, the new owner of the Opera House whom she loves. While the Phantom’s behaviour can be construed as toxic in many parts, Roxmouth breaks those perceptions and manages to portray a very human Phantom who is deeply in love with Christine and looking to belong in a world that doesn’t accept his disfigured self, literally and metaphorically.

Partnering equally well, with a strong presence was Grace Roberts as Christine. Watching her belt and whisper through her songs with aplomb was like watching a gymnast at work. She brought alive the innocence and Christine’s inner struggle of choosing between what she wants and what she “should” want. It was athletic.

Western musicals are not new to Mumbai theatre. Many have been performed as adaptations but what gets missed in them sometimes is the emotional depth of characters and stories against grandiose backdrops and designs. While The Phantom of Opera disregards logic, story in some parts and has some not-so-great ballads (like Think of Me), it has an undeniable pull with its lyricism and melodrama and manages to say a lot about society’s views on inclusion and diversity. Watching The Phantom of the Opera – whether for the first time or a repeat viewing – is always a magical theatre experience, one that is hard to beat. 

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 Phalguni Vittal Rao is an actor, writer and arts manager. In her free time, she reads books (her current favourite is 'Last Chance to See' by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine), basks in her recent discovery of K-drama (current watch: 'Reply 1988'), and is always looking for new things to learn.