'Phantom’s' strong-voiced male leads make
for enjoyable evening of listening entertainment

By Daniel Hines
Publisher
America’s Seniors at www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com

 There is always something special about seeing and listening to the Music of the Night, and media opening night of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ at the Fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis provided yet another example of  the alluring sounds that have made this show among the most enduring in stage history. 

By now, everyone is almost certainly familiar with the age-old themes…beauty and the beast, the elephant man, rejection and a love that can not be fulfilled.   

John Cudia, as the Phantom, has a wonderful voice, more assertive and forceful that the traditional interpretations as offered by the original Phantom, Michael Crawford.  Cudia actually makes us believe that his music is a reflection of the passion he feels for Christine, played by Marie Danvers.  Ms. Danvers has a beautiful voice too, especially when she plays Christine as a somewhat befuddled confused young woman.  She lost some of that when she tried to keep up in volume with The Phantom, but that might have been partially due to sound technicians. 

But that is easily overlooked.  Cudia’s performance was among the best interpretations I have seen of the tragedy-struck Phantom. 

Equally good, at least from the perspective of a wonderful voice, was Adam Monley as Raoul, the romantic interest for Christine, whom he loves even into old age.  Monley’s effortless style belies the strength and excellent tone quality of his voice. 

There was only one criticism to be made.  Apparently the director thought the show with its theme of Music of the Night required that the show be cast in semi-darkness throughout.  In many instances, characters delivered their lines, and even sang in darkness that actually removed them from the view of the audience.   

That was a shame since it lessened the impact of the interaction of the characters.  One of the most notable examples was ‘Masquerade’ which instead of a brightly colored spectacle was a shadowy, poorly lit production.  And, when The Phantom appears, many of the characters become lost in the shadows.   

The producers should have let the wonderfully appropriate setting of the Fox carry more of the weight in setting the mood, rather than a gas lantern lighting approach. 

But, that made little difference to the audience, which was surprisingly youthful and among the best-dressed that we have seen at The Fox in years.   The young people were enraptured with the show, as they should be, proving The Fox’ Mike Isaacson was correct when he predicted that the movie production would attract a new audience that would come to the theater to see the stage production.   They did just that, and they weren’t disappointed thanks to the strong performances of the two male leads.