Any eyes in Hollywood will cast a watchful eye
this week to see if Andrew Lloyd Webber's tale of an opera ghost
will haunt movie theaters the way it has New York and London stages,
or merely be a phantom at the box office.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the
Opera, his musical adaptation of Gaston
Leroux's novel, opens on area screens this week, with expectations
high for fans and for studios wanting to see how viable the movie
musical can be in this post-Chicago reality.
You'd think that Phantom would be a
prime candidate for blockbuster status. The play has grossed $3.2
billion worldwide from 65,000 performances in front of more than 80
million people, according to Webber's company, the Really Useful
Group. It's also enjoyed a run of more than 16 years on Broadway.
``The play is so successful and has been
playing in England, New York and around the world, that this is
going to be a test,'' said Thomas Hischak, author of the book,
Film It With Music: An Encyclopedic Guide to the American Movie
Musical. ``Can a play that was an international hit be a movie
blockbuster?''
All of the success Chicago enjoyed
changed the landscape for movie musicals, Hischak said; that film
grossed more than $300 million worldwide. Jim Farrelly, director of
film studies at the University of Dayton, agreed.
``Investors are expecting the same kind of
results with The Phantom of the Opera. People think it is the
best musical written. It certainly has a strong story,'' he said.
``I would quibble with it being the best ever written, but I do
think it has a following -- a cult kind of following -- so people
are expecting great things.''
Those people aren't just investors, but fans.
For all of its popularity, Phantom endured a bumpy ride to
get to the silver screen. First touted as a major release for 1991
by Warner Bros., the studio never got the film made, eventually
selling its rights back to Webber for approximately $2 million and
signing a deal to distribute the movie, according to reports.
Casting had never been easy either. Actors
including Antonio Banderas and John Travolta were linked to the
role, much to the dismay of Phantomphiles across the planet. At one
point fans established
www.phantommovie.com, a site whose sole purpose was to ensure
that Michael Crawford, the actor who originated the role, would be
cast in the film. Imagine the ruckus when relative unknown Gerard
Butler won it last year.
For 57-year-old Robert Sawyer, a retired City
of Akron employee, no one will ever truly measure up to Crawford.
``You're going through all this trouble (to
make a movie) and you have to wonder what Webber was thinking,'' he
said. ``I know he's getting old, but just to hear him (Crawford) do
it, I'd overlook any note he can't hit at age 62.''
Diana Wilson, 51, a truck driver from Akron,
agreed.
``I was very disappointed that he didn't get
the part just because he does it so well,'' she said. ``He was part
of the reason I fell in love with the show.''
But Sawyer and Wilson have both seen the show
multiple times, with Crawford only once each, and both plan to see
the movie with an open mind. So there's something else at play
there, be it the show's sweeping romance or Webber's sometimes
haunting music. The play has evolved into a cultural phenomenon
without Crawford and his co-star Sarah Brightman, who portrayed the
object of the Phantom's obsession, Christine Daae, Hischak said.
``They're taking the approach that they're
selling the play, not the names, which is what the producers learned
after Crawford and Brightman left,'' he said.
And with Joel Schumacher directing the movie,
and it being shot conventionally, Webber and company may be hoping
the name is enough to continue the resuscitation of a genre that's
lain comatose since the '60s.
``It was neglected,'' Neil Meron, executive
producer of Chicago, said of the movie musical during a round
of interviews for that movie. ``I think the whole genre was being
maligned because there was a period of where the musicals that were
being done were bad, and they blamed it on the genre and not an
individual film.''
Chicago succeeded
at the box office because it crossed demographic lines. Once the
purview of older-skewing audiences, this musical featured the likes
of Queen Latifah, lending it some credibility with younger
audiences. But ultimately, Chicago worked because it allowed
you -- through dream sequences -- to suspend your disbelief of
people spontaneously bursting into song.
More importantly, it also struck a balance
between old-fashioned musical and a film geared toward the MTV
generation. For all of its popularity, Phantom is a very
traditional Hollywood musical that was directed by Schumacher, best
known for his efforts with Batman Returns, Batman Forever
and Phone Booth. It points to a problem that is a bane for
Hollywood right now.
Chicago's
breakthrough sent studios scurrying to obtain or greenlight
musicals. Sweeney Todd is in development with Sam Mendes (American
Beauty) expected to helm; Rent will go before the cameras
early in 2005; The Producers, the Broadway play adapted from
Mel Brooks' 1968 comedy, will return to movie houses in 2005 with
Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprising their roles; and
Hairspray has been announced.
But who will direct? Sweeney Todd has
Mendes, who moved from the British stage to film. In the case of
The Producers and Hairspray, respected Broadway vets are
expected to helm those films too, according to reports. But in other
cases, directors with no experience in the genre will be used.
``They (the studios) really don't know what to
do with musicals because they've lost the tradition,'' the
University of Dayton's Farrelly said. ``I think Chicago was
lucky; they found someone who worked. There's no director who has
what I consider to be a genuine ability to move from genre to
genre.''
None of that will matter if Phantom
disappears from theaters quickly, Hischak said.
``They're not going to care about reviews. They
are going to care about box office and they're going to care about
who sees it. They're going to look at the demographics,'' he said.
``If it totally bombs at the box office, I think a lot of projects
are going to get stalled.''
