SHOW INFORMATION: Through November 16. Performance and price schedule varies. All tickets include show and full course dinner. Call 410.649.1660 or go to www.tobysdinnertheatre.com for tickets and more information.
◊◊◊ out of five. 2 hours, 5 minutes, not including intermission. Stylized violence, use of a firearm.
In this age of fast, easy access media, it is becoming more and more noticeable which stories work in a variety of versions - the Cinderella story, for example. Phantom of the Opera may just be one of those stories as well, considering that a third musical version of the story just opened (in a revival) at Toby's Dinner Theatre of Baltimore. No, it is not the Lloyd Webber version, and it isn't the Yeston version so popular regionally. It is, in fact, a completely original version commissioned by Toby herself some years ago, with a book written by Michael Tilford and music and lyrics by Tom Alonso, a Howard County native. Perhaps the biggest reason that this version works as well as it does is that it takes the familiar, wraps it in a well-planned frame, and doesn't try too hard to replicate the other versions. Will it make you forget the longest running show in Broadway history? Probably not. But will you leave satisfied? Probably.
This somewhat lavish production will leave your senses heightened. David A. Hopkins' set design is very nice, with particularly nice detail on the opera boxes and the large chandeliers which flank the stage. Other elements of the set are "set pieces" and look appropriately worn and utilitarian for an operatic repertory company. Also, such things as the clever double use of court benches which transform into a Faustian pit add to the look of the show. Lynn Joslin's lighting, including footlights and floor bound candelabras, are appropriately moody and sinister. And, as is always the case with a Toby's show, the costumes are particularly lavish and nice to look at. So much so this time around that three people are credited for their design - Larry Munsey, Kate Williams and Josh Singer. Unfortunately, as has become the case more recently, the sound design, this time by Jimmy Engelkemier, is somewhat lacking. There are the giggle inducing gunshot sound effects to begin with, but worse yet, the sheer volume of the orchestra and singers renders almost every group number incomprehensible, even taking into account that the operatic sections are sung in foreign languages.
The score is pretty much what one would expect - a couple of mood creating creepy songs, a couple of catchy ditties and lush romantic ballads, all of which are, at the moment entirely appropriate and kind to the ears, but almost none of which stick with you even minutes after. Still, it is a great relief to report that none of it sounds amateurish or "home-grown." This is a polished piece. A soaring ballad for Raoul, "Behind Every Door," and pretty ballad, "Leaving for the World," sung by Christine and Raoul, and the witty "That's the Way It's Done Around Here" for the changing of ownership of the opera house, all stand out, performance-wise. I also think the closing number, "Haunted," would have been very interesting were the lyrics completely understandable.
Maybe the biggest surprise for me was the book of the show, which utilizes a courtroom frame where various interested parties are called to stand in an investigation of the disappearance of Christine and Raoul, as well as reports of supernatural goings on with the "ghost." It works well, and is most frequently easily (and cleverly) switched into and out of. Another surprise is how much humor there is in the story as told by Mr. Tilford. I don't recall ever really laughing at anything in other versions, but here the laughs - the intended ones, at least - are plentiful, especially in the considerably better first act. The second act is a bit less successful, as it relies on grim and silly platitudes like "death walks tonight," and several mentions of things being "unmasked," even though most of the characters have never seen the Phantom. It is then that the show gets a few unintentional giggles and more than a few eye rolls.
