Review: 'Phantom' has 'talented, tuneful' cast

This past week, the Rochester Broadway Theatre League opened the performance run of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" at Auditorium Theatre, in what was billed as the North American premiere of Cameron Mackintosh's production of the beloved musical.

But as a work of art, does it truly measure up?

Unmistakably, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a full-throated spectacle, and what it lacks in subtlety, it brings in unapologetic passion. Unfortunately, in both subject matter and musical content, Lloyd Webber's opus is a mere cliché of the fin-de-siècle opera it tries to represent.

In its self-serious and heavy-handed manner, the musical ventures too often into oblivious parody without revealing any of the enduring substance inherent in the operatic art form. If the music has a parallel in opera, it is with the work of Giacomo Puccini. Both composers seem susceptible to trading on emotional sensationalism as compensation for two-dimensional characters and a lack of musical depth. In fact, the seemingly more-than-coincidental similarities between a key phrase in "The Music of the Night" ("silently the senses abandon their defenses") and the aria "Quello che tacete" from Puccini's opera Golden Girl of the West is well-documented.

These major caveats aside, this is a musical that demands attention, and the production witnessed by the Rochester audience on Friday night was more than sufficient in executing the terms Lloyd Webber proposes. The cast was filled with talented, tuneful singers who made the most of the composer's largely pedestrian melodies, and the vocal faux pas were so insignificant, they were nearly unnoticeable.

As the Phantom, Cooper Grodin expertly acted the part of a fractured and petty man with an obsessive and gifted mind who chooses the young ballerina-turned-singer Christine Daaé as the object of his affections, as well as his his muse and musical emissary to the outside world ("Help me make the music of the night"). But in order to properly place the notes, Grodin periodically slid into them rather than arriving at them with precision.

Julia Udine was well-suited to the role of Christine, her light soprano an engaging instrument of Disney-esque populism. At times, particularly in the middle and lower parts of her range, Udine sang with her mouth spread too wide, and the notes landed less true than they might have otherwise. But in her upper register, the singer took on renewed strength and conviction, shedding light on the poignant dramatic potential in a voice that could likely handle actual lyric roles in the operatic repertoire.

Similarly, Ben Jacoby — as Christine's love interest Raoul — exhibited a naturally operatic timbre that synthesized the pop and classical elements of the score most expertly. And though Jacoby's delivery was a bit sappy and overwrought at times, his chiaroscuro shading of the notes was always on point.

The Phantom of the Opera is really about how the empathy of one woman enables a tortured soul to finally accept and love himself as he is, without the pretense of a "Masquerade," to which the key chorus number at the very heart of the musical alludes. And on this count, the production succeeded, as evidenced by the enthusiastic standing ovation of the crowd.

If you go

What: Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

When: Through Sunday, April 27: Tuesdays through Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.

Where: Auditorium Theatre, 885 East Main St.

Cost: Starting at $37.50.

For tickets: At the theater box office, rbtl.org or Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.