“Masquerade” has just been extended through July 5 – proof, if you needed it, that the immersive version of “The Phantom of the Opera” has caught on.
This wasn’t a given when it took over a six-story building on West 57th Street some six months ago.
“It was very hard to make and very hard to figure out,” says Telly Leung, one of the six performers who portray the Phantom every night. “Never has an immersive show been this musical, and never has a musical been this immersive.”
.I love the production, and I am not alone. It has drawn an avid community of theatergoers willing to dress up and pay as much as $395 to be one of the 360 audience members each night, spread among six staggered start times. (They can also pay as little as $66.60, if they win the nightly in-person lottery. There is also a “Black Tie Standby Line” offering $170 tickets if there are cancellations.)
These are not just Phans, long-time fans of the Broadway musical. There are new fans for a new Phantom.
The Phantom on Broadway “had an element of mystery,” says Jeremy Stolle,who was one of the thirty-two actors who played the part on Broadway during its thirty-five year run. ““You didn’t know if he was man or monster.” The new Phantom “is a person; there’s a lot more of his backstory added to the show,” says Stolle, who is now in the cast of “Masquerade” as Monsieur Firmin, a co-manager of the Opera Populaire.
Leung, Stolle, and three of the other current Phantoms — Kyle Scaliffe, Clay Singer, and Nik Walker – answered questions over the weekend at BroadwayCon. Watch the video below.
(Two more Phantoms have just been added to the cast — Quentin Earl Darrington and Ryan Vona, — and a Christine — Addie Morales.)
