Phantom of the Opera – Interview with Jerome and the Phantoms


    The Workshop Players will present Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famed ‘Phantom of the Opera’ next month, a fully realised dream that will captivate the audience and bring to life the longest running musical of all time.

DIRECTOR – Jerome de Silva

Why did you want to do Phantom?
I’ve always wanted to do Phantom, it’s such a huge spectacle. The music is absolutely fabulous and very demanding, very challenging and I felt like we have come of age and that we can tackle it now. It’s one of those shows that everyone wants to see, everybody talks about the chandelier crashing…

And we’re going to get all of that right?
Of course! No half measures even though we don’t have the mechanisms, in fact we perform miracles on stage without the mechanisms, people will never realise that these things are being done by people! Technically and musically I think Phantom is one of the most difficult and complicated shows and if we can pull this off – and I know we are going to pull this off – then anything is possible.

What’s your favourite song?  
It goes back to this sentimental nostalgia... the sequence I love best is The Point of No Return. Music of the Night is the usual choice but having played the phantom, Point of No Return is so powerful!

What do you think the Sri Lankan audience’s reactions will be?
I think from the time the chandelier goes up, they will be stupefied. This play has been constructed so well that every scene has something dramatic, and in any case with my productions I build in some drama and some memorability into each scene, something I‘ve endeavoured to do in all my productions in the last 40 years. A lot of work is being done by our committee and now it’s a cakewalk for me! We’ve got Suren, my Assistant Artistic Director who is in charge of music, and Shanuki in charge of the choreography, and I have a brilliant committee who are handling every aspect of the production. I am just adding the pepper and the salt to the ingredients that they are supplying and just stirring and serving it up to the audience as a hot steaming spectacle!

Phantoms - Jehan Aloysius, Manoj Sinanayagam and Sean Amarasekara

How did you approach the role?
 

Jehan
 When I first listened to the soundtrack I immediately fell in love with the role and I remember Jerome talking about the production he’d seen and wanting to replicate that experience for audiences here. While listening to the soundtrack you always imagine that the voice on the soundtrack is the best thing that you’re going to hear, but I think over the last 20 years as an actor I believe I have also grown so I’ll be approaching the role in a slightly different way. I think each of us are very individual in the portrayal of the role, it’s about putting something of yourself into the role. I think the challenge of the role is to play the villain without being the villain. It’s the classic story of Beauty and the Beast and people start rooting for the beast in the end. We have the additional challenge of working with four different Christines and a multiple cast but each night will be different and audiences might want to see it multiple times!
 

Sean
I do a lot of comedy and it’s a lot of exaggerated characters but for this you do need to draw from something a little more truthful, it has to centre from a point of honesty, because even though he’s a damaged man there’s a very true core to him which is why the audiences want him to get the girl, in spite of him being a murderer. He’s been cast as the villain without actually being the villain. Listening to the album, I was a big Crawford fan even before the Phantom, and so for the longest time he was the defining version of the Phantom for me. But I have been lucky to see it on the West End a few times, most recently I saw John Owen Jones and he’s fabulous and overall I think it’s lasted this many years because everyone brings their own interpretation and that opened my eyes. The core of it is so strong that you can make it your own.
 

What is your favourite song?
 

Jehan
The Phantom of the Opera duet. The theatricality, with the journey down to the lair and the boat ride is amazing.
 

Sean
Well Music of the Night is a wonderful song, I’ve sung it just as a solo but its different singing it to a Christine in the room. However I’m most looking forward to the final lair, it’s just brilliant.  

Text by Marissa van Eyck
Pics by Kushan Pathiraja