Phantom of the Opera Movie Review New York Times
How 'Phantom of the Opera' Survived the Pandemic
The musical's earth tour, now in Seoul, weathered a cast outbreak to become peradventure the just major bear witness running. Tin theater acquire from its instance?
Banners for "Phantom of the Opera" hang exterior the Seoul theater where its run has recently been extended. Credit... Woohae Cho for The New York Times
"The Phantom of the Opera" has garnered plenty of superlatives over the years, including the longest-running show in Broadway history. But in recent months, it has also laid claim to a more unlikely title: pathbreaking musical of the Covid-19 era.
As theaters effectually the world were abruptly shuttered past the pandemic, with no clear path to reopening in sight, the globe tour of "Phantom" has been soldiering on in Seoul, South Korea, playing eight shows a calendar week. And it has been drawing robust audiences to its 1600-seat theater, fifty-fifty after an outbreak in the ensemble led to a mandatory 3-week shutdown in Apr.
The musical, with its 126-fellow member visitor and hundreds of costumes and props, is believed to be the only large-calibration English-language production running anywhere in the world. And information technology has remained open non through social-distancing measures — a virtual impossibility in the theater, either logistically or financially, many say — but an approach grounded in strict hygiene.
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And information technology's one that its composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, is arguing can testify the way for the rest of the industry, a point he is hoping to demonstrate to the world, as he prepares to turn the Palladium, one of seven theaters he owns in London, into a laboratory for lessons learned in Seoul.
"I don't think nosotros should just be sitting on our easily and saying, information technology'southward all doom and gloom, nosotros tin't do anything," he said in an interview last week. "Nosotros accept got to make the theaters as safe for everybody as we possibly tin can," he said. And South korea, he said, shows that it can work.
That the show, at the Blue Square cultural complex in fundamental Seoul, has gone on is a testament not just to the protocols in the theater, but to South korea's rigorous system of examination, trace and quarantine, which has kept the virus largely under command.
Information technology was also a matter of sheer timing and luck, though information technology didn't seem that fashion at starting time.
When the tour's previous stop in Busan, South Korea's 2nd biggest metropolis, wrapped up in mid-February, the country was emerging every bit the latest epicenter of the pandemic.
The visitor mostly went home for a break to Britain, Italy, N America, Commonwealth of australia and elsewhere. Serin Kasif, vice president of Lloyd Webber's visitor, the Really Useful Group, and the producer of the tour, said she was fielding daily letters from company members anxious about whether to render.
On March 2, when Kasif flew to Seoul to begin preparations to open there, South Korea had the second-highest number of confirmed cases, and the pandemic had not yet fully hit Britain.
She contrasted the "overwhelming sense of fear" that developed in London with what she had experienced in Seoul, with its clear governmental directives and local partners who had lived through previous epidemics similar SARS.
"When I was speaking to our Korean partners, in lead-upward to the decision to keep, one said, 'The word "unprecedented" keeps getting used, but it's not unprecedented hither,' " she explained.
"Amazingly," Kasif said, the entire visitor returned to Seoul. Matt Leisy, a Northwestern University graduate who plays Raoul, said that when he went home to New York during the break, friends were "freaking out" at the idea that he might go back to Korea. But he said he was reassured past the producers' constant communication about condom protocols, every bit well as their videos of daily life in Seoul.
"Information technology was quite scary leading up to the states coming back," he said. "Who knew we'd end upwardly being in the safest identify in the world?"
The protocols, which are mandated past the Korean Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention, are strict, but they are not particularly space-age. Before entering the theater, audience members are sprayed with a light mist of disinfectant. Thermal sensors have each person'southward temperature, and everyone fills out a questionnaire most symptoms and contempo places they've visited, and then they can be notified of any exposures they may have had through the country'southward contract-tracing app.
At that place are hand-sanitizing stations throughout, and ubiquitous signs and announcements reminding everyone that masks must exist worn at all times. And in contrast to motion-picture show theaters, where alternating rows or seats are left empty, no seats are blocked off (though the first row was removed).
Backstage, there'southward a similar drill: no embracing, no handshakes, no inessential concrete contact. Reusable h2o bottles are forbidden, along with sharing food. Wigs, props and costumes are regularly sprayed or wiped with antibacterial cloths. Everyone must article of clothing a mask, except for actors when they are being made up or become onstage, and some members of the orchestra.
Sharon Williams, the head of wardrobe, said that masks and "constant hand-washing" bated, protocols for the 17-member costume department are not that different than they would be normally, beyond extra cycles of high-temperature washing with anti-bacterial soap.
The crucial element, she said, is the whole visitor'due south rigorous cooperation. "No 1 is saying 'I'm not going to exercise it,'" she said.
As for the onstage action, Kasif said in that location take been no modifications — and yep, Raoul and Christine nevertheless buss.
Which isn't to say the actors haven't had nerve-racking moments. Leisy said initially he was "hyperaware" of all the saliva flying effectually the phase, especially in big numbers like the Act 2 showstopper "Masquerade."
"When I verbalize, the spit really flies out of my mouth," he said. "At i point, we're all dancing and singing our faces off and I look around and see all this saliva flying. I thought, 'My goodness!'"
(The commencement row of seats is a seemingly safe v.2 meters from the edge of the stage, according to a video issued past the show'south Korean producer in early on May detailing the safe precautions.)
The run, which has been extended until August (after the touring production of "War Equus caballus" set up to follow in the same theater canceled), has non been without its bumps. In late March, nearly two weeks after the show opened, one of the prove'due south ballerinas said she wasn't feeling well. She was tested, and the event — positive — was back by nine a.m. the next forenoon.
Authorities moved swiftly to lock down the theater and cheque if all guidelines were being followed. A mobile testing unit was installed on the roof of the apartment building where the cast and nonlocal crew live, and everyone was immediately tested both for active virus and antibodies. (A male person ensemble member likewise tested positive but remained asymptomatic.)
All 76 members of the touring company were quarantined for 15 days in their apartments. The local employees were also tested, and quarantined at abode. (A local production of "Dracula: The Musical" also decided to suspend performances in this period, in response to the outbreak at "Phantom," co-ordinate to local news reports.)
In keeping with local policies, the more than than eight,000 people who had seen "Phantom" received text alerts informing them of the outbreak. Another announcement, which Kasif said was drafted in conjunction with authorities, was sent to patrons, describing the prophylactic measures that had been in identify.
Kasif suggested the fact that the virus had not spread more than widely in the company was proof, at least "anecdotally," as she put information technology, that the protocols piece of work.
"The ballerinas are a very close ensemble," she said. "They share a dressing room, warm upwardly together, perform together, warm down together. They happen to be very good friends socially. So if the guidelines weren't working, on newspaper they all should have had coronavirus."
The show reopened on April 23, and ticket sales take been most 70 to 85 percent full since, Kasif said. Even concluding Thursday, when a fasten in cases in the land led government to shut all public museums, galleries and entertainment venues beyond greater Seoul until June xv, the seats were mostly total, according to a reporter who attended. (Publicists for the show declined to provide box office information.)
Individual venues, like the Blue Square, were immune to remain open up, and "Phantom" continues to operate "in accordance with KCDC guidelines and instructions," Kasif said in a statement.
Several audition members expressed concern nearly the spike, simply said they trusted the theater'south measures and the country'south larger public health response.
Yi-seul Lee, 28, a graphic designer, had seen the musical in March and said she didn't want to miss the chance to run into information technology once again. "Unless we shout very loudly while watching the show or accept off our masks, I think we are more than or less safe," she said.
However, some fans thought the uncertainties of the pandemic had dampened spirits a bit. In-hae Bae, 36, a human being resources director who was seeing "Phantom" for the sixth time, said that every time the actors embraced, the virus popped into her head. And the adulation at the curtain phone call, she said, seemed "timid."
"They were way too at-home," she said of the audience. "It made me think, 'Coronavirus must have strangled our passion, too.'"
Jennifer Schuessler reported from New York, and Su-Hyun Lee from Seoul.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/theater/phantom-of-the-opera-seoul-virus.html
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