Crawford's moving portrayal of the hero notwithstanding, the show's most persuasive love story is Mr. Crawford) and a chorus singer named Christine Daae (Sarah Brightman). The putative lovers are the Paris Opera House phantom (Mr. Lloyd Webber's first sustained effort at writing an old-fashioned romance between people instead of cats or trains. ''The Phantom of the Opera'' is as much a victory of dynamic stagecraft over musical kitsch as it is a triumph of merchandising uber alles.Īs you've no doubt heard, ''Phantom'' is Mr.

What one finds instead is a characteristic Lloyd Webber project - long on pop professionalism and melody, impoverished of artistic personality and passion - that the director Harold Prince, the designer Maria Bjornson and the mesmerizing actor Michael Crawford have elevated quite literally to the roof.

It would be equally ludicrous, however - and an invitation to severe disappointment - to let the hype kindle the hope that ''Phantom'' is a credible heir to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals that haunt both Andrew Lloyd Webber's creative aspirations and the Majestic Theater as persistently as the evening's title character does.

Only a terminal prig would let the avalanche of pre-opening publicity poison his enjoyment of this show, which usually wants nothing more than to shower the audience with fantasy and fun, and which often succeeds, at any price. IT may be possible to have a terrible time at ''The Phantom of the Opera,'' but you'll have to work at it.

Phantom of the opera book synopsis