Audiences will soon have a chance to see the famous phantom that has begun haunting the Ohio Theater.”The Phantom of the Opera” is being presented in conjunction with Broadway Series for the second time. The musical first came to Columbus in 1995, drawing 147,000 attendees, said Laura Pomerson, managing director.Pomerson, who has seen the musical in New York, Chicago, Toronto and Columbus said the shows are identical in every city.”The production is phenomenal,” she said.Based on the classic novel, “The Phantom of the Opera” by Gaston Leroux, the musical tells the story of a hideously deformed phantom who lurks beneath the stage of the Paris Opera. He falls in love with Christie, a young soprano, and devotes himself to making her a new star for the opera.Since its 1986 opening in London, the show has broken box office records there, on Broadway and throughout the United States. It has played more than 27,000 performances in 60 cities around the world.Mary Lou Reiner, an Ohio State graduate, is a member of the “Phantom” cast. Reiner plays a wild woman, a Spanish lady and various other small parts.Reiner travels with the “Phantom” tour and performs 400 shows per year.”We perform five to seven weeks in each city,” she said.Reiner, who graduated from OSU in 1980, is also the understudy for the part of Madame Giry and will play the secondary lead part the week of Sept. 9.
Brad Little, who previously played Raoul in Broadway’s production of “The Phantom of the Opera,” plays the phantom in this production.Little’s national and Broadway tour credits include “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.”Kimilee Bryant, who plays Christine Daae, recently returned from Switzerland where she performed in the Swiss premiere of “Phantom.” Bryant’s New York performances include “My Fair Lady,” “Oklahoma!,” “The Taming of the Shrew” and “West Side Story.” “The Phantom of the Opera” is a love story that will appeal everyone, Pomerson said.”It is a real spectacle and it features the music that everybody loves,” she said.”The Phantom of the Opera” will run from Aug. 21 to Sept. 20. Ticket prices range from $15 to $65 and are available at Ticket Master and the Broadway Series and Ohio Theatre ticket offices.
