Review: Immersive Musical Masquerade Is a Phantom Fever Dream

Cue the organ! The curtain has risen on Masquerade, the elusive new immersive production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary musical The Phantom of the Opera, which dominated Broadway for 35 years until closing in 2023, leaving the Opera Ghost to seek a new home.

Housed a converted art shop on 57^th Street, audiences are brought inside the story, traveling scene-to-scene through Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, and Richard Stilgoe’s iconic score, which remains one of the greatest ever penned for the stage, even when it’s pre-recorded and piped through speakers, as it is here (Brett Jarvis’s sound design is impeccable).

Perhaps the most important note about Masquerade is that you will see a different set of lead actors depending on what time your scheduled entry pulse is. At 8pm on a Sunday, Clay Singer was our Phantom, alongside Riley Noland as Christine, Francisco Javier Gonzalez as Raoul, Betsy Morgan as Carlotta, and Tia Karaplis as Madame Giry. Other options for some of these roles include Phantom vets like Hugh Panaro and Eryn LeCroy and Paul Adam Schaefer, as well as newcomers like Kyle Scatliffe and Telly Leung and Anna Zavelson.

Upon entering, you are greeted by a brilliant violinist (Bryan Hernandez-Luch) playing “Angel of Music,” winding through hallways meticulously decorated by designers Scott Pask and James Fluhr to look like dressing rooms, with tutus mounted on the ceiling, shelves of wigs, and jewelry galore. You are now a patron at the Opera Populaire, where a celebratory masquerade ball is being hosted, and everyone has certainly dressed for the occasion – yourself included, as there is a dress code for attending. Emilio Sosa’s costumes drip with opulence in jewel tones and metallics, with a sort of exuberant campiness up close that feels consistent with actual Opera costumes.

Madame Giry (Karaplis) instructs you on a few dance moves for the now-title song so you may perform along with the ensemble, all standing atop a rotating podium that, as it glimmers in Ben Stanton’s transformative lighting, creates the illusion of figurines atop a music box. Though Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s brand new choreography is not rooted in the same balletic grandeur as Gillian Lynne’s original concepts, the heart is there, and it suits this new staging very well.

Beginning the story with what is usually the Act 2 opener starts the evening on an eerily jubilant note, with all the mayhem still left to unfold. From here, Carlotta (Morgan) struts in with her usual divahood, sounding off about how the company has continually been harassed–well, haunted–by a ghost, to whom the Opera’s managers bend. As she bows out of the production in a fit, the managers (Raymond J. Lee and Jeremy Stolle) scramble to find a soprano for opening night of Hannibal. During Christine Daaé’s impromptu audition, I hear one manager ask the person beside me if they can sing soprano (the first of many direct interactions with audience members), but Christine (Norland) rings out a glorious high note that instills their confidence in her skill.

The Phantom is first revealed in the Mirror scene, smartly staged with a rotating looking glass that flips back and forth between him and Christine. When he beckons her to come to his lair beneath the Opera House, we follow through hazy tunnels billowing with smoke and fog as the organ pulsates around us.

From here on, Masquerade evolves from a merely fascinating immersive experience to full-on fan service in the most thrilling way possible. Following “Music of the Night,” Christine is carried to a bed in the Phantom’s lair, where she slips into a dream interlude as two ghostly arms reach through the headboard, caressing her until the Phantom himself fully emerges from the torso-up beside her in the blink of an eye, and they–kid you not–cuddle until she wakes, and he vanishes from sight.

It’s clear that director Diane Paulus leans into the fanfic aspect without any reprehension, which can feel a little jarring. But if you open up your mind and let your fantasies unwind, you’ll walk away with an invigoratingly different story through Paulus’s bold choices, despite very few changes to Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber’s book.

The unique immersion that comes with witnessing each performer’s microscopic choices just steps away places a close lens on Phantom that it has always deserved. Norland’s “Think of Me” is a revelation, with soaring range and grounding depth. Gonzalez offers everything you could ever want in a Raoul, boyish charm coupled with a warm baritenor. Singer’s Phantom is delightfully wicked, unabashedly insane but still with a raw undercurrent of tragedy, all communicated through rich vocals.

Though this is not your mother’s Phantom of the Opera, it certainly does not shy away from breathing provocative new life into a cherished classic. And for all of us who grew up reposting GIFs online of the Phantom slicking back his wig and flicking around his cape, shamelessly hashtagging it with “#hot,” this one is absolutely for you.