A chorus of approval

Minnie Driver is simply fabulous, darling:

Having taken more than $3.2 billion at theatre box offices worldwide, Andrew Lloyd Webber's behemoth of a musical attempts to repeat the trick on film. You must know the plot - a hideously ugly but musically gifted creature tutors a pretty ingénue and turns her into a star. But will she ever love him?

Sarah Brightman, Lloyd Webber's wife at the time, was set to star in the film version in 1990, with Michael Crawford. But then she got divorced and that was that.

Joel Schumacher was pencilled in as director back then and he's still there. Schumacher takes Lloyd Webber's theatre piece and opens it out, playing it as a trad backstage musical and keeping the camera busy with chorus girls, stagehands and the like.

He makes it bombastic too, just right for this show. It's very, very loud and had sumptuous production design by Anthony Pratt - all candles and gas, in keeping with the 1870s.

Schumacher wisely decided not to cast stars in the lead roles. Big names bring big disappointment - remember Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman caterwauling through Moulin Rouge? Or Gere, Zellweger and Zeta-Jones dancing in Chicago like they were stamping out burning newspaper?

Instead there are relative nobodies Emma Rossum as the starryeyed Christine and Gerard Butler as the Phantom. They sing brilliantly and are physically perfect. She is a tiny-waisted, fragile beauty. He, a glowering heap of anguish and repressed sexuality.

Decorating the edges are more famous names. Miranda Richardson talks in a strange French accent; Minnie Driver is insanely over the top as a highly strung diva who should be strung up. Ciaran Hinds and Simon Callow are the Opera's owners. The two are clearly in their element as a pair of very ripe fruits - they even do a witty, Danny Kaye-style number, one of the film's highlights.

Less successful is Christine's suitor, the wealthy Raoul. Patrick Wilson is the poor actor charged with bringing this prize drip to life. In a show like this, there's only room for one alpha male. And in Phantom, it's the phantom.

The music? A couple of showstoppers - the Phantom theme and the grandly operatic Masquerade - some cod Gilbert And Sullivan and a handful of those strangely aimless Lloyd Webber arias might not add up to a classic in everyone's book, but this nonbeliever enjoyed it. And you can't argue with $3.2 billion.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera
Cert: 12A

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in