This isn’t the ‘Phantom’ you know: Inside a haunting new take on the classic

Passion, mystery, beauty. You'll find all of that in Phantom, a musical currently underway at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly. And joining me now to tell us more about this show is the Phantom himself, Sean Seamus Thompson. Thanks so much for coming in today. Thank you for having me. Good morning. So, you know, people hear Phantom. They immediately think about Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, and that is not this show. That's definitely not this show. Tell me about this show, and how is it the same, and how is it different? Sure. So both are based on the same novel by Gaston Leroux. Same about the guy who lives under the opera house and loves the star soprano and needs her to sing his music. All that is there. But this take by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit is a more human take on the person. You get to know him on a human level, in all his flaws and complexities, just like any other human being. More than the Andrew Lloyd Webber, which I would say he's a mysterious kind of ghost figure that pops in and out and wreaks havoc a bit this you get to know the guy you get to know his relationships his mother his father um and why he does the things he does and i'm still hearing the organ music playing in my ear but we should emphasize that there is you know this is not the same music as what you would encounter in Phantom of the Opera so tell me about the score for this musical absolutely yeah it's so Maury Yeston wrote the score, he don't know, is the composer of Titanic the musical and Nine the musical, which was a movie with Daniel Day-Lewis, I think, in like the 2000s. Yeah. So beautiful Broadway score. Very like classic musical, as opposed to the Andrew Lloyd Webber, which is beautiful and I love. Very near and dear to my heart. What I would say is more of a pop operetta style. This is like classic musical theater. It's sort of in the structure of an Oklahoma or a Carousel in that way. So what do you like about playing the character of the Phantom in this production in particular? I really like that immediately you're getting a real person you're getting a guy who's like a guy and not a mysterious ghost figure like I said you get to know like I said his relationships and why he does the things he does still very um complex person yeah who does some things that are questionable right he's sort of the ultimate musical theater anti-hero um does some questionable things but now you understand why and get to know like the heart and soul of the person that's so intriguing but we should mention though that this is not your first encounter with the character of the phantom, it's not... you also play the phantom in Masquerade which is an immersive experience in New York City based on Phantom of the Opera, that's right so you're kind of getting to play both sides of this character, I am, yeah, actually I'll tell you the truth, I go all the way back to I did the original production of Love Never Dies in the United States which is the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Interesting. in that. So that was nine years ago. Now I'm doing Masquerade in city which is, yes, like you said, it's a revival of Phantom of the Opera and that's a whole different experience. That's an immersive experience where you're with 60 other people only walking through the story of Phantom of the Opera very cool very amazing but this what you're going to get in this Phantom is a traditional book musical you get to sit back let the songs wash over you and get immersed in the story that way we should mention that this is your debut at North Shore Music it is yeah what's it been like to be in that venue and perform in the round oh it's great it's thrilling i mean it's a very storied theater in new york people really really want to work there so i feel honored and lucky to be able to do so um and to do it in the round is really cool it's a great challenge on in all aspects of theater like a set design if you're looking straight on you know what a set's going to look like it's going to have a backdrop maybe some fun set pieces come in and out how do you do that in the round without blocking someone else's view it is fascinating very fascinating and i asked you is there still a falling chandelier in this production there is in the story there is definitely a chandelier that that unfortunately phantom does decide to drop on people okay for his own reasons that spooky creepy element here as we're going through halloween week you still get a little bit of very halloweeny i mean you look at the mask i'm scared at looking at myself right now in that mask and it's fun it's fun to dress up for halloween you know someone asked me recently like what are you going to be for Halloween I said the Phantom of the Opera it's a great great Halloween idea absolutely yeah Please, everybody come. Where do you go after this? Do you have plans lined up? I go right back to Masquerade in the city, so I'll be playing the Phantom there through the holidays at least, and we'll see. Yeah. All right, so Phantom at North Shore Music Theater. It is on until Sunday, November 1st. For anybody watching this, they're intrigued. What would you tell them? Why should they come and see the show? Come and see the human version of this story. You know and love the story because of the spectacle. Now you can come and get inside the heart and soul of these characters in a way that you never have before. I'm interested. Sean Thompson, thank you so much for coming in and enjoy the rest of the run there in Beverly. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. All right.