Promoting the Phantom (and his standby)….

But even more radical is the open commentary that is being allowed on the website for the Really Useful Company, where MusicalLover6 has asked of the project, “A part of me wonders ‘why’?” and proceeds to wonder aloud: “There is no reason for a sequel of this musical to be made. I don’t think The Phantom would have gone to Coney Island, I don’t think Christine would be so stupid to go there… and Raoul. Don’t get me started on him. When and why would he become an alcoholic? Does no one care about the rich history of this story, or the musical that gave birth to this misshapen thing?! Teenagers will be the selling point of this musical, since instead of someone ‘harboring’ a ‘melodic, hypnotic’ and ‘tenor’ like voice, we now have a ‘cool’, ‘sexy, and ‘rocker tenor voice’. There was a reason why the film flopped when it included that formula. I’m sorry, but I for one will not take part in this ‘fad’.” Tabard quotes this, and then goes on to ask, “With comments like those on your own site, who’ll need to wait for the critics?”

Not that the Phantom will necessarily be waiting for the critics in any case. In the world of hype that will be generated between now and next March when it finally opens, it’s getting the public talking about the show that will matter. But as Michael Billington says in a spirited defence of the critical art in today’s Guardian, “In any sphere of activity - be it politics, sport or fashion - there is a crying need for someone who brings to the subject a lifelong professional commitment: more than ever, I’d argue, in an age of spin and hype”.

One of the things about the internet, on the other hand, is that it means that every move a show makes is being minutely monitored somewhere. I’ve played my own part in this with The Phantom, where I’ve chronicled the seemingly numerous times I’ve now been to the show when it has broken down in some way, from Las Vegas and Warsaw to the West End, as I recorded here when I saw it again in April.

Meanwhile, in my review of that performance in the Sunday Express, I also declared aloud, “I could only see what a tough act Andrew Lloyd Webber has given himself to follow. Not only does it boast his finest score this side of Evita, with its rolling parade of iconic, haunting songs from ‘Music of the Night’ to ‘All I Ask of You’, but also this remains one of the most beautiful, spectacular productions of all time, too.”

That quote has duly turned up on the underground posters to the show, which I coincidentally spotted on my way back from seeing it yet again on Tuesday. While some celebrities are often accused of turning up for the opening of an envelope, I seem to turn up at some musicals for the changing of a lightbulb, but the particularly bright spark that heralded my return viewing this week was to see the new Phantom standby, Nigel Richards, in the role.

The Phantom himself, of course, loves to promote an understudy, and I’m happy to follow his lead in promoting the standby here. I’ve been following Richards since his days as one of the Bridewell’s brightest performing sparks, in which he created leading roles in the British premieres of such shows as Floyd Collins, Hello Again and Songs for a New World, but though he’s done the regulation stints in such West End shows as Les Mis and the occasional miss like Napoleon or Martin Guerre, he’s never achieved the break-out leading man status that his talent so richly deserves.

As he admits frankly on his own website, “I remain a maverick on the fringes of commercial musical theatre”. But The Phantom finally finds him in mainstream mould, and he brings great dignity and resonance to it to escape the role’s sometimes melodramatic confines. But even more exciting is that he’s also just brought out his first solo album - and instead of being the typical display of ego and vanity that such enterprises usually entail, he uses it instead as a platform to promote new writing.

As I say in a mini-review that is currently running in West End theatre programmes (including the one for The Phantom of the Opera itself), “Now that the West End and Broadway are mostly recycling old pop tunes into new musicals, giving voice to new songs and new theatre writers is more important than ever. In his debut CD, West End performer Nigel Richards has done something bold, brave and important: he is using his own rich, deep vocal talent to showcase the previously unrecorded work of a series of original musical theatre writers, including such luminaries in the field as Michael John La Chiusa and Adam Guettel from the US (in whose respective shows Hello Again and Floyd Collins appeared in the UK premieres of, at the late, lamented Bridewell Theatre), and Howard Goodall, Jason Carr and rising talent Conor Mitchell from the UK. This is a superb, challenging collection, which the singer calls a “love letter to great and authentic writing”; and he is a great, authentic interpreter of their work.” You can buy it via his site.