The Lloyd Webber production The Phantom of the Opera is bringing the music of the night back to Auckland. Joanna Hunkin went backstage in Sydney to talk to the stars and ask them about the show's staying power
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As steam wafts from an electric vapouriser, filling her softly-lit dressing room with a sweet aroma, you might be forgiven for thinking Andrea Creighton shares the diva tendencies of her on-stage character Carlotta.
The trill of an opera recording plays in the background as the soprano, wearing a bright turquoise dressing gown, begins to warm her vocal chords with a series of dove-like coos.
Staring into the mirror, surrounded by family snapshots and pictures of Creighton in costume, she carefully layers her make-up, regularly turning her face to examine her work from every angle.
"I've actually never had to do my own make-up," she confesses. "It's different in opera, this is my first musical. The first three weeks were a disaster!" she laughs merrily, before explaining how she learned to put her stage face on.
"I have to draw on massive lips, and massive eyelashes. I feel like a drag queen. Actually, I got mistaken for a drag queen last night," she hoots with laughter. "We were doing a [charity] bucket drive and a woman came up to me and said, `Were you in Priscilla? You were in Priscilla, weren't you!' She was absolutely adamant."
The truth is, the Wellington singer could not be less of a diva. Warm and engaging, Creighton bubbles enthusiasm, as she shares stories and laughs at herself.
An award-winning opera singer who trained with the Paris Opera, Creighton's turn as the formidable Italian diva Carlotta, in Phantom of the Opera, is her stage musical debut.
It's a move many warned her against, claiming the role was a "voice-wrecker" but Creighton is loving the change of pace and isn't ashamed of her new career direction.
"People have said to me `oh, next time you audition for an opera, don't tell them you were in a musical'. But I'm really proud," she says seriously.
"I'm really proud of the fact my technique is good enough that I'm doing an opera role every night. Not many opera singers can say that. When I go back to audition in Europe, I'm definitely going to tell them what I've been doing for the last couple of years."
She has every right to be proud. Performing eight shows a week and touring five cities over two years is no small feat. Particularly when used to the less strenuous schedules of traditional opera tours.
"In opera, we're very lucky and spoon-fed," she giggles. "We do a show and then we have two days off to rest the voice. We're always fresh for an opera.
"I've really had to work on my technique and discipline but it's been great. It's developed my voice."
She has also found comfort in having a close and constant circle of castmates, something she'd never had during her opera days, where tours only last a handful of weeks.
In fact, it was the lonely life of an opera star that saw Creighton leave Europe 18 months ago, before taking on her first musical role.
"I had been living in Europe for the past 14 years and I'd had a gutsful," she says frankly. "It's quite a hard life. Less than one per cent of people do the Dame Kiri thing and go straight to the top. She's phenomenal. For the rest of us, it's not a career really, it's just trying to earn a living. "It was getting really hard and really lonely. In France, a lot of my friends had left and gone back home. I was really isolated. I'd do an opera and then there'd be a couple of months of nothing."
Tired and fed up, she made her decision to return home, despite the limited job prospects waiting for her Downunder.
It wasn't until Creighton returned to New Zealand, she learned of the upcoming Phantom tour, which, rumour had it, had already been cast.
Still, she thought she'd try her luck anyway. After seeing Minnie Driver (of whom she is an ardent fan) play Carlotta in the 2004 film version, Creighton rather fancied herself as the Italian diva.
"I sent off a little email, just to the info line," she laughs. "The next day, I was on a plane to Sydney, singing for them. They offered me the role for the whole tour."
It may sound convenient but producer Tim McFarlane says the company searched far and wide for the right performers. Indeed, he says casting the show was the biggest challenge the producers faced when resurrecting the popular musical, which first toured Australasia in the 90s.
"The brief to the creative team was that this production had to be as good or better than the original Australian production," he explains. "We were very serious about how we approached the casting."
That serious approach saw the producers cajole Anthony Warlow on board, nearly two decades after he debuted as Australia's original phantom, before withdrawing when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Warlow says it took two years before he was convinced to join the production - in stark contrast to Creighton's impromptu signing. Rounding out the principal cast line-up is another Kiwi (though she defected to Australia at 13), Ana Marina.
While the tour was always set to include Auckland, McFarlane says the producers didn't deliberately set out to cast New Zealand talent.
"It was just the way it worked out," he says, though he admits it does help pique public interest when a city can claim a performer as their own.
Not that Phantom needs much help. Since the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical debuted in London in 1986, the show continues to draw capacity crowds around the world and is Broadway's longest running musical.
Even in today's musical theatre market, increasingly dominated by jukebox musicals such as Priscilla and Mamma Mia!, Phantom continues to hold its own. McFarlane believes part of Phantom's appeal is its classic musical roots.
One of the biggest challenges the performers face is how familiar audience members are with the script and songbook.
"When I got a word wrong in my dialogue I said `these things will happen', instead of `these things do happen' the next minute there's this massive internet discussion debating why we had changed it," laughs Creighton. "It's a really slick show. There's no mucking around."
When re-staging the show, the producers deliberately set out to replicate the original production. Though certain points of difference have naturally emerged, according to McFarlane.
"There are things that come out in the production, that weren't necessarily intentional, they're just the combination of the people who worked on it. The thing that strikes me the most is that there's actually a lot of humour in the show. I notice it far more in this production than I ever had previously."
For Warlow, still the youngest performer ever to have played the Phantom when he debuted in 1990, two decades of life experience have seen him take a different approach to the role. "I think it's working for me better this time," he says. "He's a far more grounded character than he was 20 years ago."
But taking on the role for a second time has presented its fair share of challenges, in particular trying to bring something new to the character while giving audiences what they expect.
"When I did this originally, we were teaching people how this went. This time around, it's been around for so long, people know these songs intimately. The challenge for me is not so much to reinvent but to instil some difference, some different majesty, into the work. It is the same but different."
Something that is set to be completely different for Phantom followers - and performers - is Lloyd Webber's Phantom sequel, set to debut in London late next year.
McFarlane, who works closely with Lloyd Webber, has seen the first act of the new show, which he plans to bring to Australia in 2011.
"The story and four of the characters flow on from this Phantom into the new one. It's 10 years on and set in New York. It is extremely dramatic."
LOWDOWN
Who: Anthony Warlow stars as the Phantom, opposite New Zealanders Ana Marina as Christine and Andrea Creighton as Carlotta
What: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera returns to New Zealand
When: From October 14, at Auckland's Civic Theatre
Background: Based on the 1909 French novel Le Fantome de l'Opera by Gaston Leroux, Andrew Lloyd Webber debuted his musical version in 1986.
