A grand, glorious, world-class show

Here’s all you probably need to know about the national tour of “The Phantom of the Opera,” which just began its three-week run in Spokane:

•The production remains as spectacular as ever.

•The talent level is absolutely world-class.

Neither should come as a huge surprise, because producer Cameron Mackintosh has always understood that the touring company’s appeal depends on delivering an experience equivalent (or superior) to what audiences get on Broadway and the West End.

So what we saw Friday were the giant chandelier swinging overhead; the mist rolling off the underground lake beneath the Paris Opera House; the eye-popping color and glitter of the “Masquerade” costumes; the glowing candelabras of the Phantom’s underground lair; and a spectacle of sizzle, pop and flash.

And I mean flash. In one scene, the Phantom tosses fireballs into the night sky. In another, he ignites an explosion of flash pots that nearly burned our retinas.

Meanwhile, the singing voices of the three principals – Richard Todd Adams as the Phantom, Trista Moldovan as Christine, and Greg Mills as Raoul – are uniformly brilliant. The national tour of “Phantom” should, by all rights, be able to attract the best talent in the world. Based on the aural evidence, it has.

Most theatergoers already know what else to expect: the Gothic-romantic-horror plot, the Freudian father-figure themes and the Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes, including “Music of the Night” and “Angel of Music.” This show has been around since 1986 and has been seen by more people than – well, practically any show, ever.

This production demonstrates all of the strengths as well as a few of the drawbacks of any “Phantom.”

The strengths were evident from the outset, with a particularly funny “Hannibal” rehearsal scene, complete with fake elephant and good comic timing by John Whitney as Ubaldo Piangi. One of the things that “Phantom” does best is spoof some of the grander conventions of grand opera.

And when Moldovan and Jessi Ehrlich as Meg started singing “Angel of Music,” joined soon by both Adams and Mills, it was clear the show would be vocally superior. The 16-piece pit orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Gorst, sounded full and lush as well, an accomplishment considering that Lloyd Webber’s score often has a 1980s pop-synthesizer sound.

The “Masquerade” scene, in which the stage is filled with patrons of a masked ball, amazed me all over again. This scene – and this entire show – is a testament to the costumer’s art, with its astonishing parade of brocades and silks and velvets. Because we also see so many scenes from operas, the variety of costumes goes far beyond 1881 Parisian fashions and ranges into Egyptian and French rococo styles. These costumes deserve an entire museum show to themselves.

That said, I do need to warn those who aren’t “Phantom” fanatics of some of the show’s drawbacks:

•The operatic singing style makes for long passages in which the lyrics are impossible to understand. And on those occasions when a line comes through clearly, it’s not always worth it. Charles Hart’s lyrics are not the show’s strength.

•Some scenes overstay their welcome drastically, especially the Act One closer on the roof of the Opera House.

•Everything, and I do mean everything, is played for maximum bombast and over-the-top dramatic effect. You’ll see plenty of wild emoting and little subtlety.

Feel free to dismiss those criticisms, which come from someone who has never fallen completely under the spell of the “Phantom.”

Yet this production helped me understand why millions of people have. The stagecraft is superior and the story is elemental. That’s not a bad formula for success.