David Hansen, the advance stage manager for the national touring company of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera," must've been good at playing leapfrog when he was a boy growing up in Wichita Falls, Texas.
He hops from city to city, usually one week before "Phantom" opens, to make sure the company's convoy of 20 40-foot semis are arriving on schedule, with their tons of costumes, scenery and lighting/sound equipment. Then he stays for a couple more weeks to make sure the show is running smoothly -- then moves on ahead to the next city on the tour."The Phantom of the Opera," which played nearly four months at the Capitol Theatre in 1996, is returning for a two-month engagement, June 3-July 31.
Hansen, who lives in Seattle, is looking forward to spending a week of vacation time hiking around Zion and Bryce, before getting "Phantom" settled into its next post-Salt Lake stop in Pittsburgh, Pa.
But the mysterious, masked Phantom himself -- Broadway actor Ted Keegan -- is looking forward to seeing Salt Lake City's famous mountains close up
and finding time to work on one of his favorite hobbies: genealogy.
Both Hansen and Keegan were interviewed via telephone from Buffalo, N.Y., where "Phantom of the Opera" had been the premiere production marking the gala reopening of Shea's Buffalo Center for the Performing Arts, following a $13 million expansion.
Like the Capitol Theatre, Shea's is an ornate old vaudeville theater -- the kind Hansen prefers.
"I like the older theaters because they have some character and feeling. Many times the newer theaters are easier to get into and out of, but they're also just kind of stark and boring," he said.
When Hansen is leap-frogging, the show's massive array of scenery and technical equipment is, too. There are two complete packages of scenery and other gear, allowing crews to begin setting up shop in one theater down the road (or across the country), while the show is still playing in another.
Hansen noted that the precise physical setup for the production varies from city to city -- depending on the size and shape of the backstage area and the size of each venue's proscenium.
Hansen compares the work involved with taking "Phantom" on the road with trying to construct a building in 10 days. In addition to the 20 trucks that haul the costumes and scenery, one additional semi -- with the famous Phantom logo painted on the side -- is always parked behind the theater for the entire run. This is the shop truck, with tools and equipment necessary to repair the scenery and perform the weekly maintenance that ensures the show will run smoothly. A staff of wardrobe people also work every day, mending and cleaning the show's 230 costumes.
Because the Capitol Theatre has a little less wing space than some theaters, the giant elephant from the show's "Hannibal" sequence, and the full-size bed used in other scenes, will be "flown" above the stage -- where they'll float, out of sight, until needed.
In a touring company as large as this -- with three dozen actors in the ensemble -- there is, occasionally, some turnaround.
"We're going to have two Phantoms during the Salt Lake City run of the show. Ted Keegan, who is with us now, and who has played the Phantom several times on Broadway, will be leaving the company (to go back to Broadway). He'll be replaced, halfway through the run, by Brad Little, who has been with the show for about two years and who is coming back into the show. They're both equally brilliant," Hansen said.
TED KEEGAN, who has been with the Broadway company of "The Phantom of the Opera" on and off for the past three years, along with stints in "Cyrano: The Musical" and critically acclaimed performances in New York City's "George Gershwin Centennial Celebration," is excited to be visiting Salt Lake City for the first time.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the mountains, and I expect they're different from upstate New York, where we have our foothills and then we have our little bits of mountains -- but to be surrounded by them . . . I can't wait," he said. "And one of my hobbies is genealogy."
The Watertown, N.Y., native also appeared in a European tour of the Yeston-Kopit version of "Phantom" (which has been produced locally by the Grand Theatre and Rodgers Memorial Theatre).
Diplomatically, Keegan refrained from comparing the rival Lloyd Webber/Yeston-Kopit musicals -- he likes them both -- but he did remember the tour itself, which covered Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, as being particularly grueling.
"We were moving from one theater to another almost nightly. We would finish the show at night, then be up at 7 the next morning, traveling by bus for another seven hours, then do another show that night. So this -- staying in one spot for several weeks -- is heaven," he said.
TICKETS for "The Phantom of the Opera" range from $26.50 to $72.50 and are available at all ArtTix outlets, including the Capitol Theatre box office, 50 W. 200 South, or by calling 355-2787, 355-5502, 1-888-451-2787 or 1-888-255-2200. For group sales (20 or more), call 355-2200.
Performances will be Tuesdays-Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m., from June 3 through July 31, with additional performances at 2 p.m. on June 3 and July 2, and at 8 p.m. on June 28, July 26 and July 28.
There will be no performances on July 4 and no evening performance on July 31.