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Masquerade
8 / 10
In the end, though, it may not matter much which cast you see. Putting the audience closer to the actors does not make a show like Phantom more moving; it only takes some of the grandeur away. And Masquerade’s peripatetic structure inevitably keeps wrenching you out of theatrical illusion: One moment you are in the Phantom’s underground lair, and then you are on an escalator; now you are watching a murder in the opera-house wings, and then you are looking at the office buildings behind Christine and Raoul’s duet. But if you have any affection for Phantom at all, it’s a blast. The main attraction of Masquerade is not its stars, its story or its music of the night; it’s the pleasure of re-exploring a property you already know and seeing it from a new angles. Get dressed up, hide your face and give yourself over to the phantasy.
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