PHANTICS GATHER IN CITY OF SIN Tom Donoghue What makes someone fly a total of 16,000 miles just to see a musical? Ask Bonita Hammill of Melbourne, Australia, because that’s how much distance she covered recently to participate in the first “Phantom Fans Week” celebrated at The Venetian and Palazzo Hotels to welcome “an international gathering of fans.” That whole journey, it goes without saying, simply made for that diabolical charmer in the cleverly cut half-mask. “I’ve loved the show for 22 years,” announces Hammill proudly, placing her infatuation a scant 12 months after the show’s London opening in 1986. “Why wouldn’t I fly here to be part of such a joyous occasion?” Some fans take an almost religious approach to the material, with Karen Wiggins of Houston passionately declaring that “This music has had a huge impact on my life.” As of last year, it has played over 9,000 perfomrances in the West End and Broadway reached that magic figure just this past week. The show’s official website claims it is “the most successful entertainment property in history,” estimating its gross receipts in excess of $5 billion (US). No wonder they came, over 300 strong, from Canada, the United States and Europe. It was a chance to unite with others of their kind in declaring their addiction and – like most good 12-step meetings – that brought unity to the group. They had the chance to see the spectacular Vegas streamlined remounting of the show up to four times, with its running time trimmed by an hour and its chandelier now a scream-producing instrument of terror instead of the snow-cone we snoozed through in Toronto. They chatted with the charismatic Anthony Crivello, who plays the title role superbly here. They spent a morning wit the other leading players, asking everything from “Doesn’t your voice ever get tired?” to “How do you vanish at the end of the play?” Then they got taken behind the magic mirror to learn how the show’s spectacular costumes, wigs, makeup are ll put together, while two of their number were chosen for a “Phantom and Christine” makeover. The pair that finally arrived on stage were dead ringers, and trembling with such delight that one of them broke into tremulous song, only to have the stage manager promptly shout out “Thank You!” while the crowd overruled him with cheers. Still ahead: a deconstruction of how the dread chandelier works, a climatic “keynote address” from Harold Prince, who has directed every production from London to Tokyo to Toronto. Sitting down with Prince in his suite at The Venetian, he held forth on why he thinks that Phantom continues to be such a strong audience draw. “I think the show itself is timeless an dthe emotions inside it have a very visceral appeal to human beings. I think people underestimate how important it is that this show observes what happens when people respond to deformity in an irrational way. It’s like The Elephant Man, which I thought about a lot when I was preparing Phantom. Sometimes I sit there and wonder why the audience is buying all of the mock operas and the oddities of the plot. I think they lose themselves in another world and maybe they don’t understand every element of it, but it doesn’t matter.” Prince totally understands the whole fanatical fan approach to the show “that makes these people turn into Phantom Trekkies. It appeals to the part of us all that wants to just stay a kid forever and something like this allows people to fool themselves for a few days into thinking they still are kids.” The final word, of course, must go to a Canadian, Timea Sulan, from Winnipeg, Man. Who proudly displays the tattoo of the Phantom she wears on the back of her neck. “It’s the only tattoo I would ever get,” she explains reasonably, “and I did it for two reasons: I love the Phantom and I’m a crazy fan.” Sometimes what happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay there… Courtesy Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star