‘Phantom’ Won’t Be Appearing in Orange County Anytime Soon

Orange County audiences who can’t wait to see “Phantom of the Opera” should plan for a commute to Los Angeles when this year’s big Tony Award-winning musical arrives in the Southland in 1989. (See related story, Page 1.)

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical won’t be coming to the county in the near future because it is not a touring production. The “Phantom” that will take up residence starting in May, 1989, at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles is expected to run for a year or more.

“It’s not a practical consideration for us,” Orange County Performing Arts Center President Thomas R. Kendrick said Wednesday.

“If we had wanted ‘Phantom,’ we would have had to say to the producers: ‘You can come and take our theater for a year.’ That would mean no Pacific Symphony for a year, no ballet, no opera.”

Only a short-run, touring production, such as the “Cats” road company that recently played Orange County, would be feasible at the Center, Kendrick said.

Likewise, Opera Pacific general director David DiChiera said: “Opera Pacific has not been involved in any discussions or negotiations” regarding “Phantom of the Opera.”

“I don’t know anything about it,” DiChiera said Wednesday in a phone conversation from Detroit, where he also heads up Michigan Opera Theater.