Moving On to New Haunts

‘For the first time in my life, I feel as if I’m in the right place at the right time,” Davis Gaines said. Maybe he should use the plural “places.” Take a look at Gaines’ calendar:

Oct. 5: Bow out as “The Phantom of the Opera” in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical on Broadway, completing a run of 1,937 performances of the role in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York--more than any other Phantom.

Monday: Join three other Phantoms from international companies at a gala 10th anniversary tribute to the show in London.

Wednesday: Open a three-night, six-show engagement at the Cinegrill in Hollywood, helping promote his first solo album, “Against the Tide.”

Oct. 21: Begin rehearsals in New York for a starring role in Lloyd Webber’s next show, “Whistle Down the Wind,” which opens in December in Washington and on Broadway in April.

Actually, that schedule could be busier. Those days between the last Cinegrill performance and the “Whistle” rehearsals will be one of the least taxing weeks in years for Gaines. He plans to hang out at the Hollywood Hills home he bought when he was L.A.’s Phantom--but which he hasn’t lived in lately.

“That’s where I wanted to put down my roots,” the Florida-reared Gaines said in a telephone interview. “I can’t wait to sleep in my own house, get in my car, drive around town, do all the L.A. things.”

And then it’s on to what could be Gaines’ first creation of a role on Broadway and in the accompanying cast album. He has been on this route before--in the original casts of four shows that were intended for Broadway but never made it. But with Lloyd Webber writing and Harold Prince directing, “Whistle Down the Wind” is probably as sure a bet as any Broadway offering can be.

Not that Lloyd Webber invariably sticks with his original casting ideas, as Patti LuPone and Faye Dunaway can testify. But Gaines, 37, said he has been offered a contract for New York as well as Washington. He got the role without an audition--Prince called him about it four months ago.

He’ll play the Man, a convict on the lam who is discovered sleeping in a barn by Louisiana youngsters in the ‘50s. When one of them asks who he is, he starts to swear, “Jesus Christ”--but the kids don’t understand. They think he is Jesus Christ.

“The music does have a rock ‘n’ roll feel,” Gaines said. “It’s much more hard-edged than ‘Phantom.’ I don’t call myself a rock singer, but I can belt. I can wail.”

He acknowledged that this might strain his voice more than his “Phantom” duties--at least until he has mastered the style. But he said he has sung in many styles--including a wide variety of songs on his new album, many of which he’ll sing at the Cinegrill.

His Cinegrill menu won’t include any of the new songs from “Whistle.” And Gaines said he hadn’t decided yet whether to perform any of his “Phantom” material at the Cinegrill: “It would be nice not to have to sing ‘The Music of the Night.’ But do they expect it?” He wasn’t planning on singing any “Phantom” songs during a cabaret engagement at New York’s Rainbow & Stars, but he was persuaded to do so by a man who had bought a big table just so his party could hear the Phantom--without the mask.

Gaines’ new role in “Whisper” will bring his visage before the public eye more than “Phantom” did, with its mask. When he used to leave the theater after performing “Phantom,” fans at the stage door sometimes asked him whether he was in the show they had just seen, not realizing he was its star. He said he enjoys this anonymity, but “I think I can handle it if it ends.”

Many of those seeing “Phantom” in New York recently didn’t understand the English in it, Gaines said, because they were foreign tourists. “During the show, you don’t know if they get it or not. There isn’t as much of a vocal response as in L.A. or San Francisco. But at the end, you can hear that they love it.”

It was in L.A. that Gaines first donned the mask, and he remembers L.A. for its many repeaters--people who saw “Phantom” dozens or even hundreds of times. Because the Ahmanson Theatre was bigger than the other venues, he thinks of L.A.’s production as “spectacular, a much larger scope, cinematic and sweeping.”

When Gaines started doing the Phantom in L.A., it was on a nine-month contract. “I thought nine months was impossible. Who knew?” Now, he says, he would “love to do it in L.A. again. I’ve grown as an actor because of this experience. I’ve learned how to do it over and over and keep it fresh.”

But don’t book your “Phantom” tickets just yet. For now, Gaines said, “I’m looking forward to trying out what I learned in something new.”

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DAVIS GAINES, Cinegrill, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Dates: Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10:30 p.m.; next Sunday, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Price: $25, plus $10 minimum. Phone: (213) 466-7000.