‘Phantom’ Finds New Haunts

No longer content to haunt the same old theater day after day, the Phantom is packing his masks and calling in help to move the pipe organ.

Music Theatre of Southern California has revived its acclaimed 1993 production of the Arthur Kopit-Maury Yeston “Phantom” as the first in a series of shows that will move from its home, the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, to the Alex Theatre in Glendale. It remains to be seen how well this big, technically involved production will transfer to the cramped Alex stage, but the show looks and sounds great in San Gabriel, with a fluid horror-movie staging by returning director Bill Shaw and a haunting repeat performance by Sean Smith in the title role.

Smith’s baritone is as sweet in its upper register as it is rich and velvety in its lower depths, and he uses its many colors to trace the Phantom’s journey from loneliness through hope and back to the deepest reaches of despair. Though we never get a glimpse behind the mask of this deformed man who hides in the Paris Opera House, we see something much more revealing: his heart.

In a scenario that could have been lifted from “Phantom” itself, understudy Julie Wittner was thrust into the co-starring role of Christine Daee, the object of the Phantom’s affection, just days before the opening. She has a classical ringing soprano that she can punch into a pop belt, conveying girlish innocence as it abruptly gives way to adulthood.

The Kopit-Yeston “Phantom” is humbler than Andrew Lloyd Webber’s--a moody operetta instead of a showy pop opera. But it is in many ways more satisfying, since it fills in details ignored in the other, particularly the Phantom’s background story. This production aspires to the flash and sizzle of its rival, however, with billows of theatrical fog and enough pyrotechnics for a small town’s Fourth of July celebration. And, hmm . . . , that move--in which the Phantom has a puppet master’s control of Christine’s limbs--haven’t we seen that somewhere before?

BE THERE

“Phantom,” San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, 320 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends May 17. $18-$50. (626) 308-2868. Also: Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. May 22-24, 8 p.m., May 23-24, 2 p.m. $20.50-$40.50. (800) 233-3123. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.