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Opera Australia presents the first ever outdoor performance of The Phantom of the Opera on the iconic Sydney Harbour. Ahead of this world-first interpretation, we spoke with two of the show’s stars, Martin Crewes and Michael Cormick about this exciting premiere.
Martin Crewes has enjoyed a phenomenal musical theatre career. He created the role of ‘Steve Blauner’ in Simon Phillips’ critically acclaimed Dream Lover. He starred in the Dean Bryant directed Sweet Charity, receiving generous praise for his performances as ‘Charlie’, ‘Oscar’ and ‘Vittorio’. Martin’s other productions include Assassins, The Fantasticks, A Girl with Sun In Her Eyes, The Front, Sondheim On Sondheim, Animal/People, Hipbone Sticking Out, Doctor Zhivago, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, Chess, Hair, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Aspects of Love, Oh! What a Night, “8” The Play, The Man From Snowy River Arena Spectacular and West Side Story. Martin played the role of ‘Marius’ in Les Misérables, in Asia, South Africa and London’s West End. His work in the UK includes The Woman in White, Pal Joey, The Rink and Merry Wives the Musical.
Martin’s feature film credits include Patrick, Resident Evil, and DOA: Dead or Alive. This year will see the release of the Nadi Sha written and directed feature film Everything in Between in which Martin appears as the lovable rogue, ‘Dave Knight’. Television appearances include A Place To Call Home, Crownies, Dream Team as lead ‘Luis Amor Rodriguez’, Casualty, Heartbeat, Mile High, Bad Girls, and The Grand. He appeared in the US the telemovie Scarlett and Italian telemovie Rita da Cascia.
Martin has received numerous award nominations and wins. For Doctor Zhivago he won a Sydney Theatre Award, A Glug Award and a nomination for a Helpmann Award. He won a Green Room Award for Hair and Sweet Charity and a nomination for The Man From Snowy River Arena Spectacular. He received Helpmann Award nominations for Oh! What a Night, and Dream Lover, a What’s Onstage Award nomination for The Woman in White and a Green Room Award nomination for Chess. He received Helpmann, Sydney Theatre, and Glug Award nominations for his performance in Sweet Charity.
It’s a mammoth undertaking, as you can imagine. The stage is massive which is wonderful, but you need plenty of bodies and plenty of traffic to fill it. Thankfully Simon and Simone (the director and choreographer) are brilliant at creating this kind of thing, but with more than forty people onstage at any one time, plus revolves, flying set pieces and an enormous staircase they have their work cut out for them.
We have been rehearsing in a massive room out at Olympic Park while they’ve been building the set and have run the full show a couple of times. It’s looking good but we’re about to start the tech period where we get on stage and add wigs, microphones, costumes and the orchestra so this is the point where it usually all falls apart and we have to put it back together again before the audiences arrive.
It feels like yesterday and a hundred years ago at the same time! I had just graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre so as far as I was concerned Phantom was the only thing in the universe.
The fact that I then got to watch it every night and get paid for it was beyond anything I could have wished for.
Over the years since then I’ve been lucky enough to work with many of the original cast on various shows. I did Doctor Zhivago and Jekyll and Hyde with Anthony Warlow, West Side Story and Dream Lover with Marina Prior and Les Miserables with Dale Burridge and have just co-written a one man show with him. And now I’m playing the role that was originated in Australia by John O’May.
If you’d told me thirty years ago that any of this was going to happen I would have said you were nuts!
I think the subject matter has instant appeal. The idea of this strange, brilliant, murderous genius, outcast from society who has created his own magical world in the bowels of a theatre is so intriguing and dramatic. I love the way the show begins with an auction of items from that time which is now in the past, so that the whole story is told in retrospect. It somehow sets up a kind of nostalgia even before the story is fully underway. Playing one of the managers has really reminded me how brilliant some of the lyric writing is. There are some internal rhymes in the managers’ scenes that are so clever.
And then, of course, there is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score. He really is a master of both the sweeping, romantic ballad and the dramatic, passion filled showstopper.
I have been extremely lucky in my career and am subsequently spoilt for choice in terms of highlights. Some of the screen work I got to do in England and Europe was “dream come true” kind of stuff. Resident Evil, Dream Team, and Rita of Cascia were just great experiences with great people in places I would never have had the chance to visit otherwise. The Man from Snowy River Arena Spectacular was a rare and wonderful experience.
Touring Australia with forty horses and performing to ten thousand people on horseback was unforgettable as you can imagine.
The Scandinavian Concert Tour of Les Miserables is also up there. We opened to twenty eight thousand people in a football stadium in Copenhagen with a 70-piece orchestra and 150-voice choir. And The Woman in White was a definite highlight.
Originating a lead role in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in the West End of London, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Michael Crawford ticked just about every box I had. I’ve been very fortunate.
I have a feature film coming out later this year, which I’m very proud of. It’s called Everything In Between, it was written and directed by Nadi Sha, and I play the morally suspect, high rolling father of a troubled teenager. We had a cast and crew screening recently and I was blown away so I really hope it does well.
Michael Cormick is an internationally renowned singer and actor with a diverse career throughout Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe. Michael’s extensive career in Australia includes: Beauty and the Beast (The Beast) – for which he won an Australian MO Award, Cats (Munkustrap), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Pharoah), Grease (Kenickie), Sunset Boulevard (Joe Gillis), End of The Rainbow (Mickey Deans), The Rocky Horror Show (Eddie/Dr. Scott), Mamma Mia! (Sam), Annie (Daddy Warbucks), Next to Normal (Dr Madden), Blood Brothers (The Narrator), Falsettos (Whizzer), Eureka (Commissioner Grey), Into the Woods (Rapunzel’s Prince), Nine (Guido Contini), Cabaret (Ernst Ludwig), Jesus Christ Superstar (Pontius Pilate), The Pirates of Penzance (The Pirate King) and The Phantom of The Opera (Phantom).
His highly regarded international credits include lead roles in The Phantom of the Opera (Raoul), Calamity Jane (Wild Bill Hickok), Romeo & Juliet (The Prince), Chess (The Arbitor), Evita (Che), End of the Rainbow (Mickey Deans), TIME (The Rockstar) and Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White opposite Simon Callow and Anthony Andrews. Whilst living in London, he had the incredible opportunity to sing with Freddie Mercury and Cliff Richard, and he also performed in concerts in Rome, Paris, Edinburgh, Beirut and Cyprus.
His television credits Include: The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Reef Doctors, Sea Patrol, City Homicide, Prisoner, Superwog and Bluebird AR. As a vocalist, Michael appeared as a regular on many variety shows including The Don Lane Show, The Bert Newton Show, The Mike Walsh Show, Hey Hey It’s Saturday and The Terry Wogan Show.
In 2021, Michael toured with his solo show Feelin’ Good and with Rachael Beck in You and I. He also performed in concerts with Marina Prior and Silvie Paladino and created his own production The Byron Supper Club in Byron Bay.
This is such an incredibly exciting time for all of us involved in the Production. Because this is the first EVER outdoor production of Phantom, everything is brand new. Both in its concept and vision.
It’s been quite a journey between then and now. That was an incredible beginning of my career in London, and I feel honoured to still have such a strong connection to the show.
The love story of the show is what is so captivating, and Andrew’s score has taken this story and created magic.
It’s always so difficult to choose a favourite character or performance. My career has been varied, but if I’m totally honest I’ve always held Phantom dear to my heart.
I am currently working on a few different projects including an exciting new TV production which should be announced in the coming months.
Experience the phenomenon as the Music of the Night resounds across Sydney Harbour.
The longest-running show in musical history is coming to the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour stage in a dazzling new production.
This is The Phantom of the Opera as you’ve never seen it before. Under the stars, on a floating stage with the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge and city skyline glittering in the background. With fireworks every night and themed pop-up bars and restaurants, this will be an unforgettable evening.
Having played for 35 years on the West End, and 34 on Broadway, this inspired interpretation of Gaston Leroux’s novel remains one of the world’s favourite musicals. The story of a mysterious masked man who lives beneath the Paris Opera House, and the beautiful young singer who becomes his obsession and muse, seduces generation after generation and continues to enchant long-time devotees.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score — immortalised in one of the highest-selling cast albums of all time — is studded with melodies famous the world over: from the haunting beauty of ‘The Music of the Night’ and ‘All I Ask of You’, to the splendour of ‘Masquerade’, and the crashing chords of the title song.
Two of Australia’s most in-demand theatrical talents, director Simon Phillips and designer Gabriela Tylesova, bring a whole new level of spectacle to the show’s defining moments — the mirror, the journey to the Phantom’s lair, the chandelier — on an enormous purposebuilt stage over the water.
See them bring the Phantom’s extraordinary world to life, complete with a massive cast of musical theatre and opera’s top talents accompanied by a live orchestra hidden beneath the stage.
The Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour runs from 25th March – 24th April 2022. Book tickets on the Opera Australia Website.
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Michelle is a musician and composer from the UK. She has performed across the UK and Europe and is passionate about arts education and opportunities for women and girls.
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