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Rating: 3 out of Fordyce

Phantom is on stage at Wharton Center at East Lansing until June 6. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera is the tragic love story of a beautiful opera singer and a young composer shamed by his physical appearance. She is lured from above into a shadowy existence beneath a Paris Opera House.

This award-winning musical has woven its magical spell since 1988. I saw the original cast perform this masterpiece on Broadway and marveled as Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford sang the haunting music from what I consider Webber’s best musical. I have now seen it six times and The Wharton Center cast has Trista Moldavan as Christine. She is the finest I have seen in the role since Ms. Brightman and it is worth the price of admission just to marvel at her beauty, grace and singing voice on the stage right in front of you. (Note: Saturday matinees and evenings the role is played by Kelly Jeanne Grant).

The rest of the cast was wonderful and there is nothing like the marvelous special effects that will just take your breath away. I was watching the audience and you can always tell who was seeing Phantom for the first time by their reactions as the underworld beneath Paris unfolds before their eyes.

This show was technically perfect with one exception: the sound was very uneven. My companion for the night noticed it and I did too, and I overheard another saying the same thing as she was leaving the theater.

I hope they will check the audio to make this show even better for those who have this on their theater schedule. This show lost a point for the sound quality, but it still gets a very good three out of Fordyce. If you have never seen Phantom, get one of the few remaining tickets because this is the last road tour of this wonderful show.