Phantom stage secret questions!!

Does anyone know in the show Phantom:

a) How does the Phantom appear in the mirror?

b) How do the phantom and Christine get to the catwalk so quickly at the beginning of the Title Song?

c) After the reprise of Wishing, how is the sound of Raoul and Christine singing heard if they are offstage?

d) How does the phantom disappear at the end?

e) How does the boat move?

f) How does Raoul jump off the bridge yet stay safe after Madame Giry leads him towards the Phantom's lair?

Updated On: 3/26/16 at 07:46 PM

I can answer a few of these:

b) They don't. They have body doubles. The whole song is pre recorded.

e) The boat is moved by a person off stage with a huge remote controller type thing.

A) he is lit from behind the mirror but in front of where he's standing which turns mirror to glass.

B) one set of stand ins walk across the stage and down into the stage, a second set of stand ins walk the catwalk. The original pair don't reappear until the boat.

C) they are offstage but their mikes are just turned on.

D) he sits on the throne and once he hooks the cape to the top of the chair u see him flap to cape out. He pulls his knees to his chest and there is a pull or button I forget which that pulls what he is sitting on back and the he pulls down a black screen in front of him. He is actually still there for the reveal in the built out portion in the back of the chair.

E) boat is remote control, signals from outside the theatre in the beginning would interfere and send the boat on weird paths.



And finally Raoul jumps through the trap to a huge crash pad. Basically a overthick mattress in the trap room under the stage
If the fog is too thick for the actor to clearly see the trap door he runs down the catwalk offstage then just reaapears coming up out of it.


Hope that helps

Updated On: 3/26/16 at 08:41 PM

a) How does the Phantom appear in the mirror?

It is the same effect as a 2 way mirror, actually any piece of glass/perspex that is tinted with a mirror/reflective tint, once light is cast behind it, you will see the person behind the mirror appear. In Vegas, there was a hole in the mirror and as the mirror slid accross, Christine would walk through the hole making it appear (with added smoke) that she walked through a mirror that didnt open

b) How do the phantom and Christine get to the catwalk so quickly at the beginning of the Title Song?

Most of the song is pre-recorded, so as the Phantom and Christine are getting out of the mirror setup, a set of doubles cross the stage and go down the trapdoor, another set of doubles is ready up on the bridge and start to cross. On Broadway (sometimes, not sure if all the time) the real Phantom and Christine are also on the bridge and swap with the doubles. If not, then the real phantom and christne come out in the boat, also sometimes the verse when they are in the boat is live singing from there.

c) After the reprise of Wishing, how is the sound of Raoul and Christine singing heard if they are offstage?

when raoul and christine exit through the trapdoor, there is a monitor of the conductor right under the stage, they watch him to keep time and sing from there.


d) How does the phantom disappear at the end?

, that was quite well explained above, except i think for the knees up by the chest bit, last time I saw it done the whole chair just sort of slides back so if you sat on the throne you basically would be sitting on his lap.

e) How does the boat move?

remote/radio control


f) How does Raoul jump off the bridge yet stay safe after Madame Giry leads him towards the Phantom's lair?

the trap door is lined with lights so raoul can clearly see it. Inside is a big piece of foam, he lands and goes off to get wetted down, then pops back up through the same hole. Back when the show toured, there was no trap door so he jumped onto a dark air cushion or sometimes they just cut that out and he runs off the bridge in the same direction as the rat catcher

A friend of mine played Raul for several years in LA. According to him, neither the trap door nor the crash mat were what you'd call "huge". He said that even with lights outlining the hole, it was nearly impossible to gauge the distance to the mat because of the fog. He tore a knee several times during his long run, as did other Rauls before and after him.

***

Item (b) in the OP's list of questions is where the show lost me. I realize that Prince was trying to do a stage equivalent of a cinematic cross-fade from the "ground floor" dressing room to the system of catwalks under the theater.

But sitting in the audience, as soon as the couple appeared high in the sky on the catwalk, I thought "the Phantom and Christine didn't have time to get up there. Those must be doubles. Well then, who is singing? Oh, it must be on tape. Maybe the whole number is on tape. So for all I know, the whole show is on tape and several people are playing each part! I might as well be watching a movie with dubbed voices and stunt doubles because this show is anything but 'live'."

Ruined PHANTOM for me and though I saw it often because of my friend, I never really got over that first reaction. Prince is one of my favorite directors, but in POTO, he was too clever by half. IMO, of course.