{"id":566830,"date":"2026-03-27T02:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566830\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T02:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:04:15","slug":"gladstones-jake-lyle-to-star-in-phantom-of-the-opera-on-sydney-harbour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566830\/","title":{"rendered":"Gladstone’s Jake Lyle to star in Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sick day and a DVD changed the course of Jake Lyle’s life.<\/p>\n

At 14 years of age he was in his lounge room at home, in the industrial town of Gladstone, watching as a mysterious phantom lurked underneath the Paris Opera House.<\/p>\n

It was love at first sight.<\/p>\n

“I asked my mum to get some DVDs and she brought back \u2026 the recording of the 25th anniversary of Phantom of the Opera,” he said.<\/p>\n

“From that point on I just thought ‘I have to be in this show’.”<\/p>\n

\"Performers<\/p>\n

The famous show is being performed in a pop-up outdoor opera theatre. (Supplied: Carlita Sari)<\/p>\n

Now 22, the young man from central Queensland will tonight make his debut in his dream role of the phantom at Opera Australia’s 40th anniversary of the show, with Sydney Harbour as his backdrop.<\/p>\n

“I thought I’d bombed the final audition. I got that call from my agent and was ready to face the music and then he says, ‘Oh they want you to play the title role,'” Lyle said.<\/p>\n

“It’s mind boggling.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jake Lyle rehearsing for his role as the phantom. (Supplied: Carlita Sari)<\/p>\n

The musical features a masked man living underneath Paris Opera House who falls in love with a young singer and “employs every devious method to nurture her talents”.<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s show first featured in London’s West End 40 years ago and has since been played to more than 160 million people across the globe.<\/p>\n

“People keep coming back to it. It’s got all the themes of love and loss and despair, and we can all relate to something in the story,” Lyle said.<\/p>\n

“The music that Andrew Lloyd Webber has written is epic in scale, yet so human and fragile as well.”<\/p>\n

Loading…’It lights a fire’<\/p>\n

Back home in Gladstone, 530 kilometres north of Brisbane, Lyle’s former music teacher Chelsea Elvery said she could not be prouder.<\/p>\n

“He was very go-getting. He was one of those students that if you gave him a task one week he’d come back with a thousand questions and was always so eager to learn,” she said.<\/p>\n

She is among a large group from his hometown travelling to Sydney to watch him perform.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jake Lyle was shocked to learn he had landed the role he had dreamt about since he was a teenager. (Supplied: Daniel Boud)<\/p>\n

Lyle said it was an honour to play in the show and be supported by so many in central Queensland.<\/p>\n

“It’s absolutely heartwarming and reminds me that I’m so privileged and lucky to be from such a strong community that will back me,” he said.<\/p>\n

Lyle’s first musical performance was in Gladstone at a combined schools’ production of Shrek the Musical.<\/p>\n

Ms Elvery said several students were also travelling to Sydney for the show.<\/p>\n

“It’s understood that Gladstone’s an industry town, [but] it’s got a culture \u2026 and we can really produce some really great results here, despite not being in the south-east,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It lights a fire within the community.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sick day and a DVD changed the course of Jake Lyle’s life. At 14 years of age…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[45529,64,63,134,278840,278841,278839,278838,8148],"class_list":{"0":"post-566830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-arts-and-culture","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jake-lyle","13":"tag-music-teacher","14":"tag-phantom","15":"tag-phantom-of-the-opera","16":"tag-sydney-opera-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}