NEW YORK (WABC) — You know the music, you know the story, but you’ve never seen The Phantom of the Opera quite like this.
This is Masquerade. Nearly three years after Phantom’s final bow on Broadway, the story now lives on through an immersive experience that pulls the audience directly into the world of the Phantom.
The production comes to life in part thanks to Nik Walker and Kaley Ann Voorhees, one of six acting pairs who play the Phantom and Christine.
“It’s Phantom of the Opera told from the Phantom’s perspective. You see the full show as written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with new material, but from a different point of view,” Walker said.
“You get to see scenes that aren’t in the original Broadway production,” Voorhees said.
The Phantom is inside your mind long before you step into his lair, and the show begins. There’s a strict formal dress code that includes a mask for all audience members.
Joelle Garguilo : What are you doing when everybody first walks in? Are you spying? Where are you?
Walker: I’m spying.
Voohrees: He’s spying.
Garguilo: So what are you looking for?
Walker: Just to see who I’m playing with that night, because the audience is so much of our third scene partner. But it’s also for the audience, to feel like, “Oh, something spooky is happening.”
Voorhees: And he really leans into it.
Garguilo: You got a couple of screams out of me.
Walker: All I have to do is give them a look. You’re in my house. I call you the way the Phantom would, and people slowly realize, “Oh, we’re not just sitting back tonight.”
Garguilo: It’s the setting. I know this space as Lee’s Art Shop, and the way each room and set is dressed.
Voorhees: You don’t feel like you’re in New York anymore. You feel like you’re in the Paris Opera House. And even as you transition from scene to scene, the goal is that you’re never pulled out of it as you move through the building.
Garguilo: You even touch us sometimes and lead us into other rooms.
Voorhees: And depending on how people react, it changes things. It’s a group participating in something. Each cast has the freedom to play and make choices that feel true to us and to the story. Depending on who you see, you can get very different shows.
Garguilo: You have multiple shows happening at the same time. Do you ever get it twisted?
Voorhees: Yes.
Walker: You do?
Voorhees: You’ll do a scene as Meg, then immediately do it again as Christine. Sometimes you’re like, “Which one?”
Walker: I remember in rehearsals thinking, “How are we ever going to do this?” It was so big. But now it’s in my bones. I’ll pass another Phantom in the hallway and give them a high five.
Garguilo: What show did you make your Broadway debut with?
Voorhees: Phantom of the Opera. I played Christine when I was 20.
Walker: You are a marvelous Christine. It’s a pleasure to watch you.
Voorhees: My first Phantom memory was the movie when I was eight or nine. I loved it so much they bought me the CD. I’d listen to it as I fell asleep, and I’d get nightmares.
Walker: Embarrassingly, I had never seen the show. Now I have such appreciation for it.
Garguilo: What would the Phantom say to convince people to come see Masquerade?
Walker: He’d walk up to a group on the subway, drop a card, and walk out, trusting that his look alone would do the job.
Voorhees: His aura. It’s the Phantom’s world, we’re just living in it.
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