Bringing The Phantom Of The Opera to life in Mumbai

When Gaston Leroux wrote Le Fantôme de l’opéra in 1910, it is hard to imagine that he would have planned to immortalise the story as a Broadway musical. But in 1989, Andrew Lloyd Webber did just that with his rendition of The Phantom Of The Opera. The show was on for 30 years at the Majestic Theatre in New York till the Phantom hung up his cloak in 2023. But the travelling show is still on.

Is The Phantom of the Opera playing in Mumbai?

After finishing a month-long stint in China, Phantom Of The Opera is currently performing at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) Grand Theatre. The three pivotal characters of the Phantom, Christine and Raoul are played by Jonathan Roxmouth, Grace Roberts and Matt Leisy, respectively.

The collapsed chandelier is a true story that inspired Leroux, and later it set the stage for Lloyd Weber—the show starts with the broken chandeliers and other paraphernalia of the famed Palais Garnier being auctioned. The chandelier drama is one of the highlights of the Broadway show in London. But to be emulated with a travelling show is a challenge. Replicating the opulence and grandeur of the show from one theatre to another is a gargantuan task. For example, NMACC’s Grand Theatre is a comparatively smaller space.

Sandie Bekavac, stage manager for The Phantom Of The Opera reveals that there is a lot of engineering and intricate design within the chandelier itself. “If it had been as big and elaborate as the original one, we would not be able to travel with it. It is time-consuming and a lot more expensive for local producers. So, while it is slightly less dramatic, I think it's advantageous and more people get to see the show,” she says.

As part of her exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Mumbai’s The Phantom Of The Opera showcase, Bekavac shares how the crew ensures that the actors and dancers can put up a spectacular show day after day. The real drama is on the hidden side of the wings; Bekavac has to ensure all the technical departments work in perfect harmony with the musicians and the cast.

“We have low-light cameras, so when there's blackouts or like darkness on stage, it's important to make sure people are in the right place before we have scenery moving around.”

The backstage for a Broadway musical is another universe altogether. It is where the show really takes shape before anyone goes on stage. With 37 cast members, 17 orchestra members, 37 touring crew and lots of transfer crew and creatives, Phantom Of The Opera employs over 100 people.

During the show, you can imagine that backstage has a lot of traffic. There's cast coming in and out, there's our crew, and then there are the changing scenes of the show,” Bekavac says, sharing their innovative solution to scenery storage.

Key visual elements of the show like the elephant in the first 10 minutes of the show, are hanging on a harness backstage. The same is the case with Phantom/Erik’s throne and the Palais Garnier’s sculpture, where Christine and Raoul profess their love for each other.

A main highlight of the show is the Masquerade scene where the whole cast is on stage in an elaborate song and dance sequence. The key element of the scene is the baroque-style staircase that the whole cast is standing on. Bekavac lets us in on a secret: “In this production, because the theatre stage's not very deep, we can't fit our masquerade stairs. It's collapsible. At intervals, they need to bring it in, make the structure, and check that it's all stable and secure. We then place the mannequins on the edges of the stairs.” Her team does all this during the 20-minute intermission of the show. Even more hectic is to disassemble the whole set and get ready for the next scene.

Equally fascinating is the false stage floor that The Phantom Of The Opera show uses; it is a stage on a stage that is about a foot tall and is home to all sorts of cables and machinery that operate the show. There are tracks that make the movement of different backgrounds of the scenes easy. There is a smoke machine and hundreds of LED candles under the false floor that come into action when Erik takes Christine to his lair in the dungeon. There is a speaker so the cast on stage can hear the music clearly to know their cues.

To achieve the clockwork precision required during these transitions, the crew did only four practice runs including a dress rehearsal with the cast. It hardly seems enough but Bekavac shares that the crew has separate rehearsals, “Because we have a lot of local crews that join us from India to support the core crew who travels with production, we have some rehearsals with the crew to teach them what to do. If we tried to marry it all together in one go, it would just be chaos.”

The Phantom Of The Opera premiered in Mumbai on March 5, 2025, so Bekavac arrived 10 days prior, which she found more than enough to handle the finer details of the backstage. Since the show has come to India from China, these 10 days are used to repair, rebuild and fix all elements that may have suffered damage during the transit. The show, its technical plans and other details are shared months in advance, so the bigger aspects are already.

The truly international cast and crew come from different nations—South Africa, the UK, Australia, the US, and South Korea, to name a few. They have to work with local teams to ensure the production remains flawless. Of course, the stage crew has extra hands, but so does the orchestra and the costume and wardrobe team.

Sharon Williams heads the costume and wardrobe department for The Phantom Of The Opera international tour. Her job, along with her team of four, is to ensure that Maria Björnson’s original designs live up to their full glory. The costume designs and looks are true to the Victorian era, the period in which the story is set. The opulence of the costumes is best seen in the opening Hannibal sequence and the Masquerade scene.

Williams says there are more than 300 costumes for the whole cast. “I tried to count them once. I got to about 320-something and then I just gave up; there are so many. It's not just costumes, there are hats, there are shoes and different accessories, you know, it's huge and crosses over 1000 pieces,” she says. Christine alone has 11 changes and the Phantom has four through the two and a half hours she shares as she walks through the backstage changing station. From the Phantom’s masquerade look to the Chinese robe, everything is hanging in sequence of the scenes.

Keeping the costumes clean is perhaps even more daunting than keeping track of the pieces. The Instagram/TikTok hack of using diluted vodka spray to keep the ornate pieces of clothing clean is true. Williams shows three to four of those sprays kept backstage for quick cleans. “All the hats get wiped with antiseptic wipes and all the masks get cleaned every day,” she adds. For everything else, the crew travels with their own washing machines! During the tour, one of Williams’ team members, Bella, was doing an inventory of washed clothing, while NMACC’s in-house laundry team was on ironing duty.

Bekevac started her journey with the show 20 years ago while Williams has been part of the international tour since 2019. Both of them have seen the show evolve with time. The costumes have seen changes with cast changes and newer developments, like the bustle used under Madame Carlotta’s skirts have become lighter and collapsible. “Obviously, the technology has changed, especially in lighting; this particular show has some advanced lighting tech. We started with static lights, now it has changed into a completely moving light rig. The sound equipment has also evolved,” Bekevac shares.

As you sit in the audience, you will question the relevance of the love triangle in the contemporary world but that won’t stop you from sitting agape at the magnificence of The Phantom Of The Opera. The awe-inspiring sets, costumes, and impeccable execution make the show worth watching.

(By Sayoni Bhaduri)