‘The Phantom of the Opera’: Meet the man behind the mask and the behind-the-scenes prankster
If you’re not already planning to catch it at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center’s Belk Theater, “The Phantom of the Opera” is showing through Sunday, Jan. 28.
To sum up the dramatically beautiful musical set in the 19th century in one sentence: A soprano in the Paris Opera, named Christine, is pursued by the jealous, disfigured ‘phantom’ under the opera house who helps her career while hindering her relationship with another man.
But who is the man behind the mask in this production? We got to meet him and a fellow cast member before Thursday’s matinee.
Towering at six feet, six inches tall, Quentin Oliver Lee is hard to miss. The baritone singer, who made his broadway debut in “Prince of Broadway,” has been in Charlotte since Monday and hasn’t had time to do much beyond drive around Uptown a bit and eat veggie chili at Lupie’s Cafe. Which, for the record, he said was great.
Really, as he travels to each city on this tour, which will be heading to Greenville, SC and then Tampa, Fla. next, Lee wants to listen to some local music, get a magnet (“Which is really lame,” he said, laughing) and go for a walk.
“I try and go for walks just around, just to get a general vibe of the area,” Lee said. “Sometimes in parks, sometime in the downtown area.”
As for slipping into the vibe of his character, the phantom, Lee spends an hour preparing his face for the show.
“So that’s a good bit of it,” said Lee, whose 34th performance of this musical was Thursday night. “I’m sort of very quiet and reflective of how this person’s life would have been affected, or how my life is affected by the way that I look. Which is sort of how we connect in a lot of ways.”
Emily Ramirez — who is more than a foot shorter than the phantom, formerly danced with Charlotte Ballet, and plays the teenage character Meg Giry (friend to Christine) — chooses to connect to her role and to others through mischief.
As the directors of the show told her, Meg should be mischievous and nosy, poking her nose where it doesn’t belong.
“So I liked that side of her,” Ramirez said. “I liked that she wasn’t just your typical ingenue. She wasn’t just this meek, little, mild-mannered girl. In this time period, you know, in the Victorian age when you’re really supposed to be very buttoned up and very nice, it’s fun to play this kind of rebellious character, if you will. I kind of connect with that because I can be a little rebellious.”
Especially when rubber spiders are involved.
She got her hands on a giant rubber spider (“When it got disturbed it looked like a real tarantula, basically,” she said) and hid it in the tights of Trista Moldovan, who plays the character Carlotta Giudicelli.
But Moldovan and another actress, Kristie Dale Sanders, who plays Madame Giry, often share a dressing room with Ramirez and are getting accustomed to her pranks.
“They’re pretty much ready for anything and we have such fun, so I think they enjoy little things like that,” Ramirez said.
Although, she does have to make sure no one screams bloody murder before a show and messes up their singing voice.
“I wouldn’t want to take it too far,” she said.
Ramirez is ready to take this production to the Belk Theater stage with Lee and the rest of their 52-person cast and orchestra for the next week.
“The stage has always felt like my home and my safe space,” she said, “and it’s always felt like just the most fun place to be.”
Want to see the performance?
“The Phantom of the Opera” performs at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center’s Belk Theater through Jan. 28. Get tickets and more information here.
Photos: Alastair Muir, Katie Toussaint
This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 10:00 PM with the headline "‘The Phantom of the Opera’: Meet the man behind the mask and the behind-the-scenes prankster."