INTERVIEW: John Riddle joins the timeless story of ‘Phantom of the Opera’
Photo: John Riddle stars as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by The Publicity Office with permission.
For many people around the world, The Phantom of the Opera holds a special place in their hearts. The longest-running show on Broadway, which recently celebrated 32 years in Midtown Manhattan, is still amazing crowds at the Majestic Theatre, telling its timeless tale of complicated love, artistic desire and fiery passion.
Right now, the Broadway production stars Ben Crawford in the title role, Meghan Picerno as Christine Daaé and John Riddle as Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. Riddle is appearing in his third Broadway show at this point, having previously acted in The Visit and Frozen. For him, he shares with the audience that special feeling of Phantom being something different — a musical that grabs hold and never lets go throughout a lifetime.
“Phantom was my very first audition when I moved to New York seven years ago, and I think I auditioned four or five times since then,” Riddle said in a recent phone interview. “It came back around back in the summer, and I went in for it. And they put me on tape for Andrew Lloyd Webber, and a few weeks later, they offered me the job.”
That must have been a nerve-racking audition tape for Webber, but Riddle did just fine and landed the part. Webber, of course, is the composer, book writer and co-orchestrator of the musical spectacle. He was joined on the creative team by Charles Hart (lyrics), Richard Stilgoe (book and additional lyrics), Gillian Lynne (musical staging and choreography), Hal Prince (director) and Cameron Mackintosh (producer).
Riddle was formally introduced to the show when he was quite young, sitting in the audience of the Toronto production with his family by his side.
“Phantom was the first show I ever saw,” he said. “I was 4 years old, and my dad took us to Toronto to see it. I didn’t even know what a musical was then, and I saw this show and just completely became obsessed with the music and the story and everything. So it’s always been a big part of my life, and it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s sort of like an actor’s rite of passage I feel in New York to do Phantom in your career, so I feel it’s very cool for me to now be a part of the show. And I think about that often. There will be nights when I’m walking down through the basement, watching the candles go up through the floor, and I’m like, I’m in Phantom of the Opera. It’s pretty cool.”
When Riddle assumed the role of Raoul and began his multi-month stay in the show, he wasn’t nervous at all, which kind of scared him. Nerves, according to the actor, are a good thing, but that night — his opening night, when there were many friends in the audience — he was as cool as can be.
“I think that I rehearsed for two weeks, and I felt really prepared,” Riddle said. “So at that point, that opening night was for me mostly excitement of wow I’m singing this epic music, and I’m on the stage of the Majestic. And I’m here, and I’ve thought about being here for a long time. And it was finally happening. It was a really great night. It was really cool, and I had a boatload of friends in the audience. It was a very fun night for me.”
Taking over such a memorable role as Raoul can be challenging because there are three decades of theatrical history to contend with, and a new actor wants to put his own stamp on the character. Riddle is aware of this history, and he wants to honor it and also leave his own mark on the Vicomte de Chagny.
“Well, that’s the cool thing about this show is that it’s really up to the actors who are in these roles,” he said. “A lot of stuff that I’ve done has been original stuff, which is cool. This is really cool because the blueprint is already laid out for you, and then you come in with your water colors and put all the colors into it. So it’s very fun, I think, for me because a lot of the work is done for you, but then you get to infuse yourself into this character. There’s no right way to do it. There’s some marks that you have to hit, but there are so many different interpretations of it. And it’s been around for so long that people have their ideas of what the characters are, but I always love at the stage door when people say, ‘I’ve never seen it like that, or I never thought of him like that.’ So it’s fun for me to find little ways to find the new things, and it keeps the show interesting every night.”
One audience member who has not seen Riddle’s performance just yet is Webber himself. The actor is hoping that the composer finds his way into the crowd soon, and it’s likely that excitement would once again win out over nerves.
“It’d be very exciting because I’m a huge fan of all his work and have been for years,” Riddle said. “I hope he comes and sees the show while I’m there because it’d be very thrilling. I’d probably be a bit nervous, but it would be very thrilling if he were to be in the audience.”
Riddle made his Broadway debut at the age of 25 in 2015’s The Visit. He then devoted two years of his life to Frozen, the hugely successful Disney musical, which actually plays across the street from The Phantom of the Opera.
“It was a wild ride,” Riddle said of his time as Hans in Frozen. “I did the original workshop when Michael Grandage, the director, came on board. He hired me, and I went through a series of auditions for that as well. … I think we did two more workshops after that, and then we did the out-of-town tryout in Denver before we opened on Broadway in February of 2018. So I was with the show in total for like two years, so it was a huge part of my life. The dream for any person on Broadway — well, for me, anyway — is to originate a part because then it’s always yours. Also, nobody’s ever done it before you, so you’re limitless. There’s also a responsibility with that because you have to do it justice. Frozen is a little bit different because the animated movie did exist, but with Hans, they added a lot of stuff for the stage show that wasn’t in the movie. There were a lot of differences, and so that was quite fun. It was simultaneously very challenging and also so rewarding in so many ways. It was a really, really amazing part of my life.”
Now he’s in another iconic show — the ultimate iconic show on Broadway — and he’s taking stock of the thousands of people who see him every week. A Phantom audience is made up of first-timers from the local area, repeat customers and tourists who only have one chance to see a Broadway show (perhaps one chance in their entire lifetime). This fact weighs on Riddle.
“For a lot of people, Phantom is their first Broadway show,” he said. “They come to New York, and they say, ‘I want to see something.’ They recognize the title right away, so that is a big part of our audience. I love that, and I think it’s such a great responsibility that we have at Phantom because we are a lot of people’s introduction to what a Broadway show is. That’s thrilling because we’re introducing a new audience to what we do. I have a lot of pride in that because Phantom is so iconic. It’s such an iconic show. That’s why it’s stood the test of time.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Phantom of the Opera, featuring John Riddle, plays at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
