INTERVIEW: Ben Crawford climbs to new heights in Broadway’s ‘Phantom’

Photo: Ben Crawford stars as the title character in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by The Publicity Office with permission.

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The Phantom of the Opera, the timeless musical from composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Hal Prince, has been on Broadway for more than 30 years, shattering any and all records that dare to get in the way. It’s usually a career highlight for the many actors who have portrayed The Phantom and his object of obsession, Christine Daaé, over the course of its historic run.

The new actor on the block playing the title role is Ben Crawford, who has been seen on Broadway in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Shrek the Musical, Big Fish, Les Misérables and On the Twentieth Century.

“I went in originally for the tour, and it came down between me and someone else,” Crawford said of the audition process. “And the other person got it, and it was funny because I remember the production supervisor here was like, ‘We actually might think Ben is more of a Broadway Phantom.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, OK, cool.’ I just put that away, and then I went on and did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And I was doing that last season, and we closed like mid-January of 2018. And then this audition came up for Phantom, and so I actually originally turned it down because I had been away from my wife and my little daughter for like a month or so because we split time between here and Arizona.”

Crawford and his family were gearing up to return to his home state of Arizona when a friend got his ear and said he should reconsider the audition for The Phantom. This may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“So that night, at midnight, I emailed my agents and was like, ‘Is it OK if I actually change my mind on this,’” he said. “And they said, ‘Absolutely.’ I went in and had some great auditions and had a final callback with Hal Prince in the room, and I got the job. So then it was a fun game of not telling anyone for like a month. It was the longest time that no one could know about it. It was great to finally have it announced and have a lot of my friends and family who are so happy and thrilled for me, so it was one of those weird things where sometimes in life things come back around. And you’re in the right place at the right time.”

Auditioning for Prince must be an intimidating exercise for a professional actor. He directed the premiere productions of … wait for it … Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, She Loves Me, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Evita, Parade and, of course, The Phantom of the Opera. That’s a lot of history in the room.

“I actually got to the audition, and [the production supervisor] was like, ‘Oh, by the way, Hal is here today,'” Crawford remembered. “I do master classes and stuff, and it was one of those things where I tell the kids it’s about being prepared. It’s OK to be nervous when you’re excited about something, but it’s when you have nerves because you’re not prepared, those are the detrimental kind of nerves. I definitely had just excitement kind of nerves. I was like, OK, let’s show him what I can do; it’s just an audition. And thankfully it went very well. He was also absolutely wonderful in the room. He was very supportive.”

Crawford said Prince’s catch phrase is “You’re swell,” which he apparently tells actors when they’ve done well in an audition. Crawford, though, didn’t receive a “swell.” It was slightly different, and this made the actor sweat a bit.

“He said, ‘You’re terrific, Ben. You’re really terrific.’ I had this great feeling leaving the room, and my agents are like, ‘How’d it go?’ I said, ‘Great.’ They’re like, ‘Did he say you were swell?’ I said, ‘He said I was terrific.’ They were like, ‘Terrific? What does that mean?’ It was this secret language trying to decipher what Hal meant by that. Obviously it was a good kind of terrific. Yeah, he’s this larger-than-life guy who has made his career the pinnacle of what we do, and he’s still very down to earth and a wonderful man.”

Crawford came to musical theater a bit later in life. He only became convinced of making a professional career out of his talents around junior year in college. At the time, he had a sudden thought that his singing and acting were the means to pay the bills.

“I was connected to it originally from my grandparents,” he said. “They would listen to classical music on PBS and all that kind of stuff. They took a road trip out to L.A. because we’re from Arizona, and they went out to L.A. to watch Michael Crawford do the tour [of Phantom] when the tour set down in L.A. And they went with a group of friends, and I remember them telling me about how the chandelier falls. It’s a very fond memory I have of us going over after they had come back and then talking all about the show, so that was my first immersion into the world of Phantom.”

He finally saw the show himself a few years ago when Hugh Panaro was playing the title character. Crawford enjoyed the production very much. Now he finds himself in the interesting position of trying to honor its tradition and also leave his individual mark.

“I enjoy the fact that they respect my ideas on the part,” he said. “It’s that fine balance of doing obviously what The Phantom needs to do in those iconic moments but then finding your own way to do it. It’s been a great balance of that. I remember seeing it for the first time when I got the part. I would have rehearsal and then go see the show at night. It still works, and that’s the beauty of the show. It’s been around for 31 years, and it still does what it’s supposed to do.”

It’s not easy playing the role multiple times over the course of a week. For the uninitiated, it may seem easy to spend a couple of hours at the Majestic Theatre, but the energy needed to hit those notes and make those entrances is draining.

“I was actually doing an interview at a Broadway event, and I said, ‘It’s very exhausting,'” Crawford said. “And people were shocked I think to hear an actor say that it’s really tiring what we do, but it is. I feel there’s no need to sugarcoat it. The funny thing is the Phantom is on stage for approximately 20 minutes or so, but everything is at 11. … Even those quiet moments are filled with intensity. You’re dragging yourself across the stage. You’re climbing ladders. You’re climbing up into the catwalk.”

One of his challenges was figuring out what to do during a scene at the end of Act I where his character is disguised by an angel statue on stage.

“Hanging out in the angel for the end of Act I was interesting to figure out how to sit in it,” he said. “I would ask the understudies, ‘How do you sit?’ I’m trying to figure out where to put my legs, and they all did it a different way. I would try their versions of how to stay comfy up there. It is very tiring. It’s one of those things where when you’re passionate about the role and what you do, I think it’s valuable, fulfilling, hard work. It’s wonderful, and the crowd recognizes that when you come out for that bow afterward because I don’t see how you can play The Phantom and not give 110 percent.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

The Phantom of the Opera, starring Ben Crawford, is now playing at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.