Interview with Ciarán Sheehan, of The Four Phantoms, Coming to the McCallum This Week
by Audrey Liebross
On Saturday night, April 6th, four former Phantoms (of the Opera) will appear unmasked at Palm Desert’s McCallum Theatre, singing a variety of music. The quartet consists of Brent Barrett, John Cudia, Franc D’Ambrosio, and Ciarán Sheehan, performing with special guest Kaley Ann Voorhees, one of the youngest sopranos to play the role of Christine on Broadway. I have seen three of the five perform, and they were all superb.
I had the pleasure last week of a telephone interview with Ciarán (pronounced with a K) Sheehan, who turned out to be a gracious and erudite interviewee. He played the Phantom in New York and Toronto, starting in 1994. Here is our transcribed interview, edited for length and flow.
Audrey Liebross (AHL): The Phantom of the Opera (POTO) has been closed for almost a year now in New York. People are still saying "Oh, I hope it comes back." Why is The Phantom of the Opera, especially [the Andrew Lloyd Webber] version, so enduring?
Ciarán Sheehan (CS): I think people relate to struggles with love. If the show is done well, it's really about that character's journey from a nearly adolescent understanding of love. And it's not till the very end when, because he loves [Christine] so much that he chooses to let her go because he wants her to be happy, and realizes that [a life with her] would never be really possible with who he is and how he lives. He lets her go, and it's such a great act of love. I think most people can relate to feeling, at some point in their life, unloved and unwanted. And so I think that really touches people's hearts.
AHL: There is just an amazing amount of overlap between performers who have been in Phantom and Les Misérables. Have you played in Les Miz?
CS: Yes, as Babet and Marius. I played in it for a few months and I had a great time. Phantom and Les Miz had the same producer, at least in England and the US (Cameron Mackintosh) [which may be a reason for overlapping casts]. In Toronto, it was a different producer, Garth Drabinsky. Colm Wilkinson, the original Valjean, had been doing Phantom in Toronto. Colm was leaving the show and so Garth was looking for a new Phantom. Hal [Prince] told Garth he should come down and see me doing [Phantom] in New York, which was very fortunate for me. And so, Garth came down to New York and asked me to come up to Toronto to do Phantom for a couple of years.
AHL: I have a theory that the Phantom is Jean Valjean without the benefit of the Bishop of Digne. Certainly at the beginning of Les Miz, you don't have a very nice guy there. And it's obviously for a different reason than for the Phantom, but I'm just wondering if you could compare the characters.
CS: I think there's such an archetype of the Phantom, which is not really present in Les Miz, but the arc of the character [Valjean] is very similar to the Beauty and the Beast story: The rough or dangerous characters being transformed into these loving beings. And I think that the Bishop's act of kindness towards Valjean completely flips a switch for him. He grows from the rough prisoner. We don't get to see his descent into that. We meet him as part of the chain gang. And we do see his transformation into a more worldly and loving, compassionate man trying to do some good in the world. Which is very much the Beauty and the Beast sort of story: She takes this rough character and saves him. It's the same thing with Phantom, her act of kindness, but I suppose its more his own self-realization how much he really loves her. And his willingness to let her go is what transforms him. It’s a very common theme — a female finding this madman and transforming him. It’s an appealing storyline. It would be really interesting to have a prequel to Les Miz so we can see how Valjean out of sort of an act of desperation to take care of the people he loves, ends up in prison, and how that changes him, and hardens him, and makes him feel unsafe in the world, and not trusting. And I would say, you know, the Phantom feels the same way. He feels unsafe in the world. Valjean has his strengths — his physical abilities become his armor, and the Phantom has the mystique and the mask that he hides behind, both literally and figuratively.
AHL: You don't really see the Phantom, I gather, as a bad guy. He's kind of an anti-hero, in my opinion. Can you comment on that?
CS: If an actor approaches a character he’s going to play as a bad guy, you're on the path to a bit of self-destruction as an actor. I think fear and wounds have their effect on people, and I think the Phantom is a very wounded man, probably wounded from childhood, due to his disfigurement and his rejection by, I'm guessing, his family, and by his community. He feels ugly and unwanted, and that will transform someone. But, in that very last moment of the show, he is sort of saved. It's kind of like Billy Bigelow, in Carousel. [Some people] don't like that show because he's a wife-beater. That’s another story of beauty saving the beast, because Julie's love for him, even if it doesn't really hit him until right before the suicide, or right as he enters heaven, it’s still her love that saves a soul, and transforms him into somebody that wants to do some good for someone else. I never think of a character as a bad guy. It makes it very one-dimensional. I’ve seen actors do that, and, I just don't think it serves the piece or the audience who is watching it.
AHL: Would you want to play the role of the Phantom again?
CS: Occasionally I miss the character. So, if someone asked me to do it again, I would consider it for sure. I did do it a lot — around a thousand times. But I did love the character very much. I understood his journey — I think, I hope. So it was always fun to play a character like that who's on the edge of psychosis due to circumstances, and try and allow his humanity to touch an audience. And I think the character in general, even if the role is not done that well, audiences do feel for him.
AHL: Tell us about the upcoming concert.
CS: What really surprises people is how much fun the four of us have — actually, the five of us, including Kaley — more fun than our stage managers would like. We really enjoy ourselves and we’re very supportive of each other. Our last song always catches people by surprise. They're not expecting it. They all know it and they really enjoy it a lot. They're up and dancing.
The Four Phantoms will appear on Saturday, April 6th, at 8 p.m., at the McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, on the northeast corner of Fred Waring and Monterey Avenue, in Palm Desert, California. Tickets are available through the Web site, McCallumTheatre.org or at the box office from 9-5, Monday through Friday, with additional hours on show days. Ticket prices range from $53 to $93 dollars, plus an eight dollar service fee. Ciarán Sheehan’s web site is ciaransheehan.com.