The Phantom of the Opera Will Open at U of M on February 16

For release: January 10, 2012
For press information, contact Simone Notter Wilson (901) 678-4164 or Alice Berry (901) 678-3184

The Mid-South’s first amateur staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular musical, The Phantom of the Opera, will open at the University of Memphis Mainstage Theatre on February 16, 2012. Produced by the University's Department of Theatre & Dance and the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, the eight performances (February 16-25) are part of the University's Centennial Celebration. Tickets for all eight performances are now sold out.

Phantom of the Opera is the largest production to be undertaken by the University, possible only with additional financial support from the University’s Centennial Campaign. “The University challenged us to ‘dream big’ for its 100th birthday,” says Bob Hetherington, chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance, “and there is no bigger undertaking than Phantom. We are very proud to have been granted the rights to produce this special event, which we hope will show Memphis the very best that the University of Memphis has to offer.”

The title role in the U of M's production will be played by Copeland Woodruff, co-director of opera studies in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music and director of last spring’s Ostrander Award-winning musical Bat Boy. He has been on the faculties of the Oberlin Conservatory, Academy of Vocal Arts, Yale Opera, Universität Bamberg, the Harrower Opera Workshop, and Temple University. He has also been a visiting faculty member of The Juilliard School.
Theatre student Christina Hernandez and music student Amanda Boyd will alternately play the role of Christine Daaé. 

The Phantom of the Opera is the most successful work of entertainment of all time, produced in any media, and its success is continuing all over the world. The show has won more than 50 major theatre awards including three Olivier Awards, the most recent being the 2002 Oliver Audience Award for Most Popular Show; an Evening Standard Award; seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical; seven Drama Desk Awards; and three Outer Critic Circle Awards.

Based on the classic novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, and a book by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. The play tells the story of a masked figure who lurks in the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit it. He falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine, and devotes himself to creating a new star by nurturing her extraordinary talents and by employing all of the devious methods at his command.