Word: spectacularity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...winners of the race to stage a Phantom in a major commercial setting, Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Director Harold Prince, have proved the shrewdness of their unlikely impulse. Within two days after the $3 million spectacular opened in London's West End this month, the box office was virtually sold out until early 1987. Webber and Prince have daringly envisioned Phantom not as Grand Guignol but as an opportunity to turn the musical back toward what they term romance. Ironically, Lloyd Webber (Evita) and Prince (Sweeney Todd) have been leaders in the movement to push musicals beyond traditional...
...often said of Lloyd Webber's musicals that the show is the star, and of Prince's stagings that the director is the star. Both dicta might apply to Phantom, which is opulently costumed, lushly scored, full of spectacular stage pictures and chockablock with pastiches of 19th century warhorse opera. But in the midst of all the mechanics there are 2 1/2 performances that achieve some emotional depth. Michael Crawford commands the stage as the Phantom, bringing complete conviction to such fantasies as a midair descent on a chariot of gilded cherubs and a boating trip on a subterranean lake...
...Heads were a prominent part of a creative community that kicked avant- garde American culture into a newer, more accessible shape. Music, dance, performance art and rock all flowed together into a single swift stream, which Byrne navigated effortlessly (see following story). He also wrote scores for the spectacular theatrical ruminations of Robert Wilson (The Knee Plays, segments of Wilson's grand-scale project, the CIVIL warS) and the spirited, quirky choreography of Twyla Tharp. "He is very precise and very careful," Tharp says admiringly. "He doesn't waste things, but he is also capable of being very adventuresome...
...rumor and mystery. Fiercely privacyminded, they refuse to divulge their exact ages and are rarely photographed together. Their rapid-fire conversations in Farsi and French often befuddle English-speaking business peers. But from behind that fog, the four Iranian natives have created one of Canada's biggest and most spectacular real estate baronies and are quickly expanding their razzle-dazzle fiefdom southward. Before long, U.S. consumers will get a full exposure to the revolutionary marketing flair of the Ghermezians, who have combined a Disney-style entertainment vision with their own shrewd merchandising sense to produce the latest in suburban shopping...
...Ghermezian retailing spectacular is already sprouting a U.S. branch. The brothers will break ground next spring on another consumer kingdom, planned to be twice the size of the West Edmonton Mall, in Bloomington, Minn. The Ghermezians are also encouraging a bidding war for a third development, to be erected near either Toronto or Niagara Falls. Says Brother Nader: "The final choice will depend upon which is most anxious to have us." New York is definitely eager. The state has offered the Ghermezians a free 100-acre site for the project just 200 yds. from the falls, a low-interest...