There wasn't much doubt when this interview would be over, at least if Edward Staudenmayer was going on in the second act of Phantom of the Opera as opera house manager Monsieur Andre. He had just finished his final scene in the first act, and was standing near the stage door "waiting for the chandelier to fall," Staudenmayer said from Costa Mesa, where the newest Phantom tour was playing before its arrival this week at the Orpheum Theatre.
The musical's trademark chandelier crash has been spiffed up for this tour, part of a major conceptual overhaul for a show that is still running on Broadway in its original form after 27 years. "There are more bells and whistles, shooting fireworks and glass," he said of the deadly chandelier drop that the title character engineers to show his power. "If you're sitting under it you get scared because you think it's going to crash into you. The old one fell slowly, dreamlike, and this one falls a lot faster."
It's emblematic of the changes that director Laurence Connor has brought to the show first staged by Harold Prince. "The original is kind of surreal, directed almost like a silent movie, and this one is much more realistic," Staudenmayer said. "If Phantom wasn't still playing on Broadway, we'd be the Broadway revival." That's the case with Les Miserables, which Connor also revamped for a tour that played SF in 2012, and has since returned the show to Broadway.
"I think they felt it was time to mess with success because they didn't want to send out another show of that production anymore," the actor said. "People think they were trying to scale it down, but they haven't done that. It still takes 20 trucks to move us, and they have to reinforce stages because our set is so heavy."
Staudenmayer has been with the tour since it began in November 2013, longer than he usually stays with a show. "I've been enjoying it so much, and it's very nice to be in a hit," he said. "I've been in some turkeys, if you look at my resume." The fowl column would be topped by Wonderland, a 2011 Frank Wildhorn musical in which Staudenmayer played the White Rabbit in a contemporary take on Alice in Wonderland. "You finally get to Broadway, get a leading role, and then the show runs for a month," Staudenmayer sighed.
Not that the graduate of Palm Springs High School, class of 1988, has ever been out of work for long. National tours that have previously brought him to the Bay Area include Beauty and the Beast, and most recently, Anything Goes, in which he played stuffy nobleman Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. "Director Kathleen Turner gave me such great advice in that," Staudenmayer said. "She said, 'Don't show your panties till the end.' Hold back. Because the character was so meek and sweet and nice, and when I had my huge explosion number, the payoff was so much better."
Staudenmayer's showcase scene in Phantom comes near the end of the first act, in the musical number "Notes/Prima Donna," in which his character and other opera staffers discuss the various Phantom-caused debacles that have nonetheless sold tickets. "I love doing it because I feel like I'm in a Rossini opera," he said. "We have eight people fighting with each other, so it's not just taking it out and doing your part. It's juicy scene work."
But part of Staudenmayer is itching to get back to New York "because when you're out on tour it seems they sort of forget you," he said of Broadway casting agents. "I think I've always been a bit of a character man, and now I'm at the right age where I'm castable."
And then there is Tom Hewitt, the actor and Staudenmayer's partner of 18 years. "He does want me to leave the tour and come home," he said. "He misses me and the dog, so we'll see what happens. We laugh that we've been together for 18 years, but have only dated for five or six in real time."
Hewitt starred in The Rocky Horror Show and Dracula, and is back on Broadway in Amazing Grace. But he's also often on the road, and Bay Area audiences have seen him in touring productions of Urinetown and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. "But we make sure we don't go more than six weeks without seeing each other," Staudenmayer said. "Making it work is easier with him than somebody who isn't in the business."
The two met at a wedding on Staudenmayer's very first day in New York. "They sat us at the same table, and I thought he was cute, and we danced together," Staudenmayer said. Their paths crossed again at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey, where Staudenmayer was appearing in Gigi and Hewitt was auditioning for Jane Eyre. "He got the lead, and I begged them to please let me audition, and I got a small part. That's where we fell in love."
Like Hewitt, Staudenmayer went through internal discussions about how openly gay he could be without hurting his career. "It seems like things are changing so much for gay people, but you still hear people in the press, big producers, saying things like, So-and-so is the only straight leading man we have in New York. There's a prejudice that gay actors can't play leading romantic roles against women. It's frustrating. But have we stayed in the closet? No. And are we very open? Yes."
The Phantom of the Opera will run through Oct. 4 at the Orpheum Theatre. Tickets are $50-$220. Call (888) 746-1799 or go to shnsf.com.