SINGAPORE: The Phantom of the Opera musical will feature a scene where a chandelier flies over the audience and crashes onto the stage.

This infamous scene has sent audiences elsewhere shrieking in a mixture of fright and delight.

While bracing themselves for the thrill, local audience can be rest assured that the safety aspects of this stunt have been well taken care of.

Richard Martin, Technical Director, Phantom of the Opera, said: "Wow, many, many safety aspects. Like the chandelier, for example, it comes crashing down every night. It has seven different safety factors in there so there are seven things that have to go wrong before we can actually have an accident. So it's almost fool-proof. Nothing's fool-proof but almost."

Producing this famous musical in Singapore took eight months – from conception to production.

And judging by the huge scale of the props and stage effects, the international crew has worked hard.

"It's one of the most challenging shows I've done. I mean I've been doing Phantom of the Opera for seven, eight years now amongst other shows. But this is probably one of the most challenging productions, yes," said Mr Martin.

So take a deep breath and admire the intricacies of the musical which will be staged at the Esplanade Theatre from 23 March to 13 May, with a gala performance on 28 March where President S R Nathan is the guest-of-honour.


- CNA/so