| REVIEW: Germany's new “Phantom” VR roller coaster is "sweet intoxication" | |
| Posted by: TheBroadwayMaven (DavidBenkof@gmail.com) 10:07 am EDT 05/22/24 | |
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| The first-ever English-language review of the new German roller coaster themed to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" was published today in MARQUEE: The Broadway Maven's Weekly Blast, a substack published every Wednesday or Thursday. Here's the first part of it: The latest revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera isn’t in a theater; it’s the theme of a just-opened virtual-reality ride at Germany’s Europa-Park. It’s a thrilling (if flawed) new way of experiencing the music, story, and spectacle of the longest-running show in Broadway history. The Phantom ride, also known as “Eurosat Coastiality,” is housed in a huge geodesic dome (think Disney’s EPCOT) on a track it shares with a conventionally themed non-VR version. Riders enter their gondolas wearing a surprisingly comfortable device that covers nearly the whole head, providing an immersive experience of sight and sound. Set to a soundtrack of songs from the show (except “Music of the Night” as far as I could tell), the experience takes riders up to the ceiling of the opera house and crashing down to the Phantom’s lair, along with the famous chandelier. Along the way, riders see images from the show like the Phantom’s shrine to Christine, the mechanical monkey, rose petals, and the Phantom himself looming on the chandelier and eventually the roof of the opera house. It’s exhilarating. And clever: some meticulous details I noticed while waiting to board included an entrance behind a door marked “Box 5” (the Phantom’s usual seat) and posters on the wall featuring names of operas from the show like Il Muto but also other “operas” named after Lloyd Webber’s spectacles Starlight Express and CATS. There’s an odd moment before boarding the gondolas in which about a dozen riders stand around for five minutes wearing their headsets and staring at the lifelike avatars of the others. Because the earphones muffle sound, it’s difficult to talk to anyone else and most people stand quietly and get used to the technology. As theme park waiting experiences go, it’s pretty impressive – but it still felt like the rider’s experience hadn’t been carefully thought through. Once the ride starts, though, everything is on a grand scale, as is appropriate for an experience set in an opera house. The track is not visible, of course, so the twists and turns are surprising and unpredictable. |
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