Masquerade NYC is a lush, intimate, and dreamlike retelling of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. Spread across four floors and two hours, the show transforms familiar material into something immersive and unpredictable. I attended a matinee performance on August 16, 2025, featuring Kaley Ann Voorhees as Christine and Nik Walker as the Phantom.
Joining the line outside 218 West 57th Street, I admired the mix of vintage newspapers and in-universe ephemera covering the windows of the former Lee’s Art Shop. (I used the production’s newspapers to inspire the collages accompanying the post.1) As a long-time “phan” who has seen the show on Broadway, the West End, and multiple national tours, I arrived with cautious curiosity.2 I found myself swept up in a masquerade that was both familiar and fantastical.
Following the Phantom’s Footsteps
Unlike a traditional stage show, Masquerade guides small groups along a looping route. Audiences climb stairs, ride escalators, and slip through narrow corridors to follow the beats of the story. Rooftop scenes, intimate chambers, and shadowy passageways build the sense of moving through a living, haunted opera house.
The Phantom’s Lair blended marionettes and automatons, revealing his genius, loneliness, and hunger for control. The expansion of the underground lair and insight into the Phantom’s psyche are some of the most successful elements of the show. To me, this production delves into the Phantom’s memory of the events of the musical.
Backstage Magic and Missing Moments
My favorite part of The Phantom of the Opera has always been its backstage world: the corps de ballet gossiping, prima donnas preening, and stagehands scrambling to create the illusion of the theater. Masquerade captures flashes of this energy, especially Joseph Bouquet’s expanded scenes in the flies. Favorites like Notes, Prima Donna, and the Don Juan Triumphant Rehearsal underwent significant changes to accommodate the new staging.
My dream role—the Dresser—was cut entirely, a loss I’m trying not to take personally.
The Boy in a Cage: A Dark Carnival Detour
The production references the Phantom’s backstory from the 2004 film, where he is depicted as a child in a freak show. This choice ushers in a “dark carnival” sequence filled with fire-eaters, sideshow acts, and even shots of cognac or popcorn for brave audience members.
For me, this section fell flat. I dislike clowns, react poorly to stunt acts, and felt uncomfortably crowded. Others may have enjoyed the carnival energy, but I found it the weakest addition to the source material. The inclusion of Learn to Be Lonely as the finale of this section—though beautifully sung by our Madame Giry—only reinforced my distaste, as I consider it the weakest song in the Phantom canon.
The Butlers: Silent Stars of Masquerade NYC
Like gears in a finely tuned music box, the white-masked Butlers serve as the show’s driving chorus. They manage props, ranging from roses and candles to playbills and notes, while also guiding the audience between scenes. Even when standing still, each Butler commands attention with crisp gestures and magnetic presence. Thanks to their precision, the flow never falters.
Meanwhile, the principal cast delivers jaw-dropping performances. Voices soar as if life itself depended on each note, while the sound design—perfectly mixed and piped through the building—wraps the audience in music. Small ad-libs, intimate asides, and personal touches ensure every guest feels seen and included.
Masquerade NYC struck a balance between spectacle and intimacy. The Butlers guided us with style, while the performers drew us deeper into the Phantom’s layered world. By the final scene, I was left captivated by both the familiar story and the thrilling, intimate magic unfolding all around us.
- My thanks to Michael Andersen, who uploaded the production’s publication of Les Chroniques du Fauberg and Le Monde Nouveau. I used his images of the newspaper to create the images for this entry. ↩︎
- Need more Phantom? See my photos from a 2025 trip to the Paris Opera House. ↩︎
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