'Phantom of the Opera' continues amid pandemic

Jonathan Roxmouth as Phantom and Claire Lyon as Christine in a scene from "The Phantom of the Opera" currently staged at Blue Square in Seoul amid COVID-19 outbreak / Courtesy of S&CO

Korean theater safety measures catch attention of British culture secretary

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The international touring production of the musical "The Phantom of the Opera," currently on stage at Blue Square in central Seoul, has set a record despite bad timing. The world-famous musical has been showing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The show is the longest-running show on Broadway, but the world's most glamorous theater districts of Broadway in New York and West End in London have been dark for months to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

While other productions of the musical in North America, Britain, Italy and Australia have been shut down indefinitely, the Seoul company strives to keep its doors open with rigid safety measures.

Claire Lyon from Australia, who plays the show's diva Christine Daae, said there is a survivor's guilt, in a way, as she continues to perform here while most shows in Australia have been closed early or canceled due to COVID-19 shutdown and some of her colleagues have performed their last show without knowing it would be their last.

"But I'm also extremely proud of our show and our producers and the way they haven't given up on us. They've kept us afloat," Lyon is quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Everyone backstage is wearing masks unless you're obviously in costume and about to go on stage. There's hand sanitizer everywhere. Everything is a well-oiled machine. It has just functioned so efficiently," Lyon said.

The show's biggest crisis came when an ensemble member was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 in late March. The theater was locked down and all other cast and crew were tested and went into quarantine for two weeks. About 8,000 audience members who had seen the show over the prior 14 days were also notified about the case and urged to avoid contact with other people if possible.

After a three-week hiatus, "The Phantom of the Opera" raised its curtain again on April 23 and the theater was once again filled with enthusiastic audience members who braved the pandemic.

The show, which was scheduled to be staged in Seoul through June 27, even extended its run till Aug. 8 as a touring production of “War Horse” canceled their performances at the same theater in July.

When the number of COVID-19 cases spiked last month, the government once again closed down public museums and galleries through June 14, but private theaters including Blue Square continue to operate with strict health and safety measures.

All theaters require each visitor's temperature to be taken and those with a temperature of over 37.5 degrees Celsius are not allowed to enter theater. Visitors also have to fill out a questionnaire regarding their symptoms and visits to COVID-19 mass breakout-related places. Hand sanitizer is placed throughout the theaters and all audience members must wear masks throughout the show. Some shows request audience members to refrain from cheering even during the curtain call to prevent possible infection via dispersed droplets of human saliva.

Due to the extreme caution and strict measures, no positive COVID-19 tests have been recorded among theater audiences yet.

Oliver Dowden, British Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, asked for advice on safety measures to prevent the novel coronavirus during a video conference with Korea's Culture Minister Park Yang-woo last week.

Dowden wrote on his Twitter about the talk with Park ― "We discussed challenges facing our sectors & also how we can start to reopen with safety precautions. Fascinating to hear what they've been doing to reopen West End shows safely."

According to British media, “The Phantom of the Opera” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a letter to Dowden in mid-May, urging to follow Korea's testing and tracing measures at theaters to save the performing arts.

“I don't think we should just be sitting on our hands and saying, it's all doom and gloom, we can't do anything. We have got to make the theaters as safe for everybody as we possibly can,” Lloyd Webber was quoted as saying through the New York Times.