hello my name is killian donnelly and i play the phantom in the phantom of the
opera here in london's west end and this is show circle
it's incredible it's absolute it's an honor it's one of those roles that when you say to someone
i'm the phantom in the phantom of the opera it's always met with a
wow or oh wow oh that's amazing it's hard work but it's a it's an incredible incredible honor
a lot of people ask this question and they go which is harder and you'd think that it's jean
valjean because he's on stage more he sings higher and bigger and louder but actually everything the
phantom does on stage is loud is aggressive is frustrated so there's a lot of technique involved
and a lot of care on the voice it's all about doing it over and over again i actually asked
previous phantoms slash valjons about this and they all said
the phantom's harder so look after yourself hence why i'm talking like this
oh i have a lot of rest i i i try and get i do try and get a good night's sleep but after the show
i'm usually energized until like one two in the morning so i don't get up till about 10 half 10
sorry the best thing i do is after a show i stop talking i steam every night for about 10 minutes
and that's the best thing for your voice and then i rest on steamed cords if that makes sense
oh the shouting the shouting at the end in the final layer it's amazing it's it's your adrenaline
gets you there but um that final layer is one of the toughest scenes but it's so rewarding
when you get it right and there's three of us on the stage rel christine and myself and you can
see you can feel the emotion and you can feel the heartbreak in the in this in the room when
you're doing it so yeah that's getting yourself to that emotional place every night is is really hard
the makeup we set aside two hours and i have four makeup artists uh who alter it from time to time
and the longest would probably be an hour and a half and the shortest is probably
an hour and five minutes and it's it's lovely it's very therapeutic when you just sat there
i'm not someone who goes to like spa weekends or saunas and stuff and but i guess that's what it
feels like because i'm just playing on my phone or listening to music or reading a book and then yeah
you just have a little chit chat with the makeup artist and by the end you look like the phantom
probably coming from ireland probably colin wilkinson and i heard all of his
renditions of bring him home or music of the night and my father gave me his album when i was about
11 years old and never got to see him on stage until he was in concert years later but that was
probably my first introduction to hear musical theater and then it was just sort of seeing
more and more people on the amdram background back home in ireland that's where i grew up
so i remember doing a fiddler on the roof years ago in an amateur production and watching the tv
from side stage and just seeing his consistency every night the same thing i did with the javert
when i got into les miserables for stars i stood side stage and watched that show every night and
it's again it's the consistency it's the passion that they put into their performance every night
rejection is a huge huge part of this business and you got to sort of roll with it and know that it's
part of it not everything is positive and you're going to get the role you're going to get the role
you just do your best auditions especially go into an audition trusting the creative
team that's what i do so if i have five minutes to sing a song in front of five strangers i know that
they're all creative people they're not going to be laughing at me judging me i think these
reality tv shows there's a judging panel which isn't what auditions are about auditions are about
pouring your heart out for five minutes in front of creatives be creative so just trust the room
so when you go to an audition that'll sort of put a positive spin on it and it'll actually
excite you to do a good job as opposed to just going in nervous nerves are good as well to have
i mean looking at phantom itself i'm always
watching the manager's side stage and going i'd love to go with that
fagin was the first role i played when i was 11 years old so i'd probably love to take a
go with that again at some point um but yeah for now do phantom and then i'll do a manager
yeah every night every night it's a good thing it's brilliant because it
it sends you into the scene and use it the day i don't get nervous is the day i'll give up
so i'm behind the mirror for my first entrance and i can hear christine singing
and i know there's four bars until i sing three bars two bars one bar you're about to
sing and my nerves build build build build but the second i start to sing my nerves go away and
you just sort of take on the character but yeah nerves are always there and they're a good thing
i do i do an odd warm-up where i do a lot of funny noises so there's one where
i pull my tongue and i go hey guy yay and it's very odd but i'll be in the bathroom
and my dresser and my makeup artists are in here and all they can here is
that's how i become the phantom
you