A SIX-FOOT FIGURE looks out from the window of the Adelphi Theatre in London’s famed West End theatre district, also affectionately referred to as Canada Square. This figure, Richmond Hill’s own Ramin Karimloo, looks down from his dressing room at the only Canadian-themed pub in the city, the Maple Leaf, which serves as an appropriately kitschy reminder of his upbringing.
For the last three years the 31 year old has played one of the most ambiguous, dark and popular fictional characters in musical history — the Phantom of the Opera. And on March 9, he will reprise that role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s highly anticipated sequel, Love Never Dies, on the London, England, stage. Love Never Dies picks up 10 years after the original, with the Phantom living at the Coney Island amusement park when it was at its peak popularity in 1907.
“Coney Island was the place you would go to be naughty, lose your inhibitions, where all the freaks would go. The Phantom could create a home there,” says Karimloo.
Despite the expectations that come with reprising the role of one of the most storied characters in theatre, Karimloo says he doesn’t feel much pressure.
He’s not thinking about the immense weight fans and critics will be placing on his shoulders, because to him, this is his chance to show the world the Phantom in a whole new light.
Not only will he be more threedimensional, longing for redemption rather than revenge, but it’s the first time a Canadian actor will get to play the inaugural role, setting the example for future actors to follow. The fact that the production is set in Canada Square is not only appropriate, but also convenient for the star, who when asked what he misses most about home,instantly replies Sleeman’s Honey Brown beer.
Fortunately for him the Canada Shop isn’t far either, which specializes in importing Canadiana for homesick expats.“You can get a case of it there for about $76,”he says, pausing briefly, then adding,“Even though that is sometimes hard to justify.”
Born in Iran in 1978, Karimloo’s family was forced to leave the country not even a year later in order to save their lives during the revolution. After spending three years in Italy, then moving to Peterborough, they settled in Richmond Hill as Karimloo was starting high school. He enrolled at Alexander Mackenzie High School.
“I spent a lot of time in high school trying to find myself,” he says. “It was difficult for me, because just as my life became more unsettled emotionally, I was moving to Richmond Hill, a much bigger city.”
He bounced back and forth between taking acting seriously and just joking around with it. He remembers going to the first day of class at Unionville High School for performing arts and thinking it resembled Fame, the popular TV show about a performing arts school. “I put my hand up, asked if I could go to the washroom, then I just left,” he says. “It really wasn’t for me. I just got right on the bus and went back to Alexander Mackenzie.”
The decision worked out for him though, as it was through the school’s enriched English program that he got the chance to job-shadow Colm Wilkinson, who was playing the role of the Phantom at that time in Toronto.
The Toronto Star picked up on the story, writing about a boy who wanted to be the Phantom so bad that he went to see the production 10 times. For a boy who had spent his after-school hours washing dishes at a Richmond Hill sports bar called the Back Stop, it was a dream come true.
“When Colm asked me what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to play the Phantom,” says Karimloo. “He told me to wait 15 years, and in order to get my voice ready I should sing in a rock band.”
So he did. Karimloo started a Tragically Hip cover band. “For me that was an acting gig, studying [lead singer] Gord Downie, adopting his mannerisms, speeches and stories,” he says, adding that the Hip played London in November and sent him VIP tickets to the show.
One of Karimloo’s former teachers, Christopher Kentlawn, remembers an intense and driven pupil.
“He was one of those students who stood out because he was so dedicated to the vision of where he wanted to go, which for someone so young in his life was outstanding,” says Kentlawn.
He remembers when the young Karimloo, then in Grade 9, stood up on stage at a school Christmas concert and amazed everyone with a performance of the Phantom song. “Here was this little kid with this amazing voice, just singing the Phantom song,” he says. “Everyone was so surprised.”
Forgoing the opportunity to study acting in the traditional, academic manner, Karimloo simply learned through doing.
“He’s not theoretical,”says Kentlawn. “He lives and breathes it, he’s practical. He has the guts and the go to just do it.” Karimloo used those “guts and go” and took a job on a cruise liner to perform on stage daily, leaving Richmond Hill so abruptly, it seems, that he doesn’t even remember if he officially graduated high school or not.
But six years later, Karimloo found himself in London, understudying the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance. He then performed as Joe Gillis in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard by the time he was 21. He also spent time in the ensemble of Les Miserables, and was cast as Raoul in the Phantom, all before becoming the youngest Phantom to grace the stage in 2007, at the age of 29.
“When I was shadowing Wilkinson, he told me to wait 15 years,” says Karimloo. “I did it in 12.”
And now here he is, about to take the character that has been a life passion for him to a place people have never seen him before.
Karimloo is tight-lipped on the details,but says the focus of the sequel is on the “human story in this production. It’s high-octave, the dust has settled, and everyone is looking for redemption.”
To emphasize how the sequel will grant more depth to the characters and story, Karimloo talks about rehearsing for a whole week without even touching musical notes — something he has never seen before.
“We read it like a play,because usually so many people in musicals don’t know what they are actually saying,” he says. “This time we can really get into their heads.”
When asked to compare his experience playing the Phantom in both productions, he says it’s something he can’t do.
“It’s not like it’s a remake, we’re just continuing the story, which makes it easier. When I did the last Phantom I had doubts because I was going up against so many great actors who played him before, but I don’t have them now.”
Like mimicking Gord Downie, it’s a role he says he can completely immerse himself in, so rather than acting, he can feel his way through it naturally, reacting as the Phantom would react.
“I remember my first entrance, looking at my leading lady, and just thinking, ‘you’re the Gordon Downie of this production now,’” he laughs. “I’m not even nervous really, just excited. It’s an odd feeling.”
