John Cudia: The Phantom, Raoul & Me

About the author:
Once actors join the theatrical family of Broadway's longest-running show, The Phantom of the Opera, they tend to stick with it. From Davis Gaines and Howard McGillin to John Cudia, who's playing the title role in a 10-week summer stint at the Majestic Theatre, strong-voiced performers heed the call of "The Music of the Night" and find that the role exerts a powerful pull. Like several Phantoms before him, Cudia got his start in the show as the romantic young lead Raoul, first on the road and then in New York for 750 performances beginning in October 2002. He assumed the title role on the national tour in April 2006 and logged 700 performances before taking a break. As he shares in this appealing essay, Cudia also found real-life love through Phantom with Kathy Voytko who was playing the creepy "mirror bride" when they met, a Broadway vet who'll be seen later this month in MUNY's production of Miss Saigon. What's it like to spend huge chunks of nine years in a single show? Cudia tells all.

Life is a journey...blah, blah, blah. Like the line from the movie Parenthood, you never really score a touchdown or do your end-zone dance. You simply try to keep moving and enjoy the ride. As I approach the nine-year anniversary since I first stepped on a stage in The Phantom of the Opera, I find myself playing the title role on Broadway—and this is as good a time as any not to do an end-zone dance, but to take a step away from the journey and appreciate it.

I remember getting the offer to join the national tour in 1999. I didn't want to go. The road was unknown territory for me, and I didn't know Phantom very well. I had only seen the show once...a long time ago. The decision to take the job was made easier by the fact that it would only be as a temporary replacement for nine months. If I hated it, there would always be an end in sight. If I loved it and did the job well, I might make myself of value to the show and return to it someday. Plus, I was broke and needed the money.

What I found when I arrived in San Diego was an incredibly friendly, professional and accomplished company. Actually, they were quite intimidating. I knew my way around a song, but a lot of these folks came directly from opera, and I was nervous about impressing them. I was a swing and soon enough I started learning Raoul. Actually, I quite fell in love with the part. I don't consider myself the heroic type, and Raoul is a flawed, spoiled young guy who learns so much from Christine about how to grow up and how to love. I liked that story.

I also became quick friends with a fellow understudy named Kathy Voytko, and she completely won me over with her enormous talent, beauty and sense of humor. Her bright spirit actually inspired a great deal of the positive attitude I've tried to maintain over my years in Phantom. As I would later find out, it takes tremendous strength and positive energy from both the actor and the production staff of a long-running show to create or re-create these famous characters. The fun and adventure of learning a role can be lost in the pursuit of trying to replicate a past performance. Kathy helped me find that "happy place." Luckily, I was always encouraged and rewarded by the incredible staff of Phantom for maintaining the personal touches that made the characters my own.

I started playing Raoul full time in 2000 and asked to understudy the Phantom. Again, I thought, keep moving forward. It was such an incredible opportunity, the Phantom—the kind of role every man hopes to play, the challenge to tell his story with voice and acting under the weight of physical and social deformity. All this while playing Raoul every day and loving life on the road with my new partner, Kathy.

The rest of my trip back to the Majestic Theatre this summer includes a series of really nice events in my life. I came to New York as Raoul in 2002 and then got to play the Phantom full-time on the road from 2005 to 2007. The show has given me a sustained career but a life as well. It introduced me to my wife—Kathy and I got married on October 18, 2003—and allowed us to start a home together.

Maybe you're wondering, "How do you do a show for nine years?" Well, the key for me is never to believe that I've gotten it right—there might be something out there in this performance, with this Christine, with this audience that may change my view of how the character should be played. I mean, what's the point if you've already got it all figured out, or if you can't improve?

Besides, if you think a long run might get boring, you should have felt my heart pounding the other night as I arrived at the Phantom's lair knowing that director Hal Prince was in the audience watching. Or knowing that people I haven't seen since high school are seeing me play arguably the most famous male role in all of musical theater. OK, maybe it is a touchdown, but I'm holding off on any celebration until I attempt the extra point. Who knows what or when that will be?