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Sampling key elements from Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera and Goethe’s Faust legend, Brian De Palma’s flamboyant rock opera The Phantom of the Paradise opens at the National Theatre in Los Angeles. William Finley stars as the hapless Winslow Leach, a struggling singer-composer who sells his soul to Mephistophelian record producer Swan only to endure beatings and facial disfiguration when he tries to stop the duplicitous mogul from seducing his girl and using his stolen Faust cantata to celebrate the opening of his rock palace, The Paradise. In addition to playing the sinister Swan, the diminutive Paul Williams, an award-winning songwriter in his own right, is also responsible for the film's eclectic soundtrack, an infectious, superbly rendered pastiche of glam rock, do-wop, pop rock and country. Jessica Harper is a standout as Winslow’s misguided muse.
