PAUL WILLIAMS & ARI KAHAN PRESENTED AT THE MAJESTIC THEATRE LAST NIGHT
Paul Williams from the stage after last night's screening: "The idea of the evil record producer – I mean, that’s the camouflage. That’s the veneer. But what is underneath all of it – what is my favorite thing to watch, as an actor, is the bathtub scene. Because you see who Swan was. You see this little guy who’s, just today, ‘I’ve decided to kill myself.’ He’s just, you know, what might be a little dude, you know. ‘Cause I have seen this face, incidentally, ravaged by the fullness of time, and it ain’t bad!" [audience laughs]
WFAA's Paul Wedding has an article about the evening's event:
DALLAS — "The Paradise — the ultimate rock palace."That was the Majestic Theatre in Dallas 50 years ago during the filming of the horror musical cult classic, "Phantom of the Paradise." Although considered a box office bomb upon initial release, its influence and fandom have carried on all these decades later.
And on Saturday night, The Majestic got to play the part of the ultimate rock palace once again.
A screening of a restored version of the film was played in the theatre, with a big name in attendance. Paul Williams, a legendary award-winning composer and songwriter, who wrote all of the songs for the film and played the film's antagonist, spoke afterward about the making of the film.
It's not often someone gets to see a movie in the very location it was filmed. So to be able to see a scene in the movie that takes place on a balcony, and then to turn your head and look at that very same balcony — where fans dressed up as the eponymous phantom of the paradise are sitting — is a one-of-a-kind experience.
Shooting the concert scenes of the movie with Dallas residents as extras — some of whom were in attendance for this screening — was not the usual concert. Advertisements in local papers invited extras for a filming of "Phanton (sic) of the Paradise) at 9 a.m. on Thursday. But as Williams tells it, not many people really showed up.
"The fact is that it was cold, and there were not nearly enough people in the audience so there was a lot of moving around," Williams said about the filming of the movie, which took place around Christmas and New Year's.
Updated: Sunday, October 27, 2024 11:50 PM CDT
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