Killian dons the Phantom’s mask

KILLIan DOnnELLy will play the masked composer in a new touring production of The Phantom Of The Opera.

The actor, who ends his run as Jean Valjean in a tour of Les Miserables in southampton tomorrow night, mentioned to Cameron Mackintosh in passing that he’d love to have a crack at the Phantom.

Mackintosh and andrew Lloyd Webber met with him. ‘andrew loved him,’ Mackintosh told me.

Jess Koravos, CEO of the Really Useful Group, told me the show, a travelling production, is the last version of Phantom that director hal Prince worked on before he died in July. ‘This is an exact replica of the original West End and Broadway production,’ she added — right down to the famous chandelier. Mackintosh explained that the tour will be ‘lighter on its feet’. he said: ‘Killian is blessed with this wonderful vocal instrument and as an actor, he’s a chameleon, which means he has a remarkable age range.’ The tour begins at the Curve, Leicester, on february 22. Donnelly will play dates at the Palace in Manchester, Dublin’s Bord Gais Energy and Birmingham hippodrome from July 29. The show will then continue on the road with another actor as the Phantom. Donnelly, who came to prominence in The Commitments musical, has played to sold out theatres in Les Miz: a tribute to the show and to him. Regional audiences like to see a bona fide West End star.