Who designs the different masks for the Phantom? Within replica productions there is such a spectrum of shape, shading and cut, one has to wonder who makes the final decision?
I mean, the main design is as always by Maria Bjรธrnson. But as you point out, thereโs been a great variety through the decades and from production to production. To take some extremes:
(from left: Ethan Freeman in Essen, Michael Crawford in West End and Yuichiro Yamaguchi (?) in Tokyo)
I guess a mixture of what the head of makeup and/or costume wants, what the supervisor approves, and how much liberty the mask maker is given. When the designer herself was around, she probably also had the liberty to veto or advice.
The West End and Broadway productions has had its own, permanent mask makers. Theyโve slowly been updated to feature new details - for example a more โangryโ eyebrown, or different shading, or a less curved forehead. But overall they stay the same from Phantom to Phantom. In West End theyโve kept custom making individual masks for their Phantom, which accounts for a bit more variety, while Broadway has choosen 3-4 main models, where the actor wears the one that fits the best.
Internationally, productions has collaborated with either โthe mothershipsโ in West End or on Broadway, or went for local specialists. The local specialists often do special makeup for movies and TV, and you can usually find them credited at the back of the programmes/Playbills and souvenir brochures.
The deformity and then the mask are made based on a mould of the actorโs face. Their heads are literally covered in plaster, which has to dry as they sit there with only a small hole for the nostrils. Here done by Chris Tucker, UK legend:
And here by Bob McCarron, special effects makeup whoโs done a lot of the deformities for the World Tour:
With a cast in place, the mask (and if needed, the deformity) can be custom made to that specific actor, like here for Mathias Edenborn in Hamburg:
Or here, for Tomas Ambt Kofod and John Martin Bengtsson in Copenhagen, done by Thomas Foldberg at TFMUFX (who also did the masks):
If you want specific names from specific productions, have a look at the credits in either programme/Playbill or the souvenir brochure. The names of the mask maker and the deformity maker (which sometimes is the same, and sometimes different companies) should be listed there.
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