Charmed By Phantom's KISS

Like Gene Simmons, his loud-mouth cohort in veteran glam-rock band KISS, the chatty but more refined Paul Stanley has never met a journalist he didn't like.

So it would appear when Stanley sat down recently to discuss his surprising career move into theatre as the star of the long-running Toronto production of The Phantom Of The Opera. It opens with him at the Pantages Theatre on Wednesday night after previews this past week.

Stanley screams rock star on this particular day, in a black leather outfit with his shirt undone to just above his belly button. He's also wearing silver hoop earrings.

As I take notes, he rattles off his breakfast menu.

"He orders Earl Grey tea, frosted flakes, skim milk, and an English muffin," says Stanley with a smile as I sit opposite him in a restaurant at a downtown hotel that's been his home for the last month during Phantom rehearsals.

"You've done this before," I joke.

Ah yes, the promotional machinery that has been KISS for the last 27 years doesn't suddenly disappear just because Stanley has traded in his platform boots, black spandex and Kabuki makeup for an opera mask and a black-tie ensemble.

If anything, Stanley is selling himself even harder because he knows there are skeptics out there -- Entertainment Weekly referred to his casting as "talk about a Phantom Menace" -- who doubt his ability to perform without pyrotechnics.

"I've always liked the challenge of breaking the rules and breaking tradition, and also winning at the game," says Stanley, 47.

"I don't make a habit of doing things where I look foolish. I may have people scratching their heads when I do something but, by the end, they're usually well rewarded."

And is there really that much of a difference between singing the KISS anthem Lick It Up and The Phantom's signature song, Music Of The Night?

"It's related obviously," admits Stanley. "And yet it takes re-orientation. I've always thought of myself as a singer who sings rock as opposed to a rock singer. So in doing Phantom it gives me a chance to explore another facet."

Stanley, who was on the road with the KISS Psycho Circus tour when he got the call in January to audition in New York, first saw Phantom in London back in 1988.

He has seen it several times since, including twice in Toronto with his predecessor, Quebec singer Rene Simard. Stanley, who takes over the role until Aug. 1, will be followed by actor Jeff Hyslop as Phantom wraps up its 10-year run in September.

 Unlike Simard and Hyslop, Stanley has a healthy built-in audience. His visit to the Mike Bullard's Open Mike show caused KISS fans to start lining up outside the Masonic Temple at 10 a.m., while about 600 people showed up at Tower Records last weekend for an in-store appearance.

Even Livent's ads for Stanley's Phantom run exclaim: "You can't escape his KISS!"

He insists, however, it won't be all card-carrying, face-painting members of the KISS army at the show.

"I think there's an appropriate time for certain clothes," says Stanley, diplomatically referring to the outrageous garb worn by avid KISS concert-goers. "And I don't expect that, I really don't. It's not a rock concert and anybody who comes, I don't think for a minute is going to act as though it's a rock concert -- it's just not.

"I expect a very typical theatre audience and perhaps people who have never seen live theatre before. This isn't Phantom played as The Rocky Horror Show. This is The Phantom Of The Opera."

As for the rest of KISS -- Stanley will hook up with them in early October to continue touring -- all three members will take in the Phantom during his run.

"Peter," says Stanley of drummer Peter Criss, "couldn't stop telling me how proud he was of me -- very, very nice, heartfelt stuff. And Gene was just over the moon."