A personal tribute from Cameron Mackintosh.
“Occasionally in life a thought comes into one’s head as if by magic and there sult is something quite extraordinary. That was how Maria came to design Phantom. Almost immediately after Andrew Lloyd Webber mentioned the idea of doing a musical of Gaston Leroux’s novel I felt that she was the only person who could bring this extravagantly theatrical story to life and make audiences believe in it. Uniquely, in my experience, Maria started to think about the world she was going to create even before Andrew had written the score and though the show is one of the most glamorous and beautiful ever staged it is also elegantly simple in its execution. We had wonderful fun working together thinking of how to make the grandiose traditions of 19th-century opera both engaging and real without sending it up.
Everyone who has worked with Maria has fallen under her spell and been amazed by her devotion and attention to detail. Even the first tryout of Phantom’s first act in Andrew’s church at Sydmonton was complete with a real chandelier despite the stage being the size of a postage stamp. She cared as much about the entire production as her own work and unlike many original creative teams of long-running shows regularly went back to make sure that the show looked as good as it did on the opening night. I was lucky enough to work with Maria a second time on Stephen Sondheim’s legendary Follies where, on the fairly constricted stage of the Shaftesbury Theatre, she once again conjured up the fabulous magic of a bygone theatrical era.
One cannot say of many people that they are irreplaceable but Maria is. There has been no-one like her and there is unlikely to be again. Her creations will live on forever, as will the memories of those of us who have been lucky enough to know her.”