#john aron

Me? I do love it when Piangis are all in on their makeup, emulating Victorian and Edwardian opera stars as well as silent movie era actors. It adds a theatrical flair to his whole persona. Here's some favourites.

John Aron, West End. The blue eyeshadow! The rouge! The eyeliner! The oh! so red hair!

Marcello Ronchietto, Hamburg and Stuttgart: One of few to pick up Aron's blue Hannibal eyeshadow. Also EN POINTE moustache and beard. (he didn't do this look for Copenhagen, alas)

David Rogers-Smith, World Tour: Eyeliner! Beard! Eyebrows!

Rohan Tickell, West End: The red. All the red. The fake drawn-up red moustache details. The Hannibal makeup. OMG.

Carlton Moe, Broadway: Facial air perfection.

There is a photo of Michael Crawford holding that infamous boob cake, and one of Rosemary Ashe as Carlotta demonstrating just how low the original bodices were. The photos were published in the book " Phantom of the Opera - The First Year Backstage" by Marcus Tylor, so it's even in print... Here they are:

I think it’s both production and actor specific. The first Piangis in West End were, I believe, all featured as redheads. Here: legendary John Aron:

It also went for u/s Barry Clark and successor David Bexon. John Aron stayed with the production until ca. 1991, and first with Ramon Remedios in 1991 it looks like they went for a slightly darker wig, possibly a reddish brown (read: dark auburn). And it looks like that is the norm today, to feature Piangi with an auburn shade that often looks like brown on stage. But that said, there’s also been some actors with a black or dark brown hair shade:

(Raymond Sepe, Hamburg)

(John Whitney, US Tour)

(Sergio Lombana, Vienna)

(Thabiso Masemene, World Tour)

Today, Piangi is sometimes still featured as redhead in Hannibal, but through bright red curls attached to his helmet. This is however only done in a few productions. He is then featured in whatever red, brown or black hair shade the actor wears throughout the show, except for two scenes: Masquerade, where purple, blue or multi-coloured bright curls are attached to his Sun King headgear, and Don Juan, where he wears a sleek black wig. Here’s the Sun King hat with purple curls from Las Vegas: