A disfigured composer sells his soul for the woman he loves so that she will perform his music. However, an evil record tycoon betrays him and steals his music to open his rock palace, The Paradise.

All of the camp of Rocky Horror, all the angst of Phantom of the Opera, and all the Jessica Harper you can handle. In a way, this musical adventure feels like a long-lost Muppets movie, between the Paul Williams soundtrack and the floppy emoting and lip syncing of William Finley.

Winslow (Finley) writes the perfect cantata based on the legend of Faust. He makes a deal with mysterious record tycoon Swan (Williams) and soon finds himself ousted, as Swan steals the music and turns it into a tawdry disco number for the house band, the Juicy Fruits.

Winslow’s attempts to reach Swan land him in jail, where an industrial accident ruins his face and vocal chords. Along the way Winslow meets Phoenix (Harper) and believes she is the only person who should be allowed to sing his cantata. She and her eyebrows.

Once he escapes prison, he raids the studio’s costume closet and comes out looking like some sort of goth anime falcon. Screeching and gabbling, he confronts Swan, who wins him over with promises of completing the cantata and producing it with Phoenix as the star.

Winslow soon discovers it was a deal with the devil, and while he electronically recovers his voice, he is reduced to haunting the Paradise, Swan’s nightclub-studio-theater where Faust is set to play, headlined by a fey macho man called Beef (Gerrit Graham), whose rock screeching could not be more different from Phoenix’s sweet alto.

This camp romp is a lot of fun, and some of the songs are quite catchy. Which is what you expect from Paul Williams. Definitely worth a view, though don’t let anyone tell you it’s another Rocky Horror, because it isn’t. Phantom of the Paradise is entirely its own thing.