The Phantom Will Steal Your Heart
The film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera is a real blockbuster but nothing can compare to the Phantom of the Opera - theater version which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. Although this show opened nearly three decades ago there is still a buzz of excitement when you walk into a theater anywhere in the world where Phantom is playing.
From the moment the curtain goes up on the dusty stage of the Paris Opera House in 1911 as they auction off old properties and the monkey music box plays you can feel the adrenalin rising. Then the large chandelier veers over the audience and crashes on to the stage and you know you are in for a spectacular evening.
The Phantom hides away in the labrynth of tunnels below the opera house where he has lived for years after a fire disfigured his face. He is too ashamed to meet people and when he does venture above the ground he wears a half mask to cover his scars.
He becomes obsessed with a young opera singer Christine Daae and will do anything to make her a star, she in turn becomes fixated with the Phantom even though she is in love with Raoul, the Vicomte de Changey.
The Phantom is a villain, he will not hesitate to kill or maim anyone who gets in the way of his pursuit of Christine and to achieve his goal he will even resort to kidnapping her and taking her far below the stage of the opera house.
He should be the most hated figure in the show but he is not. From the moment he first appears in Phantom of the Opera - theater version he will capture your heart. You want him and Christine to be together as you know there is nothing villainous about his love for her.
As he sings Angel of the Night through the mirror in Christine's dressing room it is a song of pure love and when the scene switches to the beautiful lake under the opera house and the Phantom sings Music of the Night it is one of the loveliest scenes in the show. This is real, not a film and that is why Phantom of the Opera - Theater Version is such a treat.
Even when Raoul takes Christine on to the roof of the opera house and pleads with Christine to stay with him as they sing All I Ask of You 99% of the audience still want her to return to the Phantom and live with him ever after in the labrynths below.
Phantom of the Opera - theater version celebrated its 10,000th performance at the Majestic Theater, West 44th Street, New York on February 11th 2012 and is playing simultaneously at many theaters around the world.
