✭Matinée Wednesday: Round Thirty-Three…
There is a reason that The Phantom of the Opera has been running on Broadway since 1988 — that reason being, the show is absolutely phenomenal. When I was little, my parents went to see the show. They bought the original soundtrack and it lived in our car for years to come. I knew ever word to every song of the wonderful score by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. But for whatever reason, I never had the motivation to go and see the how myself. Then finally, I did.
A vendor that I work with offered me tickets to see the show on a very special day, that day being my 25th birthday. On the eighth day of the ninth month in the year of our Lord, two thousand and ten, some of my favorite people on this planet celebrated my day of birth with dinner and drinks at the iconic 21 Club. From there, we went to see the show.
Originally starring Sarah Brightman, the plot almost mirrored the real-life love story of Webber and Brightman… let’s face it, he’s nothing special to look at. Webber and Brightman were married for six years before divorcing. Musical genius cultivating the abilities of a natural talent? Seems familiar.
Anyway, the musical tells the tragic story of a love triangle. Christine Daaé, the heroin, is torn between her musical tutor, the repugnant Phantom, and her childhood love, the handsome Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. As most love triangles do, this one ends in a showdown… with ambiguous results. Christine and Raoul end up together, but the Phantom vanishes into thin air (literally).
One of the best musicals that I’ve seen, Phantom has it all — wonderful music, colorful sets, exquisite costumes and a story that isn’t strung together with nonsensical dialogue. It is of no wonder that a sequel, Love Never Dies, is currently running on the West End, and scheduled for Broadway in 2011.
