Phantom of the Opera Musical

What Made the Phantom of the Opera The Best Musical of all time?

Michael Crawford-The Phantom, Sarah Brightman-Christine, Steve Barton-Raoul

Michael Crawford's landing of the role was due largely in part to the coincidence that Lloyd Webber's wife, Sarah Brightman, took lessons with the same vocal coach as Crawford. She and her husband had arrived early for her lesson, and it was while waiting that the chanced to hear him practicing a piece from Lloyd Webber was intrigued, and inquired after Mr. Adam as to the identity of his student and was hired nearly on the spot.

Crawford began his performance in London, continuing on to Broadway in 1988, and then Los Angeles a year later, in 1989. He played the role for 2 1/2 years and over 1,300 performances, winning an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical), a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor in a Lead Role, Musical), an N.Y's Drama Desk Award, and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Theatre (Lead Performance) for his efforts.

Crawford was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1988 by HRM Queen Elizabeth II.

During the run of Phantom in Los Angeles, Crawford was asked to perform "The Music of the Night" at the Inaugural Gala for President George Bush in Washington, D.C., on 19 January 1989. At the gala, Crawford was presented with a birthday cake (it was his own 47th birthday).

On 29 April 1990, three and a half years and over 1,300 performances into The Phantom of the Opera later, Crawford left the company. He admits to having been genuinely broken up at his own departure, and, during the Final Lair scene, altered the Phantom's line to "Christine....I loved you...", acknowledging that this was his last and final performance.

Sarah Brightman starred as Christine Daaé in Lloyd Webber's adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. The role of Christine was written specifically for her. Lloyd Webber refused to open The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway unless Brightman played Christine. Initially, the American Actors' Equity Association balked, due to their policy that any non-American performer must be an international star. Lloyd Webber had to cast an American in a leading role in his next West End musical before the Equity would allow Brightman to appear (a promise he kept in casting Aspects of Love).

At its heart, Phantom is about the obsessive pursuit of something, anything that will give the pursuer peace. At times, the object of pursuit is revenge, recognition or riches, but in the end, it is a show about the redeeming qualities of love, qualities that redeem both the lover and the one loved.

Phantom is the most popular, most seen musical ever and is now one of the longest-running musicals in history - surpassing Cats as the longest running Broadway show. According to its official website, it is the most successful entertainment project in history, grossing more than US $5 billion worldwide by 2007.

Phantom of the Opera is written Gaston Leroux in 1909.

In 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Écho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1905, he was present at, and covered, the Russian Revolution. Another case he was present at involved the investigation and in-depth coverage of the former Paris Opera (presently housing the Paris Ballet). The basement contained a cell that held prisoners of the Paris Commune. This inspired Leroux to write the Phantom of the Opera.

Erik himself laments the fact that his mother was horrified by his appearance and that his father, a master mason, never saw him. It is also revealed that "Erik" was not, in fact, his birth name, but one that was given or found "by accident", as Erik himself says in the novel. In the novel, Leroux sometimes calls him "the man's voice;" Erik also refers to himself as "The Opera Ghost", "The Angel of Music" and attends a masquerade as the Red Death.

Erik is born in a small town outside of Rouen, France. Born hideously deformed, he is a "subject of horror" for his family and as a result, he runs away as a young boy and falls in with a band of Gypsies, making his living as an attraction in freak shows, where he is known as "le mort vivant" ("the living dead"). During his time with the tribe, Erik becomes a great illusionist, magician and ventriloquist. His reputation for these skills and his unearthly singing voice spreads quickly, and one day a fur trader mentions him to the Shah of Persia. The Shah orders the Persian to fetch Erik and bring him to the palace.

The Shah-in-Shah commissions Erik, who proves himself a gifted architect, to construct an elaborate palace, Mazenderan. The edifice is designed with so many trap doors and secret rooms that not even the slightest whisper could be considered private. The design itself carries sound to myriad hidden locations, so that one never knew who might be listening. At some point under the Shah's employment, Erik is also a political assassin, using a unique noose referred to as the Punjab Lasso.

The Persian dwells on the vague horrors that existed at Mazenderan rather than going in depth into the actual circumstances involved. The Shah, pleased with Erik's work and determined that no one else should have such a palace, orders Erik blinded. Thinking that Erik could still make another palace even without his eyesight, the Shah orders Erik's execution. It is only by the intervention of the daroga (the Persian) that Erik escapes.

Erik then goes to Constantinople and is employed by its ruler, helping build certain edifices in the Yildiz-Kiosk, among other things. However, he has to leave the city for the same reason he left Mazenderan: he knows too much. He also seems to have traveled to Southeast Asia, since he claims to have learned to breathe underwater using a hollow reed from the "Tonkin pirates".

By this time Erik is tired of his nomadic life and wants to "live like everybody else". For a time he works as a contractor, building "ordinary houses with ordinary bricks". He eventually bids on a contract to help with the construction of the Palais Garnier, commonly known as the Paris Opéra.

During the construction he is able to make a sort of playground for himself within the Opera House, creating trapdoors and secret passageways throughout every inch of the theatre. He even builds himself a house in the cellars of the Opera where he could live far from man's cruelty. Erik has spent twenty years composing a piece entitled Don Juan Triumphant. In one chapter after he takes Christine to his lair, she asks him to play her a piece from his masterwork. He refuses and says, "I will play you Mozart, if you like, which will only make you weep; but my Don Juan, Christine, burns."

In the Leroux novel, Erik is described as corpse-like with no nose; sunken eyes and cheeks; yellow, parchment-like skin; and only a few wisps of ink-black hair covering his head. He is often described as "a walking skeleton", and Christine graphically describes his cold hands.

Lon Chaney, Sr.'s characterization of Erik in the silent film (released in 1925) remains closest to the book in content, in that Erik's face resembles a skull with an elongated nose slit and protruding, crooked teeth. Chaney was a master make-up artist and was considered avant garde for creating and applying Erik's facial makeup design himself. It is said he kept it secret until the first day of filming. The result was allegedly so frightening to the ladies of the time, theaters showing the movie were cautioned to keep smelling salts on hand for the women who fainted in shock.

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Technically, no one "wins" Christine, as she dies at the end of the show. However, at about halfway through the second act, Raoul comes to the realization that he cannot compete with the Phantom's gift of music in Christine's life and he goes quietly back to France alone.

The old black and white film versions were meant to be a bit scary, especially the original one with Lon Chaney. All the old-old "Horror" movies were nothing compared to today's average action film. You could let little kids see the old ones and not worry--they were very tame.

As for the theatrical musical, it is more romantic and campy than scary.