Snapshots of a Modest Life

Phantom Anyone?

I have yet to decide quite how I feel about the musical theatre classic Phantom of the Opera being transposed to the silver screen. Part of me says it will attract more people to musical theatre which is always good for potential starving artists such as myself. It's a great way to expose people to a whole other genre of art which seems to have fallen to wayside as ticket prices to Broadway shows (and any other stage performance for that matter) skyrocket. And who knows, maybe it will make people love theatre as much as I love theatre. Another part of me (the pretentious/elitist part) says that it's a travesty to do that to Phantom. So much of seeing Phantom for me was watching the candles rise out of the stage, gazing as the chandelier careened to the floor (although wasn't as impressive as I had imagined) and seeing the Phantom and Christine glide around on a boat live on stage. There's something magical that happens when you know that there is no editing that goes on before the action reaches your eyes, when you know that what you see is what you get, when you know that the person you're watching is also watching you, when you know that if you throw a tomato at them, it'll actually go splat.

You probably think from the what I've been saying that Phantom is my favorite musical. Well, it's not. I love the music (props to Andrew Lloyd Webber) but think the plot was gutted and filleted in the process (shame on you Andrew Lloyd Webber, you need to apologize to Gaston Leroux). I actually can't really say what my favorite musical is. I adore Les Miserables, partially because I was in it in high school, partially because it is a fantastic musical that everyone should see at some point in their life (too bad it's not on Broadway anymore, but just wait a few years, it'll be back, it made too much money to not). Aida was my first encounter with a Broadway production, and I loved it. But that was before I became overly analytical about everything, thanks to my theatrical training in which we are taught to watch everything like it was under a microscope. Anyway, Aida, unlike Phantom, has great plot and music (props to Elton John and Tim Rice, and whoever wrote the original opera on which it is based).

Anyway, I'll probably write something regarding this topic after I've actually seen the movie version. And now, back to my paper, which is still incomplete.