[Broadway Friday] Phantom of the Opera
Show: Phantom of the Opera
Type: Broadway Musical
Welcome to Broadway Friday!
This week? Phantom of the Opera! Now there’s the longest running show in Broadway, and one of the most wonderful stories I have ever seen!
Phantom of the Opera revolves around a young woman named Christine Daae; Raoul, a Victmote de Chagny and also a love interest of Christine Daae; and, of course, none other than Phantom of the Opera himself. There are, of course, other characters that takes big parts in the show, but those three are to say the very least the top priority leads for those very three specific characters are the ones involved in a love triangle of this story.
At the beginning of the story, it starts off in an auction where all the things that managed to survive in the theater where the Phantom had once resided are being sold off one by one. The last item to be shown as an auctioned item is the chandelier, and a very small description of it is told of the item before the infamous Phantom of the Opera music goes off. And the stage hands bring the chandelier itself up from the stage to above the on the ceiling so that it hangs over the audience. And after all that introduction, the scene cuts off to a rehearsal of an opera company, where the news of the owners having sold the company off to few other people and introduces the three new owners, one of them who happens to be Raoul.
After a little bits of talks here and there, the new owners ask La Carlotta, the lead soprano of the Paris Opera House, and a very much so spoiled prima donna, to sing her infamous song Remember Me. As she does so, one of the backgrounds drops to the ground, and she quits, saying that dangerous things should not be happening and that she won’t return until they officially stop to keep herself safe from any and all dangers. When Christine Daae is offered by Madame Giry, a box keeper, to take over temporarily, she sings for the owners. The owners immediately fall in love with her voice, or at least likes how she sounds just enough, and allows Christine to take over for indefinite amount of time.
When Raoul sees Christine on stage later that night, he recalls his childhood days when they used to play. And the way he speaks of her is apparent that Christine is his childhood love, if not his very true first love. He even goes out to her dressing room to speak with her, and tells her that he’ll take her out. When Christine tries to warn him that her angel, who she doesn’t know at this given point is the Phantom, doesn’t like it when she’s out late, Raoul ignores her warning. In fact, he just laughs it off as though she’s just joking around with him.
Once Raoul is gone, Phantom calls out to Christine from the entrance to his dwelling place, which is hidden behind Christine’s mirror. From there, he takes her away and not a moment too soon for Raoul to hear another voice coming from Christine’s dressing room. When Raoul tries to get Christine by entering her dressing room, however, he struggles to open the door, and whether or not he was able to get the door open or not, it’s far too late for Christine to leave with Raoul for she already has begun to descend into Phantom’s dwelling place.
All this is just a few minutes into the show, but since it’s still an ongoing production, I will stop short there. If you want to know Christine Daee’s fate in terms of what happens to her once she goes down to the Phantom’s dwelling place, or if she ends up going to Raoul, her childhood love, march yourself on over to the Majestic Theater, located on the 44th Street between 8th Avenue and Broadway.
