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  1.  

    I just saw the 2004 movie in its entirety today, and I love it. I love Raoul, I love Erik, I love Gerard… yeah.

    To start a conversation:

    A lot of people think Christine should have stayed with the Phantom, and I can see why (OMG his face with the rose on the roof and he’s crying oh poor baby!). However, she was under the impression he was the ghost of her dead father. That’s slightly squicky.

    Should Christine have stayed?

    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeJul 31st 2009
     

    Is this Phamtom “...of the Opera”, or aka “Ghost Who Walks”?

  2.  

    It says a lot about me that this was the first thing that came to my mind after I read the thread title.

  3.  

    @TG

    Phantom of the Opera.

  4.  

    Phantom always struck me as a creeper. A slightly sympathetic creeper, but a creeper nonetheless.

  5.  

    I was mad on the Phantom for a day and a half. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and realised that Raoul was much better for her.

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2009
     

    The Phantom is awesome but in a creepy, stalkerish kind of way.

    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2009 edited
     

    Fanon!Erik, yes. Canon!Erik…I pity him, but he’s a possessive genius psychopath.

    But I also rather dislike Raoul. And Christine is the epitome of Damsel Perpetually in Distress, which just gets on my nerves.

  6.  

    Phantom always struck me as a creeper. A slightly sympathetic creeper, but a creeper nonetheless.

    The Phantom is awesome but in a creepy, stalkerish kind of way.

    I explained the plot of the 2004 movie to my sister, and she said the same thing.

    We’re going to see a kid’s version of it soon, and I said “That’s impossible! You can’t do that! Half the songs are about how he wants to have sex with her, and the other half are about how she’s scared of having sex with him!”

    • CommentAuthorIsabel
    • CommentTimeAug 5th 2009
     
    I absolutely love Phantom of the Opera. But I don't think Christine should have gone off with the Phantom. It's really not fun to have someone obsessive and creepy as hell in love with you. Plus, he's really really old. I know it wasn't so bad back then, but now it's creepy to have someone that old with someone that young.
    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeAug 6th 2009
     

    Even when it’s Gerrard Butler, who I have been informed is far from the worst person to be with?

    • CommentAuthorIsabel
    • CommentTimeAug 6th 2009
     
    If it was Gerrard Butler...then maybe.
    •  
      CommentAuthorElanor
    • CommentTimeAug 7th 2009
     

    The 2004 movie!Erik was essentially Gerard Butler with some sort of radioactive sunburn.

    Not bad.

  7.  

    That’s slightly squicky.

    Yeah, I agree. But honestly, I don’t know if I liked Raoul better; he always annoyed me.

    •  
      CommentAuthorSMARTALIENQT
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2009 edited
     

    I say this to Raoul-haters (They call him the Fop, engage in fop-bashing and fop-killing…): Patrick Wilson was almost the Phantom, but they thought his voice was better suited to Raoul.

  8.  

    WHAT?! Woah, I can’t believe I didn’t know that…

    • CommentAuthorIsabel
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2009
     
    I've seen the play 3 times, and I still haven't found a Raoul I like better than Patrick Wilson. They're all super-flamboyant.
  9.  

    I love Raoul. I’m sorry, but I’m totally a Raoul girl. I didn’t mind his hair, and he was pretty cute.

    Christine is very damsel-ish, but she does get them out of the final predicament, so… I guess not every heroine has to be Action Girl. It’s just an old-fashioned ‘saving power of love’ thing.

  10.  

    I love Raoul, too! steals Ha! Now I have him and Christine can go and crawl back to Erik!

  11.  

    Ben Affleck was the bomb in this.

  12.  

    Afro:

    GETOUTNOW.

  13.  

  14.  

    I love Phantom.

    But Christine should not stay with Erik. He was insane and evil.

    •  
      CommentAuthorsansafro187
    • CommentTimeAug 21st 2009 edited
     

    but sansafro will come and save me, singing as he goes…

    No promoting your own ship.

    For the record, I’ve never seen or heard any version of Phantom of the Opera, I just wanted to make a J&SB joke.

    ALSO THERE’S A PHANTOM USER ON RIGHT NOW OMG

  15.  

    I love Phantom.

    Yay, I’m not alone!

  16.  

    THIS has to be the worst photo of Raoul I’ve ever seen. I’m now waging war on Warner Bros.

    They did this on purpose!

    EDIT: Okay, this one’s a little better, but he still looks kinda girly.

    At least they put Erik up with his ‘sexy face gone wrong’ as well. Blech.

  17.  

    ha ha. Me again. Looking for some fellow Christine/Raoul shippers and I found some icons that were too funny not to share:

  18.  

    Oh, gosh… cackles They had to do that on purpose. No way Patrick Wilson looks like that all the time.

    See?

    I can just see the lolRaoul for this. “I’ll get you for this, Phantom! With my big… pointy stick thing. Yeah!”

  19.  

    So Webber is making a sequel, or so I read. “Phantom of Coney Island” or somesuch.

    Also, I’m totally divided over Raoul and Erik. I would have chosen Raoul, but Erik…..sigh

    ....crawls off to cry.

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeNov 1st 2009 edited
     

    So Webber is making a sequel, or so I read. “Phantom of Coney Island” or somesuch.

    I heard that that’s the name of the sequel book, and the musical is called “Phantom 2: Love Never Dies”.

  20.  

    HAHAHAHAHA

    That title is cheesier than the first one. Oh no….oh no….oh no. Why can’t they just leave well enough alone?

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeNov 1st 2009
     

    At least there might be some good songs!

  21.  

    Phantom 2: Love Never Dies

    It sounds like a bad fan fiction. :/

  22.  

    It was based on a fanfic novel, so it’s not surprising. Basically, it’s the musical fanfic of a fanfic of musical fanfic of an original work.

  23.  

    Haven’t we already covered this?

    But I second the ‘can’t they leave well enough alone’ remark.

    I Wiki’d it. Apparently it’s set in CONEY ISLAND, and the Phantom actually COMES OUT OF HIDING TO DESIGN ALL THIS GREAT ARCHITECTURE.

    The caps raeg indicates the parts I cannot believe.

    It gets worse. In the book version, Christine friggin’ DIES!

    No WAY is this canon. NO FREAKING FRIGGING [INSERT BIG BAD SWEAR WORD BEGINNING WITH ‘F’ HERE] WAY!

    Sorry. I’m a little het up, as you can tell.

  24.  

    So Webber is making a sequel, or so I read. “Phantom of Coney Island” or somesuch.

    I KNOW! It greatly disappoints me. D:

  25.  

    There ought to be a petition to stop this madness

  26.  

    Insert appropriate meme here. This is madness!

  27.  

    I like the meme idea. Of course, we don’t know how much they’ll adapt the book, so she could live.

    ...I was talking about this with my friend on the bus today and she said “Christine’s not real, Steph. And anyway, she has to die sometime, right?”
    I said, “But she shouldn’t die!”
    She said, “Okay, what do you want to happen, then?”
    Me: “The Phantom dies or something!”
    Her: “He can’t die! He’s the Phantom of the Opera!”

  28.  

    xD

    Wow. Very nice. And I believe it’s called Phantom of Manhattan (which is somewhat more dignified that Phantom of Coney Island (Wtf really?) ). Andrew Lloyd Webber, I thought when you made a show about furries yowling for three hours, it was bad enough. But this? You come to our theater, with the script of badly written money-grubbing sequelitis, you insult our characters…

    This is madness! Madness, no…. THIS! IS! SPARTA!!!!

    Sorry, couldn’t resist

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeNov 3rd 2009
     

    I thought when you made a show about furries yowling for three hours, it was bad enough.

    But Cats is about cats! And it has Macavity, and Magical Mister Mistoffelees!

  29.  

    Don’t apologise.

    This! IS! SPAMNEDNESS!

    Like madness and spam and Sparta.

    Seriously, if Christine dies, I’m refusing to take it as canon and calling it a money-grabbing sequel. If the Phantom makes his peace with Christine being with Raoul, believably, I’ll call it a pretty good sequel.

  30.  

    Bump.

    ... wow. Exactly a year and a day from the last post. Anyway, this was too funny not to share. Everyone, I present to you:

    The Phantom of the Opera in LOLcat form

  31.  

    Are they really making a Phantom Squeakquel Singquel Sequel?

    I rather enjoyed the movie; and, as I’m a guy, I’m not Team Raoul or Team Erik.
    I will, however, say that Raoul’s feelings for Christine seemed more genuine… and Erik, well, he’s a psycho.
    Plain and simple.

    At least (unlike some other creepers out there) there’s a very good reason for why he’s so messed up, even if it doesn’t justify all the sh-t that he does. I’ve watched the movie something like three times, each time with my sister, and she always cries her eyes out at the part where…

  32.  

    I refuse to admit the sequel exists.

    the movie is silly. I love it to peices, though.

  33.  

    I refuse to admit the sequel exists.

    Yeah, what sequel?

  34.  

    the movie is silly. I love it to peices, though.

    I love the movie. It’s one of my all-time faves. But yes, it IS silly :)

    My favourite part was the graveyard scene when the hero comes up, riding bareback on the white horse to save the girl. It had me in stitches, even though I seriously loved the rest of the movie. It was like, okay, there’s a line between harking back to ideas of a grander time, and cliche… and Joel S-what’s-his-name just crossed it.

  35.  

    riding bareback on the horse to save the girl.

    You left out the word “white”, Steph. I’m pretty sure it’s a white horse.
    That graveyard fight was cool though – too bad Raoul lost his fighting skills at the end and just stood there while Erik put the noose around his neck.

    The stage workers, drinking and joking and flirting in the background, were hilarious. And realistic, too.

  36.  

    You left out the word “white”, Steph. I’m pretty sure it’s a white horse.

    facepalm That was the best part about it! Fixed now.

    I think Raoul got taken by surprise at the end. I’m not sure. I’ll have to rewatch it—and now I have the perfect excuse!

    I also loved all the dancing in the Masquerade sequence.

  37.  

    Roflmao.

    Have a look at this:

    Instantly Recognisable Intro

    In sleep he sang to me
    In dreams he came
    That voice which calls to me
    And speaks my name

    And do I dream again?
    For now I find
    The Phantom of the Opera is here
    Inside my mind

    Sing once again with me
    Our strange duet
    My power over you
    Grows stronger yet

    And though you turn from me
    To glance behind
    The Phantom of the Opera is there
    Inside your mind

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2010
     

    :D I just sang that whole thing. I do love that music!

  38.  

    Lol. So do I.

  39.  

    Me three.

    But did you ladies even notice what I did with it?:-)

  40.  

    I deliberately didn’t click or my life could’ve been ruined. But yes I did :) Well done.

  41.  

    Thanks blush

    One of them is not like the others, though.
    Look again.
    :-)

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeNov 8th 2010
     

    Oh, I saw it, all right. Either site has life-ruining potential, however, so I chose not to click. :)

  42.  

    Lol.
    Oh, swenson, I thought you wouldn’t be able to resist a picture gallery of Gerard Super Deep Voice Butler…

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeNov 9th 2010
     

    :D

    I’m not as obsessed as a friend of mine in high school, though. She was the epitome of obsessed with him as the Phantom!

  43.  

    Oh dear.

    Did she at least acknowledge the fact that he’s just an actor, not the character?
    Because a lot of Twihards think of RPattz as Edward that way. When he was on the set of his other recent movie, Remember Me, they shouted at him to not play in it and “remember who you really are”.

    What the actual f*ck.

  44.  

    Oh, swenson, I thought you wouldn’t be able to resist a picture gallery of Gerard Super Deep Voice Butler

    I can’t resist it! squee

    and who says that innuendo was accidental?

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeNov 9th 2010
     

    Oh, yeah, she wasn’t that obsessed. She liked him in other movies as well, just particularly liked him as the Phantom!

  45.  

    @swenson – then it’s cool.
    I rather like Johnny Depp, for example, especially as Captain Jack Sparrow, but in other movies as well.
    Sweeney Todd and Public Enemies, to name but two.
    I also think that he’s a pretty cool guy awesomely talented actor, as he brings the characters to life and makes them extremely convincing.

    and who says that innuendo was accidental?

    You have a dirty mind, Inspector. But don’t worry, so do I, from time to time. Also, so does Webber, if you turn out to be right.;-)

  46.  

    Because a lot of Twihards think of RPattz as Edward that way. When he was on the set of his other recent movie, Remember Me, they shouted at him to not play in it and “remember who you really are”.

    Hooooooooooly. I’ve seen Remember Me. ‘Twas good.

    Also, so does Webber

    Yes. Yes he does.

  47.  

    I’ve seen Remember Me.

    I haven’t, but my sister has.

    ‘Twas good.

    She will definitely agree with you. She told me the ending though, and I’m not sure I want to see a Super Tearjerker Movie™. I remember watching that Ladder 49-thing with an ex-girlfriend; she cried her eyes out and I just sat there feeling very sad and lost and confused. ‘Twas horrible.

    Yes. Yes he does.

    Suspicion confirmed, then.

  48.  

    She will definitely agree with you. She told me the ending though, and I’m not sure I want to see a Super Tearjerker Movie™.

    It was a message that needed to be said, though. It wasn’t a tearjerker for the sake of an abstract theme—or, even worse, just for the sake of being a tearjerker. Also, the acting was awesome. And his lil sis was cool.

    she cried her eyes out and I just sat there feeling very sad and lost and confused. ‘Twas horrible.

    Did it not have an effect on you or do you just hate crying?

  49.  

    Did it not have an effect on you or do you just hate crying?

    Strangely enough, neither. The movie did have an effect on me – that’s one of the reasons why I felt sad. And no, I don’t hate crying. I’m one of the first guys who would try to comfort a weeping girl (unless she’s just looking for attention – in which case I’ll ignore her).
    The thing was, however, that that girl usually only cried about real-life problems, which I could help with (or at least, support her and listen and so on). When she was crying over a movie, I couldn’t do anything – it’s not like I could instantly rewrite the script to make it a happy ending.

    So yeah.
    Also, I’ll believe you about Remember Me.

  50.  

    The thing was, however, that that girl usually only cried about real-life problems, which I could help with (or at least, support her and listen and so on). When she was crying over a movie, I couldn’t do anything – it’s not like I could instantly rewrite the script to make it a happy ending.

    Oh, I getcha now. Something that may ease your mind: she’s not personally sad. She’s just living vicariously through the characters for a moment. You don’t need to do anything :)

    That sounds painfully obvious now that I’ve said it. So no offence to your intelligence meant.

  51.  

    No offence taken…;-)

    You don’t need to do anything :)

    I’ll remember that the next time I somehow end up in a relationship.
    So, difference smoothed over peacefully?
    Awesomeness.

  52.  

    I’ll remember that the next time I somehow end up in a relationship.

    And then you’ll take her to every single tear-jerker you can find to get out of doing anything at all, right?

    So, difference smoothed over peacefully?
    Awesomeness.

    Oh yes. Sometimes I start ranting on about stuff, going ‘you HAVE to see this’ and losing my sense of proportion. Thankfully I remembered not to do that this time. You’re lucky.

  53.  

    And then you’ll take her to every single tear-jerker you can find to get out of doing anything at all, right?

    As long as she accepts me for the insane creature that I am, why not? Also, she has to be willing to watch my type of stuff with me too.
    While cuddling.
    And drinking copious amounts of coffee.

    Thankfully I remembered not to do that this time. You’re lucky.

    Sounds a little like me.
    I’m overall a very lucky bastard, hahaha.

  54.  

    As long as she accepts me for the insane creature that I am, why not? Also, she has to be willing to watch my type of stuff with me too.
    While cuddling.
    And drinking copious amounts of coffee.

    I think as long as your kind of stuff extends to Phantom, you’ll be okay.
    Of course you might have to be a Gerard Butler look-a-like to keep her after the first few times you watch it together.

  55.  

    Hey, I wouldn’t be on the Phantom thread if I didn’t like the story. The movie was very hammy and all, but still well done.

    Of course you might have to be a Gerard Butler look-a-like to keep her after the first few times you watch it together.

    If I have to pick a fictional character that I think I do look like, it’s L from Death Note. Except that my hairstyle is vastly different.

  56.  

    Hey, I wouldn’t be on the Phantom thread if I didn’t like the story.

    That’s what I meant, actually. Apologies for awkward wording. It happens in my world from time to time.

  57.  

    It’s okay, Steph.
    Don’t worry about it.
    :-D

    Hey, did anyone notice that movie-Raoul says a line that can be taken as prophetic, since it’s an unknowing reference to a meme that was born three years later?

  58.  

    I remember somebody somewhere on the interwebz posted about not being able to get ‘No. THIS IS SPARTA!’ out of their head, and now it’s had the same effect on me.

  59.  

    Yeah, that’s actually what makes it so funny. Raoul refers to Erik (Butler) and the Persian Messenger reacts to what Leonidas (Butler) is doing.

    Also, I picked up a neat little Actor Allusion in Spartacus: Blood and Sand. (don’t know if any of you have ever watched it – it’s very gory) The guy who played the messenger is the gladiator trainer in that series. So one day, the former champion (a guy named Crixus) does something unnecessarily stupid.
    Cue trainer asking him: “Crixus, what is this madness?”

  60.  

    I haven’t seen it, unfortunately.

  61.  

    It’s pretty good, as far as historic thingies go.
    Although I have to warn you – it contains:

    3 times as much slo-mo as the Matrix trilogy
    6 times as many severed limbs as Dexter
    44 times as much sex as My Immortal
    300 times as much blood as, well, 300
    9000 times as many brutal battles as Dragonball Z
    and a f*cking truckload more constant swearing than Pulp Fiction (I even picked up the C-word in there a few times).

    So yeah.
    Although you might not mind all that, seeing as how the main baddie is played by John Hannah, who clearly enjoyed every second of it. I was sorely tempted to rename him John Ham-Man, but that would, of course, be an Incredibly Lame Pun.

  62.  

    Sounds like my kind of movie, but not my kind of movie, if you know what I mean.

  63.  

    Uh, it’s a TV series, Steph.
    ;-D

  64.  

    Well, there you go. You know I’m not lying when I say I haven’t seen it.

  65.  

  66.  

    Pigeons.

  67.  

    I randomly thought of pigeons last night.
    True story.

  68.  

    I didn’t think of them at all last night. Equally as true a story.

    Mayyyyyybe we should get back to Phantom, a-heh-heh. Has anybody else read the original book?

  69.  

    Equally as true a story.

    For some unkown reason, that made me lol.

    Anyhow, I learned about Webber’s version in school. grade 6, to be exact. But no, haven’t read the book yet.

  70.  

    You must, you must you must.

    I love Raoul in the book even more than in the movie.

  71.  

    Can he fight better this time?
    Lol.

    Like I said earlier, in the graveyard he fought like a Man Possessed by Awesome.
    At the climax, he was a male damsel.

  72.  

    Can he fight better this time?

    Quite the opposite. He did sail around the world while being in the navy, but he cries at the drop of a hat and is always a step behind everybody else, plus somebody else does all the brain work, etc. He’s just along for the ride (and to save Christine). He’s such a woobie, though, and he loves Christine so much that removing his Possessed by Awesomeness doesn’t matter. He’s still my favourite incarnation of Raoul.

    Like I said earlier, in the graveyard he fought like a Man Possessed by Awesome.
    At the climax, he was a male damsel.

    Yeah, there needs to be a different ending… wait. You’ve given me an idea.

  73.  

    he cries at the drop of a hat

    I am not going to criticize or mock that.
    I am, however, going to suddenly think of an instance in Dark Yagami: “he started to cry with happy but then he stopped and man cried in stead which was more manly”.

    You can’t help but crack a smile.

    He’s still my favourite incarnation of Raoul.

    Which is why I’m not gonna criticize or mock him.:-D

    Yeah, there needs to be a different ending… wait. You’ve given me an idea.

    That’s what I’m here for I could see the bulb lighting up above your head even from here, hehehe….

  74.  

    Which is why I’m not gonna criticize or mock him.:-D

    Thanks. And trust me, read it. You can’t mock him or criticise him then. He’s so devoted to Christine, you just want to hug him and pat him on the head all the time.

    I could see the bulb lighting up above your head even from here, hehehe….

    I’d ask if that’s you outside my window, but I’m a little afraid of the answer…

  75.  

    You can’t mock him or criticise him then.

    I’ll see if I can find the book, then.

    He’s so devoted to Christine, you just want to hug him and pat him on the head all the time.

    Pat on the head, maybe. Not so sure I would hug him, though.;-)

    I’d ask if that’s you outside my window, but I’m a little afraid of the answer…

    Nevar!!

    • CommentAuthorMnemone
    • CommentTimeDec 5th 2011
     
    I worked crew as part of a production, and this show was hell from a technical standpoint, building the chandelier, the boat, the four-meter platforms for the Phantom to run around on, along with all the little things. The sexual dynamics of this show are unhealthy and there are only about six musical themes -- all the tunes get recycled.
  76.  

    The sexual dynamics of this show are unhealthy

    This, I will agree. Most profoundly. It’s worse in the 2004 movie.

    there are only about six musical themes — all the tunes get recycled.

    I don’t mind that, actually. The way it all ties in. I find it interesting.

    That must have been interesting to work on, though, if frustrating. Tell me more about it? If you want to?

    •  
      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2011 edited
     

    How have I missed this thread?

    The sexual dynamics of this show are unhealthy

    True. But I think that’s part of the psychological intrigue of the story. It’s fascinating to watch, but it’s certainly not something I would seek in a normal, healthy relationship.

    That must have been interesting to work on, though, if frustrating. Tell me more about it? If you want to?

    Yes, please. That sounds very interesting.

    • CommentAuthorMnemone
    • CommentTimeDec 20th 2011 edited
     
    NOTE
    I worked for a hemp house at the time, which means that (almost) all of the flown objects (curtains, moons, backdrops, etc.) are attached to battens (long, skinny pipes), controlled by a system of pulleys that are adjusted at a pin rail, where you haul on ropes (usually with counterweights, since battens alone usually weigh more than 20 kilograms, and when the curtains are attached, they weigh nearly 100 kilos) to bring something up and pull the pin to release the flown object. Pin rails look something like this:

    !http://g1.img-dpreview.com/7EA2CF6FFD5D4E41BD2EFC242CC9AB13.jpg!

    Usually each flown object has two pins, a trim pin and a fly pin. The trim pin is the pin that you use to tie off the object at the height off the stage you want when it is released, e.g. high trim for the moon, low trim for a curtain. The fly pin is the secondary pin you pull or use to tie off during a show, and gets the flown object in and out of the audience's line of sight. It is very important not to touch the trim pin during the show, because although nothing will come crashing down, if you happen to pull the other pin (usually you pull the trim pin when you're in a hurry, and you have to pull the fly pin right away anyhow), then a few sandbags and your arms are the only thing preventing the whole line from crashing down, and you have to reset the trim and lower the flown object very, very carefully so it goes to the right place (curtains, for example, should neither float above nor pool on the stage), but still make the descent smooth and natural-looking enough that the audience doesn't notice it.

    The chandelier was made with a spray-painted hula-hoop and the plastic caps of two large jars, connected by nearly three meters of plastic bead-string, with the hula hoop in the middle and the caps at the top and the bottom, and released from the catwalk above the audience, and swung right over the orchestra pit to downstage center.

    I was personally in charge of the falling backdrop that crashes on top of Carlotta, which was mounted on a batten, released from the batten by the stage manager pulling a string on her side of the stage. One night someone else decided to set it up before the show, and when the string was pulled, nothing happened. I had to pull the pin and drop the entire batten to the stage, which was terrifying for the performers, landed with a clunk, and was subsequently very difficult to haul up again, even when the fake backdrop had been untied from the batten.

    The boat was built on top of a base of a mechanical wheelchair, which had been lent to the production by a wheelchair company. The boat itself was made with a wooden base and frame, with sides made of stiff painted canvas. Christine steered the joystick in the boat while Erik sang. There was also green lighting and haze all over the stage, kept to the ground by dry ice. It was very cool, although the orchestra hated having all the atmospheric effects dribble offstage onto them. On closing night the wheelchair shut down and Christine didn't know what to do, so Erik sang most of his song from the entrance to the lagoon upstage center. When the run of the show ended rebuilding the chair was very tricky, since there were a million little bolts holding everything together that had been misplaced.

    Monsieur Daee's tomb was hand-painted with violins in the "metalwork" and a mask of his face looked out over the top of the door. The highlight of the graveyard scene, however, was Erik's staff, which was topped with a skull that shot fireballs out of its eye sockets from the platform down at Raoul using hand-rolled .22 gunpowder packets. Raoul himself was frightened by it on opening night.

    I helped design the mirror/door that opened by itself, using a pulley system that pulled at the handle of the door from behind with a long string tied around a chunk of insulation foam held by the stage manager. It was very difficult to build and the string kept breaking. Raoul never waited long enough before rushing through the door, so I have no idea whether the audience actually saw it open of its own accord. The wood of the door is very old, and has been used for more than a dozen shows, and placed on many different sets of casters.

    The trick throne was painted a beautiful hand-mixed near-purple colour (mostly a cherry red and black) also used for the door, adorned with plastic masks painted black and spattered with gold along with dark wire curlicues. The throne had no seat, just stretchy black fabric with a split down the middle, and so Phantom would swing his cloak about and sit on the edge of the chair, then fall backwards in the blackout. Building the chair was okay, although it took some thought, since usually you want chairs to support the sitter.

    Lastly, there was the hell of the scene where Piangi dies, and I had to run around like crazy to pull the bed's canopy into the rafters, fly out the traveler curtains and scrim, drop the moon in for the graveyard scene, and drag up the cyclorama, which is a big pale sheet of fabric that you project different lights on, and is far upstage, so I had to crawl on top of the handrail and lock my legs into the rail and haul the cyclorama up (rarely manipulated and without very many counterweights, so it was super heavy and I had to keep the excess rope from getting tangled). Fucking hell, I tell you. I also had to crawl over the rail when I dropped a noose for Raoul, et al. in the Phantom's lair. For the first few rehearsals, I had to pull it up and drop it every time a performer ran under it, but it was later decided that I should just stand and hold it there, since there weren't enough space for a trim pin.

    Overall the problem was that we were understaffed, with most of the crew busy at other jobs before Hell Week, and some of the extra stagehands coming in at the last minute, with only about three rehearsals under their belts before opening night. Nearly everyone had multiple jobs, particularly in set construction, but there were fewer than half a dozen people including me and the technical director in the theater at all times.

    For example, three of us built most of the infamous four-meter platform and one of the offstage staircases in an afternoon, with subsequent reinforcement, painting, and the building of a basic handrail for the performers over the next two weeks. The stage left end of the platform was directly over a stairway going under the stage for dressing rooms, and presented more of a challenge.

    Any questions?
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      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeDec 21st 2011 edited
     

    The chandelier was made with a spray-painted hula-hoop and the plastic caps of two large jars, connected by nearly three meters of plastic bead-string, with the hula hoop in the middle and the caps at the top and the bottom

    I’ve seen the show and think it’s awesome, but somehow envisioning the fatal chandelier as a spray-painted hula hoop makes me laugh. :)

    Christine steered the joystick in the boat while Erik sang.

    I wondered how that worked. Very cool. Requires a fair bit of subtlety on the actress’ part to keep from looking as though she’s piloting the boat.

    I had to crawl on top of the handrail and lock my legs into the rail and haul the cyclorama up

    If I had to do that, it would rain pee on the set.

    Any questions?

    Out of curiosity, how did you get the job?

    This was really interesting; thanks for taking the time to post. I admit that it does sound like a hellish and stressful job, but when I’ve seen the performances, it always comes off looking so beautiful and smoothly done – a testament to the awesomeness of you guys working backstage.

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      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeDec 21st 2011
     

    Oh man, that’s really, really cool. I love reading about all the backstage tricks that go into making things look awesome for the audience, so that was really interesting to read. Thanks for posting it!

    Also, yeah, you’ve got guts, climbing up and around like you mentioned! I’m not too scared of heights, but it would still take quite a lot before I’d feel confident doing stuff like that.

    • CommentAuthorMnemone
    • CommentTimeDec 28th 2011
     
    I got involved with *Phantom* because I worked for that playhouse with membership in the stage workers' union.