Diary of a Phantom PHan!

Phantom Las Vegas to come to an end

2012-01-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

Sad horrible news today in phantom land. I received a tip from another Phan about The Las Vegas Production closing. I quickly verified the information and was dismayed to find out that is in fact true. The Phantom production in Las Vegas will end it's run on September 2.

I thought the production would be around for more time, apparently it isn't doing so well with the economic times and if they don't close they are going to sacrifice the quality of the production. So dear Las Vegas Phantom, I'm very sad to hear this news and I'm sure many other phans are with me. You've had a great run and we'll all be sorry to see you leave the Venetian.

January 2012 Sexy Phantom!

2012-01-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

It's the New Year! What better way to start it then with the first sexy phantom of the year! This month's Sexy Phantom is Jeremy Stolle.

Mr. Stolle before he's the phantom

I picked Jeremy Stolle because my best Christmas present (from Shawn) has gotten me thinking about the phan gathering last September. A bunch of us phans got to see Jeremy perform the role of the phantom. I can't wait for the 10,000th performance and to see a few of the phans again, since I was getting nostalgic while picking a sexy phantom I decided Mr. Stolle was the right choice for this month.

I couldn't find a shot of him in the role but I found this twitter shot of him getting into make up!

Phantom of the Opera to perform it's 10,000th show!

2011-12-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

On February 11, 2012 at 2 PM Phantom of the Opera will perform it's 10,000th show in NYC at the Majestic Theatre!

If you are interested in tickets some are on sale through the actor's fund website as far as I know nothing is for sale through ticketmaster or telecharge.

Maybe I'll be seeing you at the show - who knows?!?

December 2011 Sexy Phantom!

2011-12-06T12:41:00.001-08:00

A Phan's Christmas dream come true!

Sometimes my sexy phantom of the month floors me because I'm just surprised I never picked the phantom that I end up choosing. That's exactly what happened this month. I performed a google image search for Christmas and Phantom of the Opera, when I found this image I knew who the sexy phantom had to be!

His voice does lack much skill and the scar the make up artist gave him is the size of a quarter but the man himself isn't all that bad looking. So for Christmas rabid phans feast your eyes on Mr. Gerard Butler.

Wouldn't you want to wake up here?

Here he is unmasked!

Life after Phantom by Samantha REVIEW

2011-11-30T14:26:00.001-08:00

Life After Phantom: Opera Erotica
Kindle Edition

It's been a very long time since I reviewed anything besides the show for this blog. While I was on the train choosing what my next kindle read was for my travels I went into my phantom collection on the kindle. I decided I was in the mood for erotic phantom and this was the read that I would finally get to after purchasing this book for the kindle last winter.

This book was a pretty decent read. The author tells her version of Erik's story after the opera house incident. Erik escapes the opera and he's ready to die from despair, but then Catherine comes into his life. She saves him from despair and shows him love he never thought was possible.

There's some excitement, there's happiness, there's love, there's terrifically delicious sex scenes and hunky photos of Erik created by the author. I was really surprised by this book I really thought it was going to be a bad read but it turned out to be much better than I had anticipated.

If you are going to buy but don't want to splurge the $25 the kindle edition is only $8. When I purchased the book there wasn't any used editions for sale but it seems like there are some now. You can also check libraries to see if you can borrow it. The library system I work for doesn't own it but if they ever allow me to build up a whole phantom collection this is one of the books I would want in it.

This is Samantha's website if you wish to check it out! You might recognize her Erik from a previous entry where he was the Sexy Phantom of the month!

PHan Holiday Gift Guide 2011

2011-11-23T12:25:00.001-08:00

Last year I published a holiday gift giving guide for the Phans! I enjoyed doing it so much that this year I'm going to do it again. So my PHellow PHans here's this year's gift guide, hopefully it will provide some helpful gift ideas for PHans to gift to each other or for us to show to those we love so that they'll hopefully get the hint and feed into our insanity with phantom materialism!

Personally I think ALW should have given us a gift by not creating LND.

25th Anniversary POTO Merch:
London just celebrated Phantom's 25th anniversary. If your Phan has mentioned this more times then you can count you can buy them some merchandise to commemorate the 25th anniversary.

Artistic or unique POTO gifts:
If you'd like to wow the Phan in your life with artistic or unique Phantom of the Opera merchandise, Etsy is a great resource. Just type in Phantom of the Opera as a keyword search and you can view all kinds of unique phantom of the opera items. I found my phantom egghead on Etsy. I take him everywhere I go and if I don't forget and I have my camera with me he comes out for location shots.

Books:
If there's a phan in your life that loves to read Phantom of the Opera books are the way to go! I have tons of books in physical book format and in digital format on my kindle. Amazon is the best resource for Phantom of the Opera books, most of the unique phan phiction you can't find in bookstores. Just type in a keyword search using the words Phantom of the Opera in the book department and you'll find tons of hits on great books to read having to do with our favorite story, which started out as a book.

Right now I'm reading this delicious book on my kindle

I'm loving every minute of this story, there are terrifically erotic scenes (which are the best part IMO), it's well written, extremely romantic and a pretty good story overall. Plus there's pictures of the Phantom!

Clothing:

Two great sites for clothing options are cafe press and zazzle. As with many of the sites I posted already just do a keyword search for the five best words ever created for the English Language and you'll find many results.
Quilting Treasures just released a line of Phantom of the Opera fabric! So if the phan in your life likes to sew or is eager to learn how to sew why not get them a few bolts of this pretty fabric. Hopefully I'm going to get a hold of some so I can make some PJs for myself as well as a garter to wear for my wedding. I'd like to have a swatch of every single piece of this fabric for collection purposes but I will only buy some yards of the pattern I want for PJs and my garter. There's just one minor problem with my plan I haven't sewed in years lol, but Shawn's mom is going to help me start up again with a skirt I bought material for. I'm sure she'll help me put together PJs and the garter they should be fairly easy projects.

Collectibles:

Carlton Cards has been putting out Phantom of the Opera ornaments for sale since I started college. I have a few of these ornaments but not all of them. Most of these ornaments can be found through eBay. My friend George picked one up for me at Kohl's one year and I paid him back for it, I'm not sure if they still sell them.
Franklin Mint issued a collector's plate and a set of beautiful Phantom of the Opera porclain dolls. I found two plates for sale on eBay. The dolls I can't seem to locate for sale but here's a youtube version of them.
My favorite collectibles are from the San Francisco Music Box Company. Unfortunately this company went out of business quite some time ago. Thankfully you can search eBay by using the keyword Phantom of the Opera Music Box and still find some music boxes for sale on their site.

POTO Bargains gift ideas for $10 or under:
*PLEASE NOTE - Some items I located are priced in pounds, not US Dollars. I'm not sure of the conversion between both currencies and don't really want to put energy and thought into researching it so if the item is under 10 pounds I can't vouch for the US dollar equivalency equating to under $10.

Book lovers can mark their pages with this bookmark.
Does your Phan like coffee or tea, they can indulge in their hot beverage of choice with this haunting mug, or you can opt for this beauty of a mug.
For the Phans that really enjoyed the 2004 movie if they don't already have about 5 or 6 copies on film Amazon has the movie in DVD and blu-ray for less then $10.
If your phan owns a kindle why not surprise them by downloading a FREE version of Gaston Leroux's novel, they'll love you forever and can take this classic novel anywhere they take their kindle.
If your phan likes pictures and wants to oogle over images of phantom this brochure is fun. Or you can opt for this London Program if you can't get your phan to London for a performance at Her Majesty's.
Some charming little POTO items a lovely key ring, the MASK, a charm bracelet way better than anything Tiffany has to offer, and a magnet so you can post things on the fridge that you do not want your phan to forget!
To keep the phantom close to your heart this pin does the trick.
Write your notes POTO style with this cute little pen.

Tickets:
Last but not least on this year's gift guide is of course tickets! If you can swing the expense of some tickets to one of the major Phantom performances your phan shall be very ecstatic! I'd like to see Phantom again at some point in January but I don't expect Shawn to buy any tickets. He bought me them last year for my birthday and on that same night in the theatre he made dreams that I had long since forgotten come true by proposing to me after the show was over.

Las Vegas - If you're planning a visit to Sin City be sure to check out Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. I'm not much of a traveler (I would go more places if I had more money and time off from work) but my goal is to one day go to Vegas to see this show and to see Barry Manilow. Most people in their 20s want to hit Vegas to get wasted and gamble of course I'm the odd duck out who just wants to see a few amazing shows.
London - If you live in London or are planning a trip there Her Majesty's is where you will go to see the legendary show where it first debuted.
New York - New York at the Majestic Theatre is my usual haunt! Here I've seen the show 45 times. My record breaker was 10 times in one year in between two of my birthdays. I've since slowed down in my attendance of performances, I'd like to hopefully get to go at least 50 times. Maybe I'll get to that goal by 2013 or 2014 since I now only go about 3 to 4 times a year.

If you search the newspapers, visit a library or small campus theatre (sometimes they have discount coupons), scour internet sites such as Broadwaybox.com or visit the TKTS booth in Manhattan for same day tickets you can get greatly discounted tickets for New York's performance. If you don't want to deal with the hassle you can sit in rear mezz for about $40 on almost any performance. There's also standing room tickets for sold out shows if you're nuts enough like me or most other phans you'll stand for 2 and a half hours of showtime!

Phantom of the Opera Fabric

2011-11-10T14:18:00.001-08:00

I've been alerted to the creation of Phantom of the Opera fabric by a PHellow Phan. The only information I could dig up was the article sent to me, a search for the actual fabric and prices from the company that is supposed to sell it was fruitless when I searched their website. I'm keeping an eye out, Shawn's mom is going to help me learn some sewing when we both have time so I intend to buy this fabric and create some items. I see Phantom of the Opera PJs in my future....well ones besides the two worn out shirts I sometimes wear to bed. If anyone out there is a nurse the material design looks like it would be good to make some fun scrubs with!

November's Sexy Phantom!

2011-11-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving 2011 is on it's way! That said let the phans give thanks for November's Sexy Phantom! Colm Wilkinson!

Colm Wilkinson and Anthony Crivello at Phantom the Las Vegas Spectacular

C.W. is most known for the role of Jean Valjean in Les Mis, but he's donned the mask as well so he qualifies. I've only seen his performance in phantom on the screen when I viewed Hey Mr. Producer! and when he made an appearance for the Phantom's 25th anniversary in London.

Some drama to the sexiness of C.W. with a B&W image

This sexy phantom of the month comes along with a special shout out to my girl Danielle! She was at the phan gathering, as soon as I get myself a license and a car my ass is taking the 3 or 4 hour drive to visit her, planning massive road trips when I get my car! She's a les mis and phantom phan so being that this phantom performed both title roles in both shows she definitely gets a shout out.

One more rambling note before this entry is over. I'm looking into the possibility of starting a sexy Christine of the month. Even though I definitely dig a sexy phantom, some readers could possibly be wishing for a sexy Christine. But I need some help. If there is a phan out there willing to work with me by naming sexy Christine's for my blog on a monthly basis please let me know. You can leave a comment on the bottom of this blog with contact info or you can e-mail me at Phantom245w44st@gmail.com.

Chaz Bono as the Phantom!

2011-10-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

This has inspired me to learn the tango!

My favorite thing about the month of October is that the phantom seems to be extremely popular due to the fact that it's Halloween and he's thought to be extremely spooky. There's all sorts of Phantom sightings, people dressed as him for Halloween, appearances or mentions in episodes of television shows etc. Which reminds me I've always meant to get a phantom sighting entry created. Last night my cousin informed me that Chaz Bono was going to dance to Phantom on dancing with the stars in honor of Broadway week. I missed it last night but found it on youtube today. I might have taken a slightly longer break than I was supposed to so that I can view the video on my cell phone but phantom is worth breaking rules for.

Interestingly enough Shawn would like to take tango lessons, I am pretty sure he would like the tango to be our first dance at the wedding reception. I'm more than perfectly willing to learn the tango if that means Shawn will don the mask and the phantom of the opera title song can be our first dance. The question is can I get my dear sweet future husband to go along with this?!?

Phantom of the Opera Masquerade Cruise

2011-10-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad phan :( Haven't been checking the message boards or websites to keep up on my phantom news since leaving facebook. Thankfully a PHellow PHan alerted me of this Phantom of the Opera Cruise in an e-mail.

It's a Masquerade cruise on October 29, 2011 leaving NYC. It's from 9 PM to 12 AM. With your admission you get the boat ride, plus seasonal beer and champagne. There's a costume contest in which the lucky winner will receive tickets to Phantom of the Opera's 10,000th performance (If I do go there's a high chance that winner shall be mugged for their tickets before the boat ride is over).

Okay so I really want to go to this, so very badly. Sadly I don't think I'm going to get to go. There's a chance I might and if I do I will post some photos and give a blog entry. But I'm pretty sure I'm not really going to have the money for it. I'm trying to save every single penny I can for my wedding and honeymoon and I am also trying to get myself a car. I do have money saved but it's for the wedding (although this is a high temptation to blow some of the wedding money I have saved). Shawn and I have other local events we were invited to that night, which will be cheaper than this event, and Shawn might be suffering from Phantom burn out still. So the odds aren't in my favor as of this moment. But to the lucky Phans who definitely can go please enjoy!

Phantom of the Opera Candy...it is possible!

2011-10-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I attended back to back street fairs. While I was at the fair in Farmingdale, I wandered into the chocolate duck with Terry, Anabel and baby Vincent. Anabel asked the cashier if they had masquerade molds, he pointed out the correct aisle to her and she made quite a discovery. Half mask chocolate molds that I'm sure are definitely phantom of the opera based circa ALW. I immediately bought them along with some white chocolate chips so that I could experiment and hopefully make some phantom chocolate. I found out what to do in order to melt the chocolate pieces in order to fit them into the mold....then I suffered through the rest of the fair until I could get home and experiment with this new creation.
I got home, tore open the chocolate, did what I had to do and was very successful, making chocolate is ridiculously easy. The phantom of the opera chocolate came out so great, that I intend to make them for my job's Halloween fundraising bake sale at the end of this month, as well as making them to send out to some of my PHan PHriends for Christmas....only thing is now their Christmas present isn't a surprise if they read this entry.
Here's the step-by-step process along with photographic accompaniment so that you too may create Phantom of the Opera candy if you can get the mold

Step 1 - start by boiling water in a pot

Step 2 - obtain a bowl made of metal, any other metal object that can fit on top of the boiling pot of water is fine, there are also appliances made to melt chocolate pieces specifically I wouldn't invest unless you intend to make much chocolate though.

Step 3 - place bowl or desired metal object on top of the pot of boiling water, then pour the desired amount of chocolate pieces or chips into the bowl. Begin to stir chocolate as it starts to melt and take liquid form.

Step 4 - Once the chocolate is in hot liquid form pour it into the plastic molds, than place in the freezer for a few hours.

Step 5 - after the chocolate has frozen into the shape of the mold and is solid again remove the mold from the freezer. The chocolate pieces should easily pop out of the mold, leaving you with your chocolate creations, now phans can be very happy with Phantom of the Opera candy!

Phantom Burn Out!

2011-10-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

Okay don't panic! I'm not suffering from phantom burn out, but sometimes people close to me are in danger of phantom burn out. The purpose of this blog entry will be to explain the tragedies of phantom burn out and how you can handle it

What exactly is Phantom Burn Out

Phantom Burn Out is a horrible experience, usually phans don't suffer from phantom burn out, but people close to a phan are the ones in danger. These unfortunate people at a certain point will have had *GASP* enough of Phantom after being exposed to phantom for a certain amount of time. Sometimes they'll be nice enough to inform their phan that they are suffering, some burn out victims may start avoiding you like the plague. If you're lucky the burn out victim will be okay and ready for more exposure once they've been semi-phantom free or have had limited phantom experience for a month or two.

What to do for your suffering loved one

If your loved one is suffering from Phantom burn out there are many things to do! If there's another phantom event coming up and they are going through burn out, you may extend the invitation to them to attend the event but if they decline, lean on another local fellow Phan, or another friend or relative that you know. If you wish to hear music or watch a DVD and you live with the burn out victim, by all means indulge yourself but do so with headphones. Make sure to do this especially if your co habitating burn out victim must see your phantom shrine every day, as this will most likely ensure your shrine stays up and unharmed. Don't forget the burn out victim under normal circumstances isn't privy to your thoughts so feel free to think about Phantom as much as you'd like. After some time the burn out victim should be okay and than it's time to drag them to more phantom events once they're fully recovered.

That ladies and gents is phantom burn out and how it should be handled.

October 2011-Sexy Phantom!

2011-10-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

I really should make sure my sexy phantom titles follow the same format. Hopefully next month when I name November's sexy Phantom I'll remember that I want to have this month's title the official format for the monthly sexy phantoms.

Now that my babbling gibberish about how I should format the title is over and done with, this month's sexy Phantom is Ciaran Sheehan. Ciaran is one of the phantoms who has played both the role of Raoul and Phantom. What inspired me to name him as sexy phantom for October of 2011, was the fact that he made an appearance with Kimilee Bryant to the Phan gathering a week and a half ago. I figured since he took some time out to speak with some of the phans he automatically deserved the title and glory as well as the buckets of phan girl drool that come with the title of sexy phantom.

So ladies and men who aren't straight...here's our sexy phantom this month, Ciaran Sheehan!

This is Ciaran on the cover of his CD, I bought this CD at the phan gathering but haven't opened it yet.

This is how we prefer to see Ciaran as the sexy man this blog pays tribute to every month!

Phantom of the Opera sans a falling chandelier

2011-10-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

At 2 PM on October 2, 2011 - Phantom of the Opera streamed a live performance of the 25th anniversary performance from Royal Albert Hall to Phans accross the UK, Canada and USA. Thankfully my friend Michael snagged three tickets to the showing at Farmingdale Multiplex cinemas, thus ensuring that the plans for Sunday afternoon of October 2, for Shawn and I was to attend the screening of the live performance stream. The viewing started at 2 PM, Shawn and I were a little bit late so we ended up coming into the theatre during the rehearsal for Hannibal. It was the first time ever that I was late for anything involving phantom, I figure with all the phantom events I do end up being able to attend this misfortune was bound to happen sometime, it's better it happened for a screening and not for an actual performance so I won't gripe. Besides this will be available on DVD soon, which I'm definitely going to buy so it's not like I won't be able to view the little bit that I missed. The performance was wonderful. There were a few key elements and props that were missing because the show took place at Royal Albert Hall and not at Her Majesty's. I guess they were able to put together certain scenes and had to forgo using some prop pieces because the space they were using doesn't normally accommodate the production. Most notable items missing were the mirror bride at the end of music of the night, half of Christine's dressing room, the boat in the final lair scene and the most notable by far the falling chandelier. There was a chandelier in the hall, but my guess was the theatre managers at Royal Albert Hall were definitely not going to let that thing fall, not even for the greatest musical to ever grace the presence of the stage. The cast was huge, the biggest cast I've ever seen come together in order to perform the phantom. Ramin Karimloo played the man of the evening, the phantom. He was terrific, his voice was absolutely wonderful, and he added something great to the final lair scene that I've never seen done before, he actually almost huddled up and cried after screaming orders to Raoul and Christine to go after he released Raoul. I definitely lost it at that point and starting bawling like a baby as I usually do during the final lair scene. Sierra Boggess was a good Christine. Shawn said she was a bit creepy because he didn't really notice her blink, but creepy non blinking aside her Christine performance was pretty damn cool. She played up Christine's torn emotions between the phantom and Raoul more than any Christine I've ever seen. I was really glad to have seen these two perform the title roles, I've been dying to see them in action since I knew about them. I did see Sierra when she was the little mermaid on Broadway but was really glad to see her as Christine. I'm more excited over the fact that I will have this on DVD soon and will see them any time I want to pop my copy in the DVD player (which might be any time I'm home). Kiera Duffy was a fair Carlotta. The rest of the cast was good, very on target, and they did an admirable job in performing phantom in a space not entirely meant to house it. Masquerade was disappointingly undazzling, they chose to have the cast members enter the stage after the managers discovered each other in the beginning of the song, rather than have them waiting on one of the staircases while a curtain was pulled back. The cool part about Masquerade - three monkeys. There was some really cool digitized movie projections during the performance. I've heard rumors of a new version of phantom being released, I don't have my facts straight for any blog piece about this new version yet but I'm wondering if these movie projections will be featured in the new version or if they were just for the Royal Albert Hall specifically. The pit orchestra played above the stage, because the camera men were down in the pit. When the performance was over, of course Andrew Lloyd Webber had to come out in order to take a bow and give a speech. I think he does these special performances just so he can have some moments (maybe also because the phans might crucify him if he doesn't....but it's probably more to have his moments). Wasn't a fan of his speech, Shawn was ready to go to sleep the minute he came on stage, and Michael made fun of his fashionable shirt. He blubbered a few words, bought out the original London Company and crew, minus the few that have passed away including Maria Bjornson and Steve Barton. He introduced Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman separately, it was pretty amusing when Sarah came out, he was trying to grab her fiercely but she insisted on embracing Michael Crawford. Sarah Brightman sang the title song with four separate phantoms and Ramin, the four phantoms followed by singing a rendition of music of the night with many voices. That was very cool, I was able to see brief musical clips performed by John Owen Jones, Anthony Warlow, Colm Wilkinson, and Peter Joback. I only recognized Colm Wilkinson, at the end of the performance I ended up not being able to catch the names of the phantoms when they flashed on the credits screen. Thankfully my fellow phan Christopher Marsh in London saw the show in person and posted these phantom's names so I was able to get my reporter facts straight. (When I'm a real reporter I'll have to make a mental note not to reveal my sources). It's alright for my blog though, I think my friends and fellow PHans like the recognition. Overall I was pretty impressed with the 25th anniversary performance, I was really happy that the decision was made to stream it live to movie theatres, this was probably so ALW could have many more people see him make a speech, but still it was cool to have the opportunity to see this without having to take a plane to London, and to than be able to buy it on DVD in a month is pretty good too. May phantom have another 25 years...who am I kidding...I hope phantom has another 125 year and than some!

Michael, Shawn and I during the intermission, I used the front facing camera on my cell phone, grainy dark picture but still glad to have it.

Phantom of the Opera 25th London anniversary to be broadcast live in movie theatres

2011-09-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

On October 1, 2011 at 7:30 and October 2, 2011 at 1:30 PM Phantom of the Opera will be celebrating 25 years. The performances will take place at the Royal Albert Hall with Ramin Karimloo as the phantom and Sierra Bogess as Christine. For detailed information visit the website. What's most exciting about this is that live screenings will be shown in movie theatres around the world! Screenings in the US will be on October 2, 5, 6, and 11th. There will be additional screenings in Canada and Australia. I'm lucky enough to be at the screening in the US this Sunday. Of course I'll review for the blog, I'm excited to see Ramin and Sierra perform the title roles!

Phan weekend 2011 and phantom #45

2011-09-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

This entry is going to be pretty long, lots of coverage. This past weekend from September 22, 2011 to September 25, 2011 some phans got together in Manhattan for a Phan gathering weekend. I was lucky enough to be invited to the event. The out of town PHans arrived on Thursday and left Sunday. I had to work on Thursday and Sunday so I was only able to attend the phan events for Friday and Saturday (those were the main bulk of events though, so it wasn't so bad - I do regret missing the flea market though). For me the PHun started on Friday. I woke up at 9 AM to get ready and head to the city. I donned some phan girl gear, drank coffee from one of two phantom mugs I owned and got on the train. When I reached Penn Station as I was texting Shawn and getting my bearings I was already spotted by two PHellow Phans. So the three of us headed to the gathering. After everyone had arrived and was settled in, we started playing some games and had a round of introductions. I finally got to meet some phans I had been chatting to on facebook in person, Krista, Chris, Melissa, Bethany, Vicky, Maura, Kaedra, Kathryn, Jeff, Rebecca and Danielle. They were really nice, right away I felt pretty comfortable with everyone (it probably helped that we all had a common bond of being a phan of phantom). Throughout the evening we played three rounds of Who or what am I? and name that song. During who or what am I, Jeff placed a person or an object relating to phantom of the opera on our backs. We didn't know who we were, but we had to ask everyone questions about who or what we were. Once we thought we figured out the answer, we double checked with our partners. I was Lon Chaney, Mme. Giry's cane and Gillian Lynne. Shawn was Michael Crawford when he arrived later in the evening. I won a prize for the second round - now I have a lovely art creation by Kaedra. Kaedra is an extremely talented individual, she bought all of the prizes for the gathering games to NY with her, she had some drawings which were amazingly wonderful, a monkey bag, a plush rose and some phantom t-shirts. One t-shirt was pretty cool but there was no way in hell it was fitting me so I couldn't choose it for a prize. In between our game playing we had a visit from Kimilee Bryant and Ciaran Sheehan, Kimilee has played many roles in the show from Christine and Carlotta to the swing. Lisa Klages, Kimilee's stage manager was also there for the interview. All of the phans had a chance to ask Ciaran and Kimilee some questions, they both sang All I ask of you for us, and than Jeff and I had the privilege to act out a phantom scene, it was the dressing room scene between Raoul and Christine (my guess is that both Kimilee and Ciaran might have favoritism towards Raoul - which normally makes me twitch but they were taking time out to entertain us so I refrained from twitching). Jeff played opposite Kimilee, I played opposite Ciaran. It was pretty awesome, unless I completely change career paths and somehow obtain sensational vocal chords that's the closest I'm ever going to get to performing anything from phantom of the opera. Kimilee and Ciaran ended their visit by offering merchandise for sale. I bought a CD from each artist, a program insert which they both signed for me and a phantom red ribbon aids pin. Once Kimilee and Ciaran left, we ordered some dinner, played name that song, watched some phantom movies and hung out, after the pizza Shawn arrived to meet my PHellow PHans. After his arrival Krista and Chris presented a cake they bought for everyone, and I did my barista bit. Shawn was so sweet, when I cleaned up the coffee items and was getting ready to wash them he told me he would wash them and to go hang out with the phans. Once everything was cleaned up we had a little Masquerade cosplay. Maura a wonderfully talented phan who came to join us, had some pieces for me to try on so that I could possibly wear Christine's Don Juan costume that Emmy Rossum wore in the 2004 movie. I tried on the pieces and they did fit me, Shawn and I liked the costume so much we asked Maura if she wouldn't mind selling the pieces. She didn't want to sell certain pieces, so I went through her stuff and found different pieces for the ones she didn't really want to sell, once we reached an agreement she sold me three pieces plus some accessories for $10. Not bad at all. Kaedra dressed in her famous monkey costume, Jeff was Phantom, Rebecca was Christine, Maura was a triangle girl, Chris was a secret agent, Krista had a beautiful back and red Victorian dress, Kathryn was an opera attendee, so was Bethany. We took photos, had some fun, than put our regular clothes back on. When the masquerade was over I said goodnight to everyone and went back home. Saturday we had made arrangements to see the 2 PM matinee. Shawn, his mom and I got ready. I wore my new costume, Shawn dressed as what I'd like to call the rogue phantom (which I thought was pretty sexy) and his mom borrowed one of my phantom shirts. We met the phans inside the theatre (we got to sit pretty damn close, third row stage left) it was pretty exciting. The show was terrific. Thursday some of the phans who got into town spontaneously got tickets to the show and they witnessed some technical problems, this show went off without a hitch. Jeremy Stolle played the phantom I didn't get to see him before, he was pretty good. He definitely portrayed a lost little boy side of the phantom that I never saw an actor use before in the role. It was interesting and for me quite emotional. As usual I was almost in hysterics by finale time. Michele McConnell was Carlotta she was the other actress in the show, besides of course Kimilee which held my attention. She had an extremely distinctive look about her and played the diva very well. When the show was over we were lucky enough to have some of the actors come out to the stage to greet us and hold a Q&A session with us. We asked them about bloopers, and various other questions, I asked how often Hal Prince comes by the check on the show. Once the Q&A session was over, we went across the street to Sardi's for dinner. I loved the fact that I saw MC's caricature there, but as for Sardi's the establishment, I wasn't so keen about them or the service. The food was semi-expensive, our waiter kept stealing our utensils and plates before we were done with them, and the atmosphere was just too chaotic the place was way to crowded since it's pretty famous. Personally I enjoy Carmine's better, but at least I got to say I ate at Sardi's once and managed to have the Sardi's experience. After Sardi's we had to leave because Shawn's mom isn't feeling to well right now and wasn't up for bowling in costume. The other phans went bowling in phantom costumes. The next day they hit the Broadway Cares Equity fights aids flea market. So far it seems my desire to go to the flea market and check out the phantom booth is squelched because I end up at work. This year I was supposed to be off, but I ended up switching my work schedule for a christening that did not take place. From the bits and pieces I heard the flea market was pretty cool, at least one phan I know has pictures. As for my own pictures, I really would love to post some for this entry but I'm not going to right now. I posted photos on facebook and then I had to lock them down so that only those attending the phan gathering could see them. Since anyone can come across my blog for the time being I'm choosing not to post event photos here. I'm hoping lots of people read this though so that they can see the whole weekend was just good fun and comradery among the phantom phans who were able to attend the events. I hope we have a phan gathering 2012 and I hope whether it's in Manhattan or elsewhere that I can attend. I really liked meeting a bunch of phans, and I'm going to miss hanging out with everyone, even though I only got to see everyone for two days it felt like I knew them for a long time. There are a few phans who are in the tri-state area and surrounding states that are close to NY, perhaps when I start driving I can arrange to visit them and hang out. Perhaps if I ever reach Canada again (I only took a trip there once in 8th grade) I can see my Phan Phriends who came from Canada. Phan weekend was a great experience, I'm happy I took part in it and hope to be a part of another gathering in the future.

PHirst Ever Global Phantom of the Opera Day!

2011-09-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

On September 23, 2011 the PHirst ever global phantom of the opera day took place. Global Phantom of the Opera day was a product of brainstorming among a PHew Phantom Phans. I thought of it after National Coffee Day took place last year, Rebecca Timmons pitched in to make the day global not national for Phans everywhere, not just US Phans. September 23, I believe is the first publication of Leroux's novel which is why the date was picked. For me it was a great PHirst global Phantom of the Opera day as I had a gathering with some phans who came down to Manhattan for the weekend, details of this gathering will be in an entry to follow.

September 2011 Sexy Phantom!

2011-09-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

Howard with an Erik Buddy!

I am seriously shocked I haven't made this man my sexy phantom the day I decided to create the monthly sexy phantoms! I'm also so happy I thought about him when perusing my chart of previous sexy phantoms and wondering if this was the month I was going to be at a loss regarding which sexy phantom to name. Ladies get ready to mop up some drool our man of the month is Howard McGillin.

But this his how we really like to see him, mask please!

Phantom Variations by Ann C. Hall REVIEW

2011-08-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

Phantom Variations: The Adaptations of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, 1925 to the Present

I haven't read any phantom of the opera literature recently although I have a lot on my kindle and a ton of books too, so when I finished my coffeehouse mysteries on the kindle, I decided to go to my phantom collection and chose to read this work by Ann Hall. I was pretty impressed, she looks deeply into the meanings of different versions of the story and provides a lot of insight as to why which version might have been made this way and why another version was made differently. This book satisfies a phantom nerd's mind in regards to the phantom of the opera variations available for viewing. It also inspires me to possibly become a phantom scholar, although some of my friends are already convinced that I'd have a Ph.D in the subject if it was offered in universities. If you wish to delve deeper into phantom this is definitely a good read, kudos to Ms. Hall for creating this work.

Oxford Bookworms Library: The Phantom of the Opera REVIEW

2011-08-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

The Oxford Bookworms Library: The Phantom of the Opera Level 1 (Oxford Bookworms Library: Stage 1)

I feel like I haven't reviewed anything to do with phantom of the opera for a very long time, except for a review of the live Broadway show. Before hitting the sack I decided to read this very simplified version of the Gaston Leroux novel that I just bought from Amazon a few weeks ago.

Jennifer Bassett writes this adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel. It is pretty much very true to the tale, but it's very simplified as it's meant for a small child to read. In addition to the story there is a glossary, and questions to answer before you read the book, while you are reading the book and after you read the book. These additional pages make this book a worthy tool for teachers who chose to introduce young kids to phantom of the opera.....or maybe it's just perfect for the crazy phan intending to make sure their future children know everything about the phantom of the opera.

Not a bad book to have in your phantom collection, especially when you want to teach your young relatives about phantom of the opera.

Sexy Phantom for August 2011

2011-08-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

In the scary lair

Terrorizing members of the masked ball

This month's sexy phantom isn't all too sexy but I figured he deserves a small recognition...and he's alright. Truth be told sometimes I'm left puzzled for the month wondering which sexy phantom I shall pick. I need to obtain a list of Broadway and London phantoms as well as phantoms on tours so I have plenty of sexy phantom ammo. So here it is this month we salute Robert Englund star of the 1989 slasher phantom. This movie version of the story isn't the greatest, it's is own art form as far as bringing true horror and gore to the story, it's still better than the 1999 Julian Sands version and don't you guys and gals worry, I will stop naming a sexy phantom before I name the star of the Julian Sands version sexy because he looked too much like Raoul and did not wear a mask. Also the gore porn version of a beautiful story is not appreciated, I don't know which has the higher grossness factor Love Never Dies or the 1999 Julian Sands version. Okay enough ranting here's two photos of the great Robert Englund who scared us as Freddy and created an extremely gory, scary Erik.

Phantom #44 Review - July 15, 2011 Majestic Theatre and this blog writer's surprise proposal

2011-07-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the fortunate luck of seeing Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre for my 44th time. Shawn was at a loss for my birthday present and asked me if I wanted phantom tickets, of course I could never refuse a set of phantom tickets (especially from my new fiancee) so we went to the show. We didn't get autographs this time, we plan on attending a phan gathering in September so I figured we'd save the meet and greet the cast again for the phan gathering.

There were a few new cast members we saw last night in addition to some familiar ones, every single actor was absolutely spectacular for this performance. Hugh Panaro as always did a wonderful job in the role of the phantom. Every time I see him he performs the role a little differently and seems to get better and better. Last night he was very gesterful with his hands, he bought out the monstrous side of the phantom but also made you feel the sadness and the pain of his character as well. Sara Jean Ford was an awesome Christine opposite Hugh. You could feel the tensed up chemistry between their two characters.

Kyle Barisich played the role of Raoul. He was good but didn't really stand out to me...then again Raoul is a character I prefer to conveniently forget about. Michelle McConnell was Carlotta she played an utmost excellent diva. Jessica Bishop played Meg she was also very wonderful in her role.

After the performance was over and the security guard was trying to chase every one out of the theatre, Shawn took me toward the front of the stage by the Orchestra pit. I thought we were going to be kicked out too but the security guard knew something I did not. Shawn said he had a question for me and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes faster than I'd ever down a cup of coffee then he took out the ring which for some reason I thought he might not have but I didn't care. We hugged, we kissed the orchestra clapped for us and Shawn gave me the dream proposal of a phantom phan.

So for now this newly engaged phan is signing off until it's either time to pick a sexy phantom for the month or I have another review, or something very incredible to report regarding POTO!

July's Sexy Phantom! 2011

2011-07-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

Imagine the possibility of waking up to this grin in the morning...if you're a single horny phan may you have the most pleasant fantasy of this dream come true occurring.

January, June and July! For me these three months are favorite phantom months. January because phantom made it's broadway premiere at the end of January on January 26, 1988, June because it is my phaniversary and July because it's my birthday and I've seen the show a few different years on my birthday because how else would a phantom phan celebrate the day! This year for the month of July may all of us who are attracted to the phantom drool over my sexy phantom pick TIM MARTIN GLEASON! He's one of the phantoms to play both Raoul and the phantom, of course unless you're a Raoul lover he looks a million times better when he's in phantom garb.

Tim Martin Gleason unmasked with Trista Moldovan and Kelly Jeanne Grant, this was closing night at the Pantages Theater October 31, 2010

Phantom murder by Sadie Montgomery REVIEW

2011-06-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

Phantom Murder

This is the sixth and final book in the phan phiction Phoenix of the Opera series by Sadie Montgomery. I've been picking up one of these to read here and there until I finally got through the series with this book.

The book starts with the discovery of a corpse disfigured beyond recognition, than there is a flash back of events before the corpse is discovered, the events eventually come full circle back to the corpse finding throwing Erik, Meg, their family and the teatro de l'Opera into solving a mystery and hoping to save Erik from potential jail time. While all of this excitement is happening Mario and Francois both have affection for the same women, Meg won't sing anymore which leaves the reader wondering if she might go back to dance or pick up singing again, and Carlotta and Rinaldo are driven apart.

There's lots going on it in this finale of the Phoenix of the Opera series everything wraps up nicely and is happy for all of the characters at the end. I did enjoy the book, but reading the ending felt like watching Spiderman 3 to me all over again. The book could have ended two or three times but went on for more pages.

PHirst ever Phan Interview! Interview with Julia Tranberg

2011-06-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I had the pleasure of interviewing Julia Tranberg, a phantom phan for five years now and a resident of Florida. This is the first of what I hope to be many phan interviews I will conduct for this blog. I like to use this blog to name the sexy phantom each month and well as review phantom materials, but since I don't get to much reviewing but would like to keep entries coming and this blog alive I figured phan interviews would be great. So below is a partial transcript of my interview with Julia, we did have other bits of conversation in between interview questions but I'll leave those out.

Julia Tranberg - resident of Florida and devout phantom phan of five years!

Diana Brewster: I guess we can start with the questions lol. when did you become a phantom phan? how did it happen?
Julia Tranberg: I was in 7th grade and that was when the movie was comming out. For Christmas my friend gave me a copy of the OLC of Phantom....I was hooked the moment I heard the music! I saw the movie a few times and then in October of 2006 my mom took us to see Phantom. It was a touring company
I sat 3rd row and Gary Mauer was my 1st Phantom. Just looked at the ticket it was October 1st 2005. I have it framed with an autograph from Gary Mauer lol and since then I have seen the show 4 times 2 touring and 2 in NYC and I am going again in March of next year
Diana Brewster: who is your favorite phantom?
Julia Tranberg: Gary Mauer hands down the best one I have seen live...he brought sooo much emotion and passion to the role...and in his voice when he sang you could hear the phantoms pain and sorrow and yet it was beautiful at the same time, had me sobbing in the final lair scene
Diana Brewster: a great phantom will do that. Is your favorite version of phantom the ALW play? or a different movie or theatre version you may have seen?
Julia Tranberg: the ALW verion is my fav and my second fave is is the Charles Dance film! I LOVE it
and Yeston and Kopit Phantom is a good stage version too I want to see it live....
Diana Brewster: I've seen it live twice it's pretty good sometimes little companies put it on keep your eye out
Julia Tranberg: I deff will :)
Diana Brewster: how does phantom inspire you in your life? for example do you make phan art? write phan phiction? do you want to chose a career based on phantom?
Julia Tranberg: Phantom is a big part of my life...It's appart of who I am....since fiirst loving Phantom I have been in many shows...I did alot of shows my 4 years of HS...We even did a Phantom of the Opera marching band show my 2nd year of HS...my former band director and good friend is a huge Phan as well....It would be my dream someday to play Christine...on Broadway, tour company, or local production....I am going to become a music teacher and share my love for Phantom with my students and hopefully inspire them...My whole house is decorated Phantom...and I have a whole cuiro cabinet of Phantom music boxes...and I do like to draw Phantom art and I do alot of Phantom ceramics at the ceramic studio I work at. Plates and coffee mugs, and I love to read good Phantom Phan fics, I bought Angel of Music Tales of the Phantom of the Opera by Carrie Hernandez its good. Soon I am getting the hood of my car done Phantom lol
Diana Brewster: Do you like Love Never dies? Explain why you might like it dislike it?
Julia Tranberg: lol i have a huge respone for this lol
Diana Brewster: lol you can write it if you wish
Julia Tranberg: ok lol here it goes. I do not like it at all, ever since I heard there was going to be a sequel I was not happy. Phantom needs no sequel! The story was beautiful the way it ended, in the orginal novel he does of a broken heart. I tried to give LND a chance and bought the CD and watched the show on youtube...and it just made me dislike it even more. As a music major and all my experience with music the score is lacking and the plot makes no sense, it makes no sense that Christine found the Phantom had sex with him...he left and then she married raoul the next day. How does she know the kid is the Phantoms??? There were no tests back then!!!What happened to the Phantom's disformity???? Did his lip thing just fall off!!!! It looks like his deformity shrunk!!!!There was no plastic surgery back then..... what did he just get better looking with age???!!!! There is just sooo much wrong with that show, and don't even get me started with Bathing Beauty....shudders lol lol. Its like Phantom of the Soap Opera, I think it was a desperate attempt for ALW to get more fame and wealth out of it. He cant deal with the fact that Phantom was it for him It was his high water mark, he even said himself in an interview on the second disk of the 2004 film in the segment behind the mask that he know he will NEVER BE ABLE TO TOP PHANTOM, there you go straight for the horses mouth lol lol. I think love should die and I am a big supporter of the Love Should Die group :)
Diana Brewster: I agree with you 100 %. What is it about phantom that you love the most? is it the music, the story?
Julia Tranberg: its a good mix of both, the music stays in your head for days and sometimes wakes up up at night and ur humming it, MOTN is my fav song, such beauty and then PONR such passion and longing for someone you want but cant have...and then the story...guy loves a girl but she loves someone else. It's classic but in the phantom i think u get a hint of christine loving him, part of her loves him but she knows she cant be with him but he is appart of her soul... it never gets old to me
Diana Brewster: same here :)

At this point I had to conclude the interview. I must say it was a pleasure interviewing Julia, she made this first experience conducting a phan interview a great one :)

Curio cabinet full of Julia's music boxes!

Julia's birthday cake!

June 2011's sexy phantom

2011-06-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

John Cudia decked out as we like to see him!

Playing opposite Trista Moldavan as Christine

Cutting the cake with Andrew Lloyd Webber after the 9,000th performance!

The sexy phantom for June 2011 is John Cudia. I've conveniently announced him on my 17th phaniversary lol. I'm actually pretty surprised I thought by now he would have had the title already, Mr. Cudia is one of the PHellows out there who have played both phantom and the barf inducing role of Raoul too.

Happy 17th Phaniversary to me!

2011-06-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Today is the anniversary of the day that I became officially and certifiably obsessed and insane over Phantom of the Opera. On this day, 17 years ago when I was 11 years old I saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway for the first time with my sixth grade class in elementary school. Little did the PTA know when they organized this trip for us that they'd end up creating a phantom monster....now I'm sure they regret choosing phantom as the Broadway show to see....they're not as regretful as my family though who have had to put up with this zaniness for 17 years, at least the PTA for the sixth grade class of 1994 don't really have to deal with me.

I'm not seeing the show today, right now I am at work. To commemorate the day I'm trying to do as much as phantomly possible for this day. I paid my brother to drive me to work this morning, as well as buying him breakfast, for two reasons #1 I have to huge bags to take with me to Shawn's later and I didn't want to walk 4 blocks and be on crowded buses with large bags, #2 I wanted to stop off this morning and get some goodies for the library to honor my phaniversary. So this morning on my coffee break I posted a little sign and left out some sugary goodness for the staff to enjoy. Of course I'm using my new web addiction get glue to check into phantom of the opera as a topic. I have worn my phantom of the opera earrings to work today, and a black and white outfit. I will pick a sexy phantom for the month of June, and I may start reading one or two phantom of the opera books that I own but haven't read yet. Later on perhaps I shall watch a phantom movie with Shawn if he's up for it, or even better maybe he'll wear the mask for me ;)

May's Sexy Phantom

2011-05-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

It's about 11 days into May. I think I've kept drooling Phan girls....as well as some Phan boys in the dark long enough! So without further ado the sexy phantom for May 2011 *drum roll* is DAVIS GAINES :)

Davis Gaines in Phantom Regalia

DG in action!

Davis Gaines unmasked!

Phantom Egghead is HERE!!!

2011-04-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

Myself with my sloppy hair and PE my mom took this shot for me lol

So yesterday I went home and found Phantom Egghead arrived at my house!!! I immediately took some funny shots of him at my house and he's already had about 4 or 5 location shots in the course of a day lol. If anyone wishes to follow Phantom Egghead's adventures more closely than the occasional blog photo I'll post you may find them on facebook for now, just friend request me to see them if you aren't my friend already. Most likely I may post them on Picasa too but I'm not sure. Oh the phan nerd excitement!

The trap door maker by Pete Bregman REVIEW

2011-04-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

The Trap-Door Maker: A Prequel To The Phantom Of The Opera. Collected Edition

I bought this book when I was working on my masters thesis for library school, I read it than and now I've re read it for this blog. This is a sequel to the phantom of the opera mainly featuring Erik's life in Persia before he escaped to Paris to become the phantom. There's tons of political stuff, as well as unexpected twists and turns inside of this 137 page treasure of a graphic novel. It's also a great way to turn comic book/graphic novel fans onto phantom of the opera if they aren't familiar with it. (Oh the devious things we fans do to introduce people to the phantom lol). The artwork is okay, the storyline is incredibly interesting. I believe the author was supposed to create another graphic novel of the phantom of the opera but I've checked the website and have only seen this novel so I'm guessing he never published which is sad stuff. I want more phantom graphic novels, perhaps in the future I'll find others.

Gearing up for the adventures of the Phantom Egghead!

2011-04-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

I was browsing Etsy as I like to do sometimes, especially now that I'm off of facebook at work which gives me other browsing opportunities during downtime if I don't have actual work to do. Of course I punched in a keyword search for Phantom of the Opera (what else would a Phan do?) and I came across THE PHANTOM EGGHEAD!

Immediately he was added to my etsy favorites. I also took note of his cheap price (sometimes the community I work for rubs off on me), I posted a link about him in my google buzz which is now function as my links I'd like to add to facebook in the future page. Last night I posted him on facebook and was anxiously worried another phan might snatch him up and he was the only one available for sale. I told Shawn about him. After doing all of this, I figured perhaps I should order him, I was getting a bit obsessive which is nothing new regarding phantom of the opera and myself, but if I thought about PE (Phantom Egghead) all these times I thought I should purchase him. Which is what I did this morning after I settled up at work, before getting a bunch of weird phone calls from lonely people with odd questions.

On the way to a bathroom break, still thinking about PE and his impending arrival to my house I was reminded of the time I used to carry my phantom of the opera plushie around with me, who I named Erik Buddy. I remembered how I used to sometimes be a wise ass nerd and take pictures of Erik Buddy at certain places I was at. I thought about Erik Buddy because I was thinking of which location to keep PE. I wasn't sure if he should be in my room at my parent's house, if I should take him to Shawn's or bring him to work. Than I thought it would be a fantastically dorky idea (if I gently carried PE in my purse) to photograph PE in different places I visit, it would be an interesting new photo project as well as an interesting addition to my photo of the day 365 project challenge. So when PE comes I won't publically display him by carrying him around in my hands, he will suffocate in my purse, but I'll photograph him in places I visit almost daily as long as exciting new places if it's possible. So now I'm really excited I can't wait for PE to get here, I hope he comes before Easter since he's an egg and this PE photo project is going to be funny! So be on the look out the PE photo project will be on Picasa, facebook and new photos will be featured as blog entries here :)

My PHuture Phantom Egghead, he's mine once he comes to my house in the mail!

April's Sexy Phantom

2011-04-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

David Staller in Phantom action

After going through archives of this blog in order to avoid repeating Sexy Phantoms - I've decided to give the title for April 2011 to David Staller, he was in the live 1991 play version that was filmed to be released as a movie. Speaking of this I should re watch this sometime soon only so I can blog about it, obsession has nothing to do with my desire to re watch any phantom movies lol

Phantom Madness by Sadie Montgomery - REVIEW

2011-04-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

Phantom Madness
Kindle edition

This is the fifth book in The Phoenix of the Opera series by Sadie Montgomery. I have number 6 in hard copy and on my kindle as well. I ordered all of the physical book versions so I could have a complete set to lend my friend Janette.

In my opinion although these books were always good, Sadie Montgomery has improved in her work regarding this series, the fourth and fifth books were much more interesting than the first three. I still have a lot of trouble getting used to the fact that Erik and Raoul are friends, it's sort of weird.

In this part of the series Meg is conned by a psychologist to send Erik to an institution, once this happens Erik is trapped away and Meg is desperate to get him back. I won't spoil the phan phiction for anyone who wishes to read but at the end everything works out quite nicely and Erik accomplishes a major feat that I don't think any phan thought was ever possible.

Overall this series is pretty good, worth it if you're a phan and have a passion for the books.

The PHantom Salute!

2011-03-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

When I was 13 or 14 just a mere few years into my obsession with Phantom of the Opera....and yet still pretty much all I talked about, my friend Marissa's mother MaryAnn was talking about her love of rhinos during a Christmas Eve gathering. For a few year my family and MaryAnn's mom Sue's family would join at Sue's house for Christmas Eve celebrations. MaryAnn told whoever was at the table that she had a salute to rhinos, she called it the rhino salute. Of course immediately after seeing the rhino salute I asked about a possible phantom salute. MaryAnn who is extremely clever and full of genius spread out her fingers and slapped the left hand of her face where the phantom's mask is to signify a phantom salute. I loved it, thought it was very perfect and ran with it. So I have photos where I am saluting to the phantom. Sometimes I forget about the salute, and then remember it again and think back to all my years doing it. I'm remembering it now because I'm posting old skool phan photos that I have on facebook. In closing this entry I'll include two old skool photos of the salute so every phan who reads this can see what it looks like and run with it!

A summer night at my parent's house I think it might have been after celebrating my 21st birthday by seeing phantom. I decided to do the salute- most 21 year olds get drunk I chose to see phantom yet again LOL

Demonstrating the salute it was my first time at the stage door after the show, I was with my friends Cathy and Jaime.

CHANSON DE L'ANGE BY PAISLEY SWAN STEWART - REVIEW

2011-03-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Chanson de l'Ange, Book 1: The Bleeding Rose- An Epic Retelling of Phantom of the Opera

I found out about this book over the summer, I think I learned about it because I friend requested the author on facebook in an attempt to connect with lots of phantom phans through facebook which worked out very well. I spent maybe a month checking out the book online, drooling and dreaming of the day that I would own it. My cousin told me he would send me birthday money so I was able to order the book. The book is large and epic and I was carrying it places with me for awhile but resided to the fact of leaving it home most of the time. Finally while in the process of moving from my apartment back home to my parent's house I bought this book to work, after the move I was able to catch up reading it when I was on break at work, yesterday night I finally took the book home with me and finished it, so finally many months later here's my review.

This book is 636 pages, using the Broadway play, the original novel and possibly other incarnations of the story the author provides the reader with a retelling of Phantom of the Opera of massive proportion. This is part of a two book volume so my feelings are that at the end of this book the reader is left with half the story completed, and the conclusion to the story will take place in Book 2. The story starts off with Christine's move to the Opera House after her father passes away. The reader journeys with Christine as she first hears her angel (who is really Erik) and begins voice lessons eventually becoming the diva of the Opera House. The action was mostly based on Leroux's novel as well as Lloyd Webber's play, with the author writing in her own ideas to the plot as well.

This book gets very deeply into the story, there's a lot of psychology and thoughts revealed about each of the characters which allows the reader to perhaps understand some of the character's actions which they may have never really understood with shorter incarnations of the story. I feel Christine's love for Erik more in this novel although she has many questions about him too. By the end of this book I wanted Christine to end up with Erik, but the book leaves off with an unlikely chance of that happening, I'll just have to wait until book 2 to find out what happens and if I get my wish of her ending up with Erik (as all phans always wish for). The middle up until the end of the book is quite gripping, I was compelled to finish it.

Overall it's a good epic novel for a phan's entertainment.

March's Sexy Phantom and Post # 100!!!!

2011-03-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Exciting stuff in the life of a nerdy phantom blogger! This is my 100th post since I started up this blog!

I'm also naming this Month's Sexy Phantom! In keeping with the recent March 7 performance I had the pleasure of seeing on Broadway I shall name Paul A. Schaefer the sexy phantom for March. I did a google image search and didn't find a picture of him as the phantom but coincidentally I found the photo of him and Elizabeth Welch, Janette and myself that I posted after the show. So I shall use that picture.

Devon's PHan site!

2011-03-14T06:39:00.001-07:00

A PHellow Phan created a phantom website, devoted to her life and times as a PHan.

Check it out :)

ALW's Phantom of the Opera, Majestic Theatre - March 7, 2011 - REVIEW and Phan Nerdiness!

2011-03-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

Pre Show Stage Shot

Shawn, Janette and myself with an awesome cast member

Janette and myself meeting Elizabeth Welch and Paul Shaefer (Christine and Phantom)

In our seats before the show!

Last night I finally went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway....again! Okay so you're not surprised! It's actually been quite a long gap since I've gone to see the show, the last time I went was in July when I took Shawn for the first time. By that point the apartment stuff was kind of killing me financially and I only was able to go because Louise gave me some birthday money and I bought cheap seats. These seats were courtesy of my tax refund! I had been promising to take Janette to the show since we met last year - it's exciting to have another Phan PHriend a mere few miles away from me.

The show was pretty terrific as usual. Our seats were awesome - I have sat in every location of seats throughout the various times that I've gone to see the show and my prime choice of seating would be the area that we sat in last night (which is mid-orchestra) or front mezzanine. Both of those seats provide optimum viewing for every single thing going on during the show. Our seats were off to the right but it was okay (I knew that there was the most phantom action there - hehehe).

The cast was very good. Hugh Panaro was not performing for the night (I felt a little bad because Janette was so excited to see him) instead his understudy Paul A. Schaefer took over the role. At the beginning of the show he seemed slightly nervous (the phantom's role and Hugh Panaro's interpretation are very hard shoes to fill) but he gained confidence as the night went on and ended up doing a very amazing job. He had me blubbering into Shawn's arms at the end of the show - I usually cry anyway but he made me lose control with the tears. Elizabeth Welch performed Christine, it was her first night performing the role at the Majestic. She was absolutely positively wonderful. Her voice and her acting was superb. Sean MacLaughlin was Raoul, it was good to have the chance to see him perform the role. He definitely took the role in the direction of Raoul the jerk - which is how I will always view Raoul anyway, in doing so I think he left it open for the phantom to be more understood and gain more pity from the audience.

The music was interesting. It seemed they changed the orchestration for the title song, it sounded like it was a kick back to the Sarah Brightman/Steve Harley video. I kind of liked it though, it added some spice although the classic orchestrations during the title song were good as well.

After the show was over we took off to the stage door to meet actors. They actually let us in past the double doors in the alley to wait right by the stage door. We collected many signatures, took a few pictures, I gave my business cards out so that I can connect with some of the cast on facebook, hopefully they will read this blog too. We met Kris Koop (I think she might actually be on my facebook already) and she promised to hook us up to meet Hugh and go backstage when we have a chance - much YAYNESS!

So #43 was a terrific evening one of the best POTO experiences I've ever had even though every POTO experience is great for me.

Rent my PHan PHiction

2011-02-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know if this idea is going to fly or not. I have a bit of PHan PHiction that I tend to buy and I've gotten a few requests about borrowing it. I don't wish to loan them out blindly for fear of not getting them back, but I thought maybe I could loan them out for a small fee. If you're interested in the beginning stages of this idea click here to join a group on facebook.

February's Sexy Phantom

2011-02-13T09:22:00.000-08:00

Bet everyone thought I forgot about February's sexy phantom! SURPRISE! I was saving him for very close to Valentine's Day!

February's sexy Phantom (inspired by a phantom phan I know in London-because this guy is their favorite!) is *DRUM ROLL*

Scott Davies!

Phantom Death by Sadie Montgomery REVIEW

2011-01-28T22:10:00.000-08:00

Phantom Death
Purchase Kindle Edition

My sister bought me the physical edition of #5 in this series for Christmas. Eager to eventually get through this series and continue my blog reviews I purchased #4 and and #6 in this series for my kindle (thanks again to my sweetheart for the greatest Christmas gift ever). I've been reading this book for awhile now using the kindle when I was on the bus or train and have finally finished it.

Ms. Montgomery has impressed me very much with this work. I enjoyed books 1 to 3, but I was starting to feel as if it were the same plot, Erik and Meg were in love, then separated somehow and reunited. This book in the series took a different turn and the author has done an excellent job with it.

Basically Erik's life in Rome is upturned and his peace is threatened when Carlotta comes to Rome, knowing that Erik is there and attempts to seek revenge for what has happened to her and Piangi. She singlehandedly threatens Erik's security and puts the life of him and his family in danger when she alerts Inspector Leroux, who has been hunting for Erik convinced he was still alive, to his existence in Rome.

After a bunch of tantrums from Carlotta, lots of action, and a chapter of horrific madness things wrap up quite nicely, my only gripe *QUICK SPOILER ALERT* is that Erik names one of his new children Raoul, I still detest that him and Raoul are friends, even though Raoul is kind of nice in this series, I just will forever hate his character. *SPOILER ENDS*

This book is worth the purchase if you are into Phan Phiction, I must say this six part series written by Sadie Montgomery is a much better sequel to the story then Love Never Dies, perhaps if ALW based his sequel off of Ms. Montgomery's books the phans would actually like it.

Just a quick extra note. This book review is also linked to new thousand book blog challenge I started. If you happen to be a curious phantom phan that also happens to be into books you can follow my reviews of 1,000 books that I will be reading to find some great books you may not have known about :)

HAPPY 23RD ANNIVERSARY PHANTOM OF THE OPERA BROADWAY!

2011-01-26T08:39:00.000-08:00

The original Man, Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Sarah Brightman the original Christine! A Phantom Phan shared this with us on facebook! 23 years ago they kicked off the BEST broadway show, stemmed from the BEST story!

23 years ago on January 26, 1988 the curtain rose on the Broadway premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera. I heard that some cast members were going to appear on the Rosie O'Donnell radio show, and I think tonight at the play (if it goes on because there's massive snow at the moment :/) there will be a special surprise curtain call. I'm not going tonight, I went last year for the 22nd anniversary but decided this year not to go for the 23rd, I'm kind of glad because although it is no phantom the snow outside would freak me out that the performance might be in danger of being cancelled and then I would cry. Instead PHellow PHans I am wearing my phantom earrings to work, I may wear one of my phan shirts later, and it's possible I will finish reading a piece of phantom literature or watch one of the movies to celebrate! Maybe I will get clever and make a cake although if I do it will just be Shawn, myself and his mommy eating some lol. So let me close this entry before I ramble on and on and on......Happy 23rd Broadway Anniversary PHANTOM! Today belongs to you...well doesn't every day belong to you when it comes to your phans!

Unmasqued by Colette Gale REVIEW

2011-01-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

I have re-read this novel for the second...or third time with great pleasure ;) in order to bring you, my dear phan readers another review of PHan PHiction that may...or may not be worth the purchase, depending on my feelings towards the work. This work by the way is WORTH IT!

Unmasqued is an erotic novel of our PHavorite story. Erik lovers will be pleased with this story, Raoul lovers not so much. Colete Gale does a wonderful job incorporating erotic scenes into the novel without turning the work into smut that old ladies tend to read for excitement. She manages to make this work full of steamy scenes that satisfy virtually almost any sexual appetite but at the same time she brings a suspenseful, intriguing plot into the book as well. She also keeps true to the story of Phantom of the Opera and doesn't botch it up, or discredit it to make her work seem true (like Frederick Forsyth). Raoul manages to become a world class jerk by the end of the novel (kudos!), Christine is a semi-whorish whiner with no independence (but she makes Erik happy), and Erik well he can do no wrong! The only small problem, which is not bad at all was the biographer's afterward that the author included, it started off great considering what happened to Phillipe and how he ended up, but ended on a slightly campy note, it may have been better just to leave the novel off without the afterward, this book is still great though and has a happy ending, quite possibly in more ways then one ;)

WE Network Phantom of the Opera REVIEW!

2011-01-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

I was very excited when someone at work told me that David Tutera was having a Phantom of the Opera themed network on his show My Fair Wedding! I thought I might watch it but wasn't sure, and I thought I had missed it because Shawn and I got back at around 10 from the No Pants Subway Ride and the show aired at 9. After quickly looking it up, I realized they were re-airing the show at 11 and Shawn put it on for me. I can't tell you how much of a disappointment and waste of time viewing this show turned out to be for me.

The aspect of David Tutera's show is that he takes the theme the bride wishes to go with and he re-plans the wedding, according to him he makes a better wedding. Truly I think he messes with the bride and ruins her plans.

The only education this guy has about Phantom of the Opera is obviously the 2004 movie. Way to go Andrew Lloyd Webber Jr. *sarcastic sneer* He insisted that the bride and bridesmaids be dressed as if they were going to the Opera or a ball, not as if they were in Phantom of the Opera, or the Masquerade scene from Phantom of the Opera which is probably what the bride wished to go for.

The ceremony was pretty standardized, bride in the white dress, groom looked like Raoul (GROSS!), some of the bride's maid dresses were black, some were gold, they all had red roses, which is one of the things Mr. Tutera partially got right, considering he messed everything up, and had no education of the story of Phantom whatsoever.

He did an alright job with the reception. Basically he had centerpieces on the table to looked like a crashed chandelier, the cake had gold and roses, roses were all over the place (he was in love with the roses), he had some lighting and a little bit of smoke, but no phantom music and the only masks anyone wore were masquerade masks. He took the whole unpleasant parts of phantom (i.e. the hideously disfigured genius we all love that's the main character of the story) and wiped it out of the entire reception. The only awesome thing he did was send the wedding couple on a honeymoon to Las Vegas to stay at the venetian and see The Phantom of the Opera.

So there's my bitterness, my upsetment and discontent. I needed rolaids from Shawn near the show's end because I was so sick to my stomach with it. Phans not worth the watch, you will only want to hurt this guy.

Phantom of the Opera for the Amazon Kindle...and other e-readers!

2011-01-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

My love gave me a kindle for Christmas. I am enjoying it very much and I already have the original novel by Gaston Leroux (one is available for FREE) and two other phantom novels downloaded to it. I decided to do a quick search in amazon to find out which phantom of the opera novels were available for the kindle. There are 72 books available for the kindle, when I search the kindle store with the key words Phantom of the Opera.

If you have a nook by Barnes and Noble, these are the books available for your nook

If you have the sony e-reader available through borders, here are your choices for a phantom fix.

All three of these e-readers are also available through applications for your mobile phones, PCs, laptops....or your iphones, ipads or itouches if you have those devices. So you don't need to own the actual readers to view and read these fine pieces of phantom literature!

January's Sexy Phantom!

2011-01-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

Brad Little in the role of the Phantom!

Old Skool picture of my sister and I when we met Brad Little after seeing Phantom of the Opera!

New Year! New Month! Time for the monthly sexy phantom entry. The first sexy phantom for this year and for the month of January is Brad Little. I saw him play the phantom with Joanna, I think it was the twelfth time I went, and my friend Ben suggested that I see him. Well I absolutely loved his performance, I met him after the show with my sister and he was so nice, and signed my playbill which I now have framed in my SF music box frame. So Brad Little this month's for you, you've made the first sexy phantom of 2011.

Mystery Legends Phantom of the Opera game review!

2010-12-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

So my sweet dear love gave me an early Christmas gift yesterday. He surprised me with a game I did not know anything about until yesterday. It's a newer Phantom of the Opera PC game, so now to my knowledge there are two Phantom of the Opera PC games, Return of the Phantom and Mystery Legends Phantom of the Opera.

When I got home last night I started to play this lovely game a little bit, look forward to playing some more of it later on after I'm done with my overtime shift at work.

I not a pro gamer so my review and opinion are just geared towards the phantom aspect of this game. I like the voices, and graphics they are pretty good, the storyline is alright, and the only reason it's alright is because Christine and Raoul are married and have had a daughter. I just hate the fact that they are married. The story begins after they have just seen an Opera performance, the phantom sees their daughter, apparently he thinks she is Christine and he brings her back to the Opera House. So for the game you are playing the role of Christine's daughter as you go through the dilapidated Opera House to try to figure out how and why you are there. Basically the game is full of mini puzzles that you come across and need to solve before you move through another portion of the Opera House. For me this is perfect as I'm a puzzle game lover when I do game. I prefer games like tetris where you need to solve a puzzle and move onto the next level vs. other games like racing or shooting (which I'm God Awful at).

A screen shot from the game, the entrance of the Opera House!

Shawn bought me the game from Big Fish. If you google Mystery Legends Phantom of the Opera you will get tons of game guides as well, I browsed through one but do not wish to sort of cheat and would like to finish the game on my own merit, so I will just amble through the rest of it when I can resume play.

Batman Masque - REVIEW

2010-12-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

I bought this comic book while working on my thesis, so this is my second time reading it, to review it for this blog. This is basically a phantom/batman cross-over it's pretty interesting. There are essentially two phantom roles in this comic, a lot is crammed into this short comic book. Harvey Dent and Batman are the two phantoms, Batman represents the phantom's compassionate human side, Dent represents the phantom's evil side. Laura Avian is a prima ballerina and is the Christine, she is blonde which is a happy thing for me, as the original Christine in Leroux's novel is blonde. At one point in the comic after being rescued by Batman she ends up in ALW Christine MOTN gear. The art work is okay for this comic book, compared to other graphic novels I've read it's passable for a graphic novel but not great. Right now this graphic novel is pretty cheap on Amazon, it is worth it as a unique item for collection, and it's a fast, decent phantom read.

December's Sexy Phantom!

2010-12-02T12:16:00.000-08:00

It's a new month, official month of the holidays! This December I've elected Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera to be sexy Phantom for the month! Why not acknowledge our Erik in the original form and name him sexy!

I'm looking for sexy Phantom suggestions for the upcoming month of 2011. Please let me know your suggestions for any sexy phantoms that haven't been covered yet, when I publish them I will credit you with the suggestion.

Yeston/Kopit Phantom - BroadHollow Theatre at Elmont Public Library Review

2010-11-29T07:20:00.000-08:00


Your Phantom blogger pal with Brianne Boyd (Christine),	Chris Dufrenoy (Erik) and Janette!

On Friday night (November 26, 2010) I didn't celebrate Black Friday by shopping, I never do unless it's online shopping. Instead I went to a local community theatre production of Phantom by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit. My Phantom PHriend as well as PHellow PHan who happens to live local to me Janette and my love went with me. Janette will eventually write up her opinion of the show and I will add it to this entry.

This is my second time seeing this version of Phantom, I saw it when I was 18 at Hofstra University (10 years ago! Oh my!) Janette also saw it at Hofstra, we were trying to remember if Hofstra had a live orchestra for this version or not. What we saw Friday night was pre recorded orchestrations but live singing.

Chris Dufrenoy was Erik, he had a good voice and played the part of Erik very well. Janette, who I have deemed the resident Y/K Phantom expert (because she's seen it one more time then I have) said he nailed the song My mother bore me. She said that is the best she's ever heard that song to be sung.

Brianne Boyd was an amazing Christine, she sang beautifully, her facial expressions conveyed exactly what Christine was feeling.

There were two Phillipes, I'm not sure which of the two I saw that night, all I can say is unfortunately because I hate Raoul and Phillipe is the equivalent of Raoul in this version of the story, I kind of blocked him out of my brain a little bit (sorry actor).

Sheila Sheffield played Carlotta, she was good, she played the role of sneaky conniving diva quite well.

Dominick Trivigno played young Erik, he was adorable, and had a pretty good voice for a young boy.

The rest of the cast and ensemble did very well, they worked well together to keep the show rolling.

Scenery, set and lighting were great, the set was well done, they definitely made it possible for the phantom to sneak around, and the set was able to convey the mood that the Opera Company was being taunted by a phantom.

The costumes were stunning. I absolutely loved Christine's Tatiana (fairy queen) dress. Erik's masks were well done, in this version he has different masks to portray his feelings.

After the show to my astonishment as well as Janette's the cast was outside in costume willing to greet everyone. I eagerly gave out a few business cards, Janette and I sort of stood in awe staring at the two principle actors, and then finally asked to take a picture with them, which my sweetheart agreed to take for us.

Phantom ABCs

2010-11-26T11:49:00.000-08:00

One of my friends posted something about ABCs and technology so it has inspired me to create Phantom ABCs, this is how PHans teach kids the alphabet. I had to stretch a few letters to relate to Phantom LOL.

A is for Angel
B is for Bar, Buqet, Box Five, Boat
C is for Christine, Carlotta, Cellar, Chandelier
D is for Don Juan Triumphant, disfigurement, deformed
E is for Erik
F is for Firmin, Fog
G is for Graveyard, Ghost
H is for Hannibal
I is for Il Muto
J is for Joseph
K is for Kopit
L is for Lasso, Lair, Leroux
M is for Monkey, Masquerade, Mirror, managers, music
N is for Notes
O is for Opera, Opera House
P is for Phantom, Punjab, Piangi, Persian
Q is for quite
R is for Rat, Rooftop, Raoul (gross!)
S is for Staircase
T is for Trophy, Tutor
U is for Underground, Understudy
V is for Violin
W is for Wishing You were somehow here again
X is for Perdita X - a character in Maskerade, a novel from Discworld written by Terry Pratchett, Maskerade was loosely based on POTO
Y is for Yeston
Z is for zazzle.com - a website used to sell custom phantom creations

Great Neck South High School's performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera - REVIEW

2010-11-21T14:17:00.000-08:00

Last night my love and I went to see what I believe to be the first local production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, performed by a high school, since the rights were released for high schools to performa Phantom. We attended a performance at William A. Shine's Great Neck South High School. I was very excietd and very curious to see the show and to compare it to the Broadway production.

Considering the high school probably worked on this production for possibly 3 months only (I'm still not quite sure about all the production details) they pulled together and did a pretty amazing job. Most of the scenes and musical numbers mimicked the broadway show but on a smaller scale although there were differences. I have some video clips (I was surprised I managed to get away with taking a few photos and video) which I will post to youtube, facebook and picasa sometime very soon.

Aaron Mor played the phantom, he did a wonderful job voice and acting wise. I have some of the final scene on video but couldn't finish taping because as always I started boohooing at the end. This kid blows Gerard Butler away voice wise. He's much better.

Karen Notovitz performed Christine very well, she managed to pull of Christine's high notes very well, which could have gone the other way as high school singers may not be as developed as a Broadway singer.

The real star of the show to me though was Jane Coons as Carlotta. She stole the show, she performed the role of the diva to a T and her voice was amazing, this young girl has great range for her voice and was an excellent Carlotta.

The set pieces, sets and costume as well as lighting were all very good. I liked the dancers costumes from the Il Muto scene best for this production. Christine and Carlotta's costumes mimicked the broadway costumes but were less elaborate, they were still pretty good though. The Phantom's costume was great, and make up did a pretty good job with the deformity, they gave him gray hair after he was unmasked which is pretty interesting.

Overall I can give the great neck high school's production a pretty good review, at the end of the performance I met the show's director and gave him my Phantom PHan business card with my contact information. I'm hoping he will contact me and I can score an interview or something for a bonus blog entry. It would be nice to get more pictures and hopefully some interviews.

Phantoons of the Opera

2010-11-21T11:57:00.000-08:00

Raphael has made a 2011 Phantom of the Opera calendar, Phantoons of the Opera. Worth checking out and possibly purchasing :)

Phantoons of the Opera!

Christmas gift ideas for the PHan in your life!

2010-11-17T13:19:00.000-08:00

The holidays are among us again. Are you wondering what kind of phantom goodies to ask for if you're a PHan? Or what you can get that special PHan in your life (whether they're your partner or relative). I've decided to put together a small holiday gift guide for PHans and PHan lovers everywhere!!!

Tickets
Tickets are always a great idea for the Phan in your life. We do not mind repeatedly seeing Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical over and over again, and we don't mind tickets to special phantom events in our area, if you know of any. Just DO NOT buy us a ticket to Love Never Dies unless you wish to risk our fear and loathing.

You can get tickets through the show's official website (which seems to be down at the time of this blog entry), or you can hunt around for discount ticket offers, around this time of year newspapers generally offer sale advertisements for tickets as well.

Books
I am a lover of books and also a PHan, I'm sure there are many phans out there like me, the books will be my most comprehensive ideas for gifts as I'm including a few common books that PHans must have as well as my personal wish list of Phantom books I'd like to receive.

The Phantom of the Opera: Pop-Up Book

PHilms
The PHan in your life will always appreciate a phantom movie. We like to have a collection of PHilms available in case we are in need of an emergency fix or in case we crave seeing a certain phantom on our TV. Three common films are the 2004 musical, the 1925 Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney and the 1990 Phantom with Charles Dance.

Soundtracks
What Phan doesn't want a soundtrack from the show, even if they have it generally they will gladly take another one. Three good soundtracks IMO are the original OLC, The Mexican Cast Recording and the Y/K Phantom.

Music boxes, Ornaments and other unique PHan gifts
A few years ago there was a company making Phantom of the Opera music boxes, the San Francisco Music box Company. Carlton Cards has also made Phantom of the Opera Christmas Ornaments. The music box company has gone out of business and I'm not sure if Carlton Cards sells ornaments from previous years. But you can always find these music boxes through e-bay, if you use Phantom of the Opera as a search term you can yield a search for many unique Phan gifts.

The Phantom of the Opera Audio Book published by Tantor - Review

2010-11-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

Sometime during late September I visited a book store in Huntington with my friends, it was part of a birthday celebration. To my delight I came across this version of Phantom of the Opera on Audio CD, with a free e-book included and it was on sale. Of course I had the funds to buy it, so I made the purchase. I was excited because in all my years as a phan this was only the second audio version of the Phantom of the Opera novel that I owned. Quite some time ago I had the cassette version of the book on tape, but I don't think I have it anymore.

Tantor publications has made this audio book available, Alexander Adams is the narrator. He does a wonderful job narrating this novel, he expresses feelings of the characters but he is not over the top in expression and he doesn't make the story boring with his narration as some audio book readers can do.

If you do not have the phantom of the opera novel on audio book yet, this is definitely a worthwhile version to add to your collection :)

The Phantom of the Opera Penguin Readers editon - review

2010-11-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

I picked up this version of Phantom of the Opera for my thesis, just worked on re-reading it for this blog and well because I wanted to. Basically it is a retelling of Gaston Leroux's novel written by Coleen Degnan-Veness. It's 83 pages long with some discussion questions after the novel, this takes up about 3 pages. This book is great for younger students as well as teachers of younger students who are interested in the story, or would like to assign it. The discussion questions at the end provide a great guide for a lesson and to get the reader to think more about the novel. During the novel definitions are provided as footnotes for the reader. This book is the best I've seen so far for anyone wishing to teach phantom, so teachers who read my blog this is the book for you if your students range from 4th to 6th grade.

Great Neck South High School performing POTO

2010-11-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

Oh I'm on phantom overload!!! Y/K phantom is performing at Elmont Public Library which I'm trying to get to and Great Neck South High School on Long Island is performing ALWs Phantom. I would like to go to both, that's two weekends in a row of phantom if I do.

November's Sexy Phantom

2010-11-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Wow haven't posted for some time...at least for me. Halloween and the time our favorite man, the phantom is most widely recognized has passed for this year :( But don't despair, I have a sexy phantom for November. This month's Phantom is Claude Rains, he also starred in Casablanca among other classic films. He was the 1943 Universal Studios Phantom.

Claude Rains 1943 Phantom of the Opera

1925 screening Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown NY - Review

2010-10-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

I need to be sleeping now, but blogging while any type of Phantom event is still fresh in my mind takes some precedence. Earlier this evening at 8 PM, my sweet love and I attended a screening of the 1925 silent version of Phantom of the Opera at Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY. My friend Dan was kind enough to inform me of this upcoming event. The movie was accompanied with live organ music.

The organist was a gentlemen by the name of Jeff Barker, he did an amazing job playing away while the movie was being shown. The best part was when he played the classic phantom music, not the ALW overture, but the classic Halloween horror theme that is known for the Phantom. Mr. Barker's organ playing made you feel the movie, and get into it even more then you would without the organ music.

Seeing the 1925 Phantom of the Opera on the big screen was...well it was amazing among other things. We were shown a print from the private collection of a man I assumed to be one of the employees at Tarrytown or part of a group that chose to put together this screening. The print he had was actually a later edition of the movie released in 1930, with the technicolor bal masque sequence. There was also some sound from when they chose to add sound to the movie, but we didn't hear any sound during the screening. What stood out to me most while viewing this movie was how clear the film appeared, my DVDs of the 1925 movie have never seemed this crisp and clear.

The 1925 movie in itself is the closest to the original novel by Gaston Leroux. The chandelier falls in the very beginning of the film, you see the torture chamber brought to life, you see Christine's choice between the scorpion and the grasshopper, you notice all of the things the phantom has bought for her and kept inside of his lair. A few minor changes in the film, the role of the persian in the book has been changed to police inspector Ledoux, and Erik dies at the end after an angry mob chases him, beats him and throws him into a river. *sniffles*

Lon Chaney does a wonderful job on the make up for the Phantom as well as his portrayal in the role. His make up is the closest to Gaston Leroux's Phantom, his role makes you feel for the phantom, and yet see him as an intimidating man. Mary Philbin was a great Christine, her best part to me was at the end of the film when she was trying to lie to Erik and deny hearing voices while Raoul and Ledoux were in the torture chamber. Norman Kerry as Raoul, well he did an excellent job portraying the character I despise.

Here is more information from IMDB about the original 1925 movie should you wish to know :)

The Phantom of the Opera (Kate McMullan adaptation) - Review

2010-10-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

This version of The Phantom of the Opera is adapted by Kate McMullan. It's part of a series called Bullseye Chillers, basically simplified versions of classic horror novels for children to read. My guess on the age level of reading for this book would be anywhere from 9 to 14, this also depends on the personal reading level of the child, advanced readers may read this book at an earlier age.

This is a pretty good simplified version of Phantom. Basically it stays pretty true to Leroux's novel. The novel is told from Erik's point of view, and for a 95 page novel with extremely large print and illustrations there is a lot of information packed into it about the phantom. There is detail about his life prior to the Paris Opera House, and there is also an emphasis on his feelings, which to me as a phan is very important.

This is a great book for younger readers to be introduced to phantom with, when I eventually have kids I can assure you they will be reading this, although knowing me they will be clutching a Leroux novel while sleeping in their cribs. This book is worth owning for phantom book collectors and phans hoping to introduce a younger child to Phantom. It's also very reasonably priced through amazon.

Phantom and PHood

2010-10-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

Today is a lovely day!!! This morning while making a quick batch of pancakes before work, I was struck with the inspiration to create a phantom of the opera pancake - which I did. It is also my close PHan PHriend Janette's birthday - Happy Birthday Janette!!! She has had a phantom of the opera cake created in honor of her birthday by her friend Gerri. So inspiration has struck and I am creating an entry devoted to Phantom of the Opera and PHood. Mostly phantom of the opera cakes though.

To see a bunch of lovely images you can do a google search for phantom of the opera cakes - there are so many to see, apparently this is a popular idea.

There is also something I found through google called Phantom Gourmet - seems worth checking out just for the logo if you are a phan.

If you're looking to get a phan cake done, Janette's friend Geri does an excellent job!!!

Now to finish off the entry with a few images of phan cakes, including my phantom pancake :)

One of the random POTO cakes found on a google search

I think this cake was from a celebration for ALWs Phantom but I have to double check my information

This is Janette's POTO Birthday Cake :)

This another Phan's Birthday Cake :)

This is my phantom pancake :)

Dressing up as The Phantom of the Opera

2010-10-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again...Halloween is fast approaching...for many of us PHans this means an excuse to dress up as the phantom....not that we don't do it anyway sometimes. So this entry is going to be filled with tips and resources on how to dress up as the phantom.

Here's my way: Of course I've dressed up in the past as the phantom - quite a few times. My way was pretty simple and cost effective. I bought a cape from the Halloween store for under $20, as well as a mask that I found in the Halloween store (most Halloween stores feature phantom masks at reasonable prices). I had a top hat from the Halloween store as well instead of a Fedora. Usually I used a pair of black pants I already owned, any white shirt I may have had and a black sweater or black suit jacket that I borrowed from my father. For shoes I've always gone with a pair of black boots I may have owned or black shoes I had that looked similar to a pair of men's shoes. One year for a costume party I went as far as tragically scarring my face hoping it would win the costume party - it did not :( For the tragic scarring I just used make up - lipsticks, eyeliner, blush and eyeshadow - I took brown, reds and pinks and just placed slashed marks all over to create an effect of disfigurement. Since I'm female and have had long hair mostly my whole life (except for a brief period in college - where I insisted on having it extremely short) I just place my hair in a ponytail and sometimes use gel or mousse to slick it back. There ya go folks that's the Diana Brewster Phantom of the Opera.

Now for other options, helpful hints resources etc.
*Obviously google is a good choice searching for how to dress up as the phantom of the opera, or for phantom of the opera costumes will provide you with many hits and choices.

Wiki Hows helpful hints

e-how.com's idea for the phantom

You may want to check on phantom of the opera message boards you might know about, other phans may have suggestions as well for you, my favorite message board is phantomoftheopera.com

Where to buy Phantom of the Opera Gear for costumes:

You can buy phantom of the Opera gear from any Halloween store that's local to you, you can also use e-bay - use the search term : Phantom of the Opera Costumes or even Amazon there are links to some phantom costume items from amazon below. For clothing you can talk to someone you know that does sewing to create clothing (especially if you would like to opt for a Christine costume instead of the Phantom) you can go with what you own, check costume shops, or hunt clothing and department stores to see what you could come up with.

Phantom of Manhattan Review

2010-10-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is my third and what I hope to be my final time reading this monstrosity of a novel. I read it once when it first came out and swore I would never read it or another work by Frederick Forsyth ever again. Well I haven't read anything else by Forsyth. My second time reading this novel came with my masters thesis based on Phantom of the Opera, of course, and now this time to take notes and re read for this blog - needless to say you obviously know this book is landing a bad review. This book is 177 pages of poorly written horse poo, 177 pages is nothing for me to read but it is when the book is torturing me.

First let's start with the preface. Forsyth gives ALW a world of praise, and proceeds to try to discredit Leroux. How do you discredit the author of an original work? A work that is clearly fiction, a work that Leroux knows is fiction, how do you argue that the work should then be factual and that Leroux was wrong in order to set up for your piece of crap sequel. The awful sequel that inspired LND.

Now let's get on to the ridiculous book itself. Forsyth has no creativity whatsoever, even though he might think he's clever. He tells a jumpy story from the point of view of characters like Taffy Jones and Cholly Bloom *snicker* The story brings Erik to Coney Island, leading a multi million dollar corporation. Erik rejected from attending opera at the MET, pairs up with Oscar Hammerstein (not the same one who has worked with Rodgers on Broadway shows, but an earlier relative) to create another Opera House. Erik intends to bring Dame Nellie Melba to debut for his opera but upon learning from Madame Giry (before she died) that he has a son with Christine, he sends for Christine to come to New York and debut in the first opera. This sets off a series of events and by the end Christine ends up dead like she does in LND, except her death scene is merely a few sentences versus a whole song in which she takes forever to die.

Honestly if you don't have too for a blog, school report, out of curiosity or for any other reason I wouldn't bother with this book. Don't waste your money, don't waste your time. I have a copy but it was given to me, after reading it the first time through a library copy I checked out, I knew I wouldn't spend a dime on this piece of trash. Unfortunately a well meaning non phan gave it to me, thinking I like all things phantom. Check out the book from a library if you must read it, you can borrow my copy and never give it back if you wish, I have posted information if you wish to buy it through amazon despite my searing review but I wouldn't spend a penny.

SEXY PHANTOM 2011 CALENDAR OFFICIALLY FOR SALE!!!

2010-10-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

After an edited release of March's Sexy Phantom Ramin Karimloo, I was egged on by my PHellow PHemale PHans to create a sexy phantom calendar. So I went to zazzle and created some magic, now available to any phan is a sexy phantom calendar for 2011!!! Exciting stuff, there will be drooling and a new phantom to look at every month!!!

Click here for purchase information

October's Sexy Phantom

2010-10-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

It's October 1st!!! New month, new sexy Phantom. This month the very incredible Hugh Panaro shall be October's Sexy Phantom. Hugh was phantom on Broadway for quite some time, since then he's left the role and then come back, well at the moment he's back on Broadway and Phans everywhere are itching to see him, so for my phans, enjoy Mr. Panaro's sexiness for the month.

Global Phantom of the Opera day has been decided

2010-09-30T19:42:00.003-07:00

It's official starting next year in 2011, Global Phantom of the Opera day will be September 23. Woohoo!!!

Global Phantom of the Opera Day

2010-09-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was National Coffee day for the U.S. Being a hard core coffee drinker one of my friends informed of this event. Well she created a monster, I set myself up to drink 10 cups of coffee but only made it to 7. So then this morning after some minor sadness due to the finishing of National Coffee Day - the idea formed in my head to create a national phantom of the opera day. Other phans in different countries suggested the day be global and now we have a face book page devoted to the creation of a global phantom of the opera day. If you're interested in joining feel free to do so :)

Phantom of the Opera PHan club

2010-09-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

I've established a new Phantom of the Opera PHan club through facebook. Please join if you wish - my goal is to start up bi-monthly meetings hopefully in November :) Anyone who has facebook can join but the meetings may only be feasible for those local to NY. But I'm sure we can possibly use a laptop and have people join us on oovoo for meetings, if they aren't local to NY.

Sexy Phantom for September

2010-09-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

I promised September's Sexy Phantom to Lady Semantha - author of Life After Phantom - the second erotic novel from Phantom of the Opera that I've managed to locate.
In this quick entry I shall post a lovely image for my PHellow drooling phans and the information so that you may purchase her book if you wish.

This month's sexy Phantom - right from Life After Phantom by Samantha

Phantom of the Opera Bumper Stickers

2010-09-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

I forgot about these lovely little gems of phan humor I found quite a few years ago. They're phantom of the opera bumper stickers - they're pretty funny - and can easily be printed on computer paper for your car.

Phantom Bumper Stickers

Phan weekend this weekend in Pittsburgh, PA

2010-09-16T12:02:00.001-07:00

This weekend some Phans are gathering in Pittsburgh, PA to celebrate the weekend together and see the music box tour in Pittsburgh before it closes. Sadly I cannot make it to PHan weekend in Pittsburgh :*( *sniff* but to all who go have a PHantastic time and share information with me so that I may write up a report for my blog :)

2004 Phantom of the Opera movie review

2010-09-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

Weirdly enough I've been wishing to see the 2004 Phantom of the Opera movie so badly, I don't know why - but I had to watch it so that I can review for my blog as well. So last night I was fortunate enough to watch it on a HUGE TV instead of my tiny one thanks to my sweet heart :) So without further ado my review - it may potentially contain spoilers.

This movie has it's good points and it's bad points. A lot of phans hate it - but I feel it does certain things well but also lacks when it comes to certain aspects. One of the major reasons it's hated is because of Lloyd Webber's choice to cast Gerard Butler as the phantom. I definitely disagree with ALWs decision (this man seems to do a lot to disappoint phans) not because of Mr. Butler's acting - I feel he did a good job acting the role of Erik - but because of his singing. He's awful - his voice cannot come close to how Erik's voice is supposed to be - and I feel if you are going to cast a phantom you better make sure he can sing. This issue with Gerard Butler has bothered me from the first time I heard the 2004 movie soundtrack before the movie was released in theaters.

The movie is good in the aspect that it can go into more detail then the play can using cinematography and flashbacks. This enables the story to be more understandable to a non phan - which as much as I love ALWs play and would prefer it over the movie any day - I do admit the play lacks some understandability for a non phan - the plus side to that is that any non phan should see it two or three times to gain a better understanding or go with a die hard phan.

There are certain aspects of the movie that have more relation to the novel - the chandelier crashing portrays the devastation and chaos that you could imagine it creating when you read the novel. When the phantom takes Christine down to the lair he uses a horse which happens in the novel but not in the musical. The horse in the book is white though - the movie horse is black.

Emmy Rossum is okay as Christine. Her voice is amazing as far as technique goes and is crystal clear - but I feel as if she is lacking emotion when she sings - I also feel she lacks emotion in her role - in her facial expressions - they are either wrong or don't have enough emotion in them. Patrick Wilson was Raoul - which is just gross being that I absolutely hate Raoul and always will - but I would say he did a good job - he passed the making me almost throw up in my mouth test - that is a good Raoul, bravo Patrick Wilson. Minnie Driver played Carlotta - she was way to over the top - which would have been great if she was on the stage - but when you are being filmed sometimes you don't need to be that over the top because film is a different medium and can get angles and close ups that being on stage cannot do for an actor. Miranda Richardson was Mme.Giry - I felt her accent was too crazy - it was over the top on the french accent - it's just not something I'm used to as Mme. Giry in the musical doesn't perform with such a thick french accent. Jennifer Ellison performed the role of Meg Giry she did a good job - and Simon Callow and Ciaran Hinds did well as the managers.

The chandelier crash came close to the end of the movie - instead of before intermission as it does in the musical. I could kind of understand why they may have chosen to do it that way - but I am not used to it that way so I don't like it that much. It also messed up a few lines in the masquerade scene that related to the chandelier because it has already come down by that point in the musical. I also feel that it was too much action all at once - Christine unmasked the phantom - then he cut down the chandelier while abducting her, simultaneously having the Opera House erupt into flames due to the crash leading into the final scene - it was too much chaos at one time. There is also a sword fight at the end of wishing which I feel was unnecessary and very sad. Raoul almost wins this sword fight - one of the many times he decides to try and be the hero - until Christine stops him - the phantom would NEVER lose a sword fight to Raoul - he wouldn't let himself get to the point of almost losing and he was a genius in everything that he did - Raoul would not have had the skills Erik would have possessed when it came down to fencing.

Now for some song review and then this review shall be wrapped up - the beginning of the title song annoys me slightly it reminds me of an anime scene - not how Christine is supposed to go through the mirror at all. Point of No Return however - my other favorite song is pure sexiness in this movie. I like the dancers featured in the background while Christine and the phantom are singing - I also love the fact that there are flames on the stage foreshadowing the fire and chaos that will happen once the chandelier is brought crashing down.

Overall if you can stand GBs singing this movie is good if you need an immediate fix and don't have access to a boot leg of the musical - it is also better to show to a non phan as there will be some more detail and background information available.

All four formats of the movie on DVD can be found for sale through amazon - widescreen, full screen, two disc special edition and blu - ray - I have all four formats LOL

PHan humor

2010-09-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Since I don't have anything to review - and currently to my knowledge the only thing to report is that Hugh Panaro has joined the Broadway cast as Phantom once again - and that Love Never Dies (UGH) is on further delay to reach Broadway - I decided I would do a blog dedicated to some Phan Humor - so I'm going to search and post some photos, links and videos for your laughter.

Erik decided to threaten the managers like a gangsta

Funny phantom lines from the 2004 movie

Some crossover Phan Phiction

hmmmmmm this little boy is similar to myself as a child - except I did not get much phantom stuff until I had a job and could pay for it

Susan Kay's Phantom

2010-08-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

After finishing this glorious book (okay so everyone must know where this review is heading) for the fourth or fifth time - I am ready to review this wonderful gem - this "bible" to all phantom phans everywhere.

This book chronicles Erik's life from birth to his death - as well as covering a short time after his death as well. This short time after his death contains an unexpected twist at the book's ending - a twist that most definitely makes a phan pretty happy. The book is split up into seven different parts - providing a timeline of Erik's life and how he spent those years from a different viewpoint of some important characters in his life.

From birth in 1831 to 1840 he lived with his mother, from 1840 to 1843 he traveled around with some gypsies performing in a fair, from 1844 to 1846 he was a stone mason's apprentice, from 1850 to 1853 he spent time with the Shah of Persia (during the four year gap between 1846 and 1850 he was traveling in the fairs again), from 1856 to 1881 he was in Paris and began work on the Opera House with Charles Garnier - as well as living through the saga that we all know and love when he fell in love with Christine and tried to win her love. Raoul picks up the ending of the story in 1897 and this is when we learn a deep secret which I shall not divulge for any phan who hasn't purchased this book or had the chance to read it yet.

This book is such a wonderful work of art in the world of phan writing. It is so powerful, so sad, so compelling - every time I read it I can easily imagine it as a movie and I hope for the day that one might be produced. Kay opens up Erik's world and adds so much more dimension to it - he is much more understandable to anyone who might read this book -and non phans as well as phans alike should have more empathy and compassion toward's Erik after reading this novel. Power, love, and Erik as a duality between good and evil are recurring themes in Kay's novel. This book is worth every cent you might pay for it, as you shall read it over a few times and fall in love with it and Erik every single time. If you haven't picked up Kay's Phantom yet - you need too - it's essential to any phan's collection.

I shall end this entry with some of my favorite quotes from Kay's Phantom.
"Nothing had prepared me for Erik." Madeline
"But music was the keystone for his extraordinary genius." Madeline
"I can make anything dissapear, if I really want to. Anything except my face." Erik
"Impossibility was not a concept I acknowledged." Erik
"In the darkness you came to me. And in darkness you left...."Giovanni
"I never expected to feel anything again..."Erik
"You're always watching...what a pity you never quite manage to see." Erik
"Wherever this shadowed path might lead, we were both irrevocably committed to follow it to the end." Erik
"Then I did what any sensible person does when Erik gives her a direct demand. I obeyed him without question." Christine
"I envy her that calm, blissful animal ignorance, the inability to understand that Erik could die of a second seizure at any moment. Cats don't look ahead and contemplate the future, don't complicate their lives with doubt and uncertainty. They live only for the present; they know exactly what they want and they aren't afraid to take it. I wish...I wish I were that cat!" Christine
"My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand. And yet, like Faust, I look in vain . . . for as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love." Erik

Scott Davies Appreciation Group

2010-08-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

One of my face book fan friends has started a Scott Davies Appreciation group. Please join if you are on face book and like him.

Scott Davies Appreciation Group

Some quick news

2010-08-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

The music box tour of POTO is now playing in Pittsburgh - and sadly on Halloween it shall close performing a final time at the Pantages Theatre in San Francisco :(

Music Box Tour Pittsburgh Announcement

Music box tour closing :(

2004 movie soundtrack

2010-08-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

Just finished listening to the 2004 movie soundtrack - well I finished hearing it yesterday. The music involves the same songs as the play - but the orchestrations have been modified and a new song learn to be lonely has been added on to use for the movie's ending credits. I love the modified score for this soundtrack - the title song is reminiscent of the original title song score - sung by Steve Harley and Sarah Brightman - released as a music video before the actual play debuted. There is an interesting fairground sequence in this soundtrack that is pretty good as well. The fairground sequence is used to explain how Mme. Giry let the phantom into the Opera House when he was younger. Emmy Rossum is Christine - she is absolutely amazing - her voice is crystal clear and she can reach the high notes very well. However voice wise - Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joel Schumacher most definitely miscast Gerard Butler. His voice is nowhere near the level of the actual phantom - not even close to the genius that is Michael Crawford.

Discontinuing quote and image of the week

2010-08-19T17:17:00.001-07:00

I've decided I will discontinue the quote and image of the week - however I will still keep the monthly sexy phantoms - my blog needs them :)

Das Phantom Der Oper

2010-08-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Earlier in my travels I busted out my inherited MP3 player and listened to Das Phantom Der Oper. This is the original German cast recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. This soundtrack is pretty good stuff - although a little bit random. The auction scene is skipped and it starts at the overture. There is one slightly choppy part when the soundtrack cuts abruptly to the title song.The one great thing about this soundtrack is that the ballet is on here - the other soundtracks seem to neglect that very wonderful part of the show. Peter Hoffman and Anna Marie Kaufman are excellent as the phantom and Christine. During Think of Me or Denk An Mich - I heard flutes more prominently then I've heard them in other soundtracks before. I would highly recommend this for any phan's collection.

OH YES!

2010-08-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

In October - The Broadhollow Theatre Company shall be performing Y/K Phantom at the Bay Way Arts Centre- In November it shall be at Elmont Public Library - I'm there - it's so close to me.

Broadhollow Phantom Schedule

Elmont Library Calendar

Hugh Panaro is coming back to Broadway

2010-08-17T13:09:00.000-07:00

September 4th - John Cudia will give up the role of the Phantom on Broadway - making room for Hugh Panaro to come back in opposite Sara Jean Ford as Christine. I've never seen her before - although I have had the pleasure to see Mr. Panaro - perhaps another phantom trip shall be in order.

Hugh's coming back!!!!

Weekly Quote

2010-08-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

I forgot to put up a weekly quote and images last week. For now here's the weekly quote - an image will come later or tomorrow.

"Nothing had prepared me for Erik." Madeliene Susan Kay's Phantom

Another book find

2010-08-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

Just found another book through face book :)

Vicki Hopkin's book

New website

2010-08-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love face book - I have made another Phan Phriend earlier this is their website :)

Jo Fantome's website

Some new sites from my favorite message board

2010-08-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

I'm playing around on phantomoftheopera.com my favorite message board. They have four phantom of the opera sites besides the forum - one I featured yesterday - I will feature the remaining three today for perusal.

Fifth Cellar - PHan PHic

Phantom Project - similar to my graduate thesis - as well as what I'm doing for this blog too

lessons from phantom of the opera - great blog - I'm following

New author and phantom book

2010-08-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Today I'm once again browsing through face book - I'm finding lots of new phantom phans and information using face book recently. I just came across another author who has written a Phan book - her name is Jennifer Linforth - this is the third new phantom book I've got to get my hands on for a reading and review - very exciting - although my salary is about to be spent purchasing phantom of the opera books haha - here's a link to her website - she also has face book - a blog as well - and twitter

Jennifer Linforth's website

1990 Charles Dance Phantom of the Opera Review - also phan role play and gathering possibilities

2010-08-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Last night my PHan PHriend Janette and I who are lucky enough to live a mere few towns away from each other decided to have what we call Phantom geek out session # 2 last night. I'm actually hoping to find other Long Island PHans and perhaps start a club to meet once a month for a gathering. We chose to watch the Charles Dance Phantom of the Opera - hopefully I can make sense of my crazy notes and come up with a useful review and op ed for this movie.

Before I start Janette and I are also starting a face book role play using the 1990 phantom as our premise. I have made a profile for Christine - Janette has made a profile for Erik - if anyone who comes across this blog is interested let me know which character you might want to be - and then face book my profile - Janette's - and of course Erik and Christine's profile. If you wish to know the characters see the IMDB link below:
IMDB Charles Dance Phantom

MOVIE REVIEW/OP-ED: *WARNING SPOILERS* THIS REVIEW IS ALSO ALL OVER THE PLACE LOL
*Janette and I collaborated on the review and analysis of this movie - so some ideas or interpretations belong to Janette Marie Coffey and I must give her credit

This movie is based on the musical by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit. It premiered as a mini - series on TV during the 90s. This is the movie that I first saw when I was 8 - my parents let me stay up for the second half. When I became a PHan I spent years looking for this movie - until I finally found it. Although it is based on the musical the movie itself is mostly straight drama - with some singing.

My favorite scene in the whole movie - is when the phantom takes Christine off stage after Carlotta puts something in her drink and she is unable to sing in Faust. He takes her across the lake in his boat and sings softly to her. I don't know what it is but the boat scene in almost every version gets me - if it's included it's bound to be my favorite part of the movie. I also love the world the phantom creates in this movie. The Kopit/Yeston version always enchants me - and the phantom's world under the opera is so beautiful, so magical.

Janette loves the Bistro scene - that scene is incredibly powerful - Christine and Carlotta go voice to voice in a singing duel - Christine's voice is so powerful - so spine tingling.

The chandelier crash in this movie is pretty graphic - but that's very much appreciated - besides the horror/slasher versions with Robert Englund and Dario Argento no other movie to my knowledge gets graphic with the chandelier crash.

Janette bought up some good points. In this movie Raoul's character goes by the name of Philippe - if you read the novel Philippe is actually Raoul's older brother. It's odd that in this one Christine is dating Raoul's older brother - why did they leave Raoul out - why chose Philippe? That's something to ponder or but Yeston and Kopit about if they can be reached.

I find this movie follows the book loosely - more so then the ALW version.

I love the fact that in this version Erik has different masks to suit each of his moods - it's very unique and hasn't been done in any other phantom versions.

It's interesting to me that Erik uses itching powder in Carlotta's wig instead of making her croak. I like that a little better then her croaking like a toad - Janette said itching powder is more plausible and believable for him to get away with - although he can get away with making her croak since he was able to throw his voice and imitate voices as well.

Janette said Erik also has parental guidance in this movie - which is true. Carriere is his father - also manager of the Opera house. The audience learns this in a back story toward the end of the movie - in which Carriere tells Christine about the phantom - how he grew up and that he is the phantom's father - we also know this in the beginning when we see Erik and Carriere talking together in Erik's lair. He seems slightly less out of control because he had his father around to guide him - interestingly in this version his mother was completely devoted to him before her death - she accepted him for his deformity and to her he was beautiful - it makes you wonder what could have been had she not died and was able to live and guide him and accept him. Janette also wondered why Carriere kept Erik under ground - why he didn't decide to bring him out and try to raise him - my argument for that was the time period - Erik would not be accepted then as he might be now.

During Erik's unmasking you can almost feel his anguish as he realizes Christine is afraid of his face. In this version you never see Erik's face - not in the movie - and not in the play either. I appreciate that uniqueness - in every other version Erik's face is revealed and here you are left to imagine how his face may really look. Bravo to this version for letting us imagine.

There are a few scenes that are similar to the ALW musical. Andrew Lloyd Webber actually saw this version either before or while in the process of creating his version - so I think he may have ripped off Yeston and Kopit. I'm also currently hating on Lloyd Webber so this might just be my anger. One particular moment is when the phantom interrupts the Opera while Christine is singing Faust - he begins singing with her and eventually abducts her off stage - which happens in ALWs musical during Duan Jaun Triumphant.

A lot of stuff is going on when Erik dies - and while he's in the process of dying. Before he dies of natural causes though - at the end he is shot. I will discuss the ending and death of Erik. As he's dying of natural causes his underground world is falling apart as well, while he's dying he has a conversation with Carriere and is adamant that he is buried and not put on display after his death. When Erik dies he is shot by Carriere - it is interesting that the man to shoot him is his father - which is also the man who helped create him and give him life - he is shot by Carriere to avoid being arrested by the police and to be even more miserable in jail - that is my theory anyway. At the very end of the movie Philippe and Christine run off together - you are given a sense though that there life will not be a happy one - at least not at first - Christine will probably have many issues to deal with.

So this long blog entry comes to a close - the movie information is below if you care to purchase - it is worth PHan ownership and it was worth the lost sleep last night - just to finish seeing the movie.

Phantom of the Opera Canadian Cast Recording

2010-08-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

My inherited MP3 player and I have done it again - The Phantom of the Opera 1989 Canadian cast has been listened to and is ready for a quick review. This is yet another highlights version of the soundtrack - most foreign phantom versions seem to be only highlights. Colm Wilkinson is an amazing phantom - his vocals are soft and very soothing - he conveys the phantom's emotions well. Rebecca Caine is Christine - her voice has a great range for the role. The orchestrations were pretty calming to me - and the soundtrack was very enjoyable to listen to - a must own for the fact of having Colm Wilkinson as the phantom - you can also see him in a concert given for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh titled Hey Mr. Producer - he performs a phantom scene during this musical concert.

Quote and Image of the week

2010-08-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

Missed my quote of the week by a day - I posted one last Tuesday - so for today - a quote and an image of the week in one entry!

The image of the week is a phantom of the opera cake - I don't know who created it - I found it through google images

Quote - "Such a little thing really, as kiss... most people don't give it a moment's consideration. They kiss on meeting, they kiss on parting, that simple touching of flesh that people take entirely for granted as a basic human right." - Erik (Susan Kay's Phantom)

Phantom of the Opera - Original London Cast Recording

2010-08-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

This is the most common Phantom of the Opera soundtrack available. Most non phans know about this one before finding out about other phantom soundtracks, if they find out about them at all.

Michael Crawford sings the role of the Phantom - he originated the role in London and on Broadway. His Phantom is an extraordinary phantom that I wish I had the privilege to see (I became a phan in 1994 - when he was already finished with the role). His voice is very melodic, and wonderfully soft - his emotions are very expressive - IMHO he definitely comes very close as to how the phantom would sound if I could really hear his voice.

Sarah Brightman sings the role of Christine. She has excellent range - she can easily tackle the voice part of the role very well. As she should since ALW wrote the part of Christine for her. That's also the reason all Christines are brunettes in the ALW musical and not blonde (as Christine is in the 1911 original novel by Leroux). Her voice is amazing but I have heard that she had flailing arm syndrome while performing so I don't think I missed anything by not seeing her as Christine.

The orchestrations and songs on this soundtrack are absolutely amazing - this soundtrack is partially responsible for hooking me on phantom - along with the 1990 Charles Dance mini series that I saw when I was 7 or 8 - I was listening to this soundtrack for a good 3 or 4 months before I saw the show for the first time on Broadway. My family knows this soundtrack because it's all I would listen to when I lived with them for about 2 or 3 years. My favorite song ever on this soundtrack has to be the title song - which of course is called The Phantom of the Opera - track # 7 on the first CD. Other favorites are Music of the Night - Masquerade - and Point of No Return - the final scene track is wonderfully emotional - but quite depressing as well - Michael Crawford ends the soundtrack with an emotional dramatic finish.

Any Phan must own this - I'm sure I'm preaching to owners of this soundtrack already if you're reading this blog - but if you're a newbie Phan - buy this now!

Phantom of the Opera Erotica

2010-08-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

I thought that the only phantom of the opera erotica to exist was the one novel I own Unmasqued by Collete Gale - which I've got to re read and review for this blog. I was wrong - a phan off of the message board has also written an erotic phantom of the Opera novel. I'm including her website and the information to buy Unmasqued should you want to purchase it before my review.

Samantha's Phantom - other erotic novel - author site

I'm also including some nice images from Samantha's novel

New Phantom sight/ phan author

2010-08-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

I put out a request on the phantom message board to have some phans face book me if they wish. Good stuff - just found a phan author with what looks like a great sight at a quick glance. I'm going to buy her book and review it as well
http://www.chansondelange.com/

Sexy Phantom named for August

2010-08-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

So this August the sexy Phantom - so sexy that he has two pictures is Lon Chaney's 1925 Phantom of the Opera. Props is due to the man who originated the role of Phantom of the Opera on film - the only film that is closest to the original novel by Leroux. He's also the phantom that looks most like our precious Erik. So here ya go my PHellow PHans - two yummy pictures of Lon!

Y/K Phantom soundtrack

2010-07-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is the soundtrack to the Phantom written by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit. Charles Dance's television mini - series version of Phantom of the Opera is also based on this version of Phantom.

The orchestration is very enchanting as is the whole soundtrack. If Phantom were a storybook this would most definitely be the soundtrack. Glory Crampton's Christine is very strong in her vocals - she adds a very magical quality to Christine. Richard Write's Erik is very yearning and sad, he does a spectacular job portraying Erik's love for Christine through his vocals.

Best songs from this soundtrack IMHO are Music Lessons/Phantom Fugue and You are Music. This a must have for any phan looking to expand their CD collection.

Image of the week

2010-07-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

In addition to a phantom quote of the week - I'm also going to be posting an image of the week as well.

This week's image is a lovely collage featuring scenes from ALWs POTO starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. Too beautiful!

El Fantasma de la Opera

2010-07-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my PHantastic inherited MP3 player (creative zens are great) I can now listen to my POTO collection on the go and review some soundtracks for this blog. So the first soundtrack I am reviewing is the Mexican cast recording of ALWs Phantom of the Opera - El Fantasma de la Opera. This soundtrack is available on amazon for less then $10 - a great steal for a PHenomenal soundtrack.

This soundtrack is more like the highlights version of Phantom of the Opera - covering only about half the songs/scenes from the show - unlike the double disc OLC which covers almost the entire show.

The orchestra for this soundtrack is amazingly strong - the music from this show touches me deep into my core - but the orchestra has done a superb job for this soundtrack - leaving the music to affect me even more so.

Juan Navarro sings the part of the Phantom - he does a wonderful job - his voice is very melodic at the appropriate times - yet he is able to sound like a tyrant when he needs too.

Irasema Terrazas sings Christine - she is wonderful - her voice reaches the appropriate range that it should for Christine.

This soundtrack is worth it for any Phan's collection - I have impressed a few of my Spanish friends with this - even making them copies of the soundtrack.

Phantom of the Opera Quote of the week

2010-07-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

I've decided to introduce a new feature into my blog - now in addition to the sexy phantom of the month - there will be the phantom quote of the week - I'm also toying with the idea of an image of the week - and possibly a video of the week.

So without further ado The Phantom of the Opera quote of the week is.....

"Pitiful creature of darkness ... What kind of life have you known ... ?
God, give me courage to show you you are not alone ..."
sung by Christine in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera during Track Down this Murderer

REVIEW: Phantom of the Opera #42 - as well as other extra tidbits

2010-07-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

Last night - July 21, 2010 - I saw ALWs Phantom of the Opera for the 42nd time - my boyfriend came with me (it was his first time) - it's always good to go with someone for the first time - or someone I haven't seen the show with - they can provide new insight - new opinions - even though I will always stick by my opinions - it's good to talk about the show with fresh blood - and get their take on things - but we will go into that a little later - Oh this is going to be a long blog today.

As always - the show is Phenomenal to me - no matter if one of the principals does the best job or not - to me it's more see the show get the fix for a few months. John Cudia was once again amazing as the phantom - I saw him last month in June. He makes the ending of the show extremely dramatic - he plays the phantom as more of a tyrant - but every actor has their own take. Jennifer Hope Willis was good as Christine. The only problem I have with her is that her voice is very weak and squeaky at times - more so during Think of Me and Wishing, but I don't know if that is because I sat in the back of the theatre - or if her voice is just that way. I'm also not the best singer - so my opinion of someone's voice could be off. Ryan Silverman was alright as Raoul. He didn't make me as sick as other Raouls have made me in the past - that's how I judge - if the Raoul makes me want to throw up a little - he's excellent. Everyone performed well - the show went off without a hitch - everything fell into place as it was supposed to. There's only been two shows where things did not go as they should - one of the performances for one of my birthdays Raoul didn't jump off the catwalk and disappear below the stage - giving the illusion that he has jumped in the lake. The phan gathering performance I attended (that was # 17) - Carlotta missed putting the apple in the pig's mouth - so the actors were kicking around the apple like a soccer ball - it was pretty funny.

When the night was over I wanted Shawn's opinion. He said he really didn't like the phantom or Raoul very much. He did say he would route for the phantom - but he had thought the phantom was a little bit out of control when he killed people and kidnapped Christine. This is of course the normal non phan opinion about the phantom. So no one spear him please! I've had friends of mine tell me the same thing - because they don't view the show and the phantom as myself or another phan might - simply because they haven't put in the time and research that myself and other phans devote to our hobby. If I were an outsider to the show I might say the same thing. I feel though that the phantom did what he did because no one accepted him. Looking into Erik's (the phantom's real name) prior life before the opera - you can realize he was never accepted by anyone because of his disfigurement. Yes he could have overcame it - but by being shunned his entire life - he didn't really know the proper ways to be social and express his love for Christine. I absolutely despise Raoul - I always will - simply because of his character. I don't like that he is a dronish FOP - that he is very rich and conceited - and I don't like that he had Christine by the end of the story. However if the story ended happily I know it would not be the success that it is today - what makes Phantom so great is partially the depressing ending - if the phantom did take Christine's heart most people wouldn't love the story so much IMHO. One thing I did realize yesterday night - after already thinking I have experienced the story from each character's point of view at some point in my life was that even though I despise Raoul - him and Christine were in love with each other and they couldn't change it - and they didn't want anyone else besides each other. Being with Shawn makes me see this - I don't know if I've ever really fully gone through that before. I don't want anyone but Shawn - so I can see how it is hard for Christine and Raoul to stay away from each other - and I can get why it would be hard for Christine to stay with the Phantom - she wouldn't be fully happy because her love lies with the dronish FOP. On that note - as much as I accept their love - I will forever and always HATE Raoul - I've just got to find other reasoning besides the fact that he's a dronish FOP.

So after this review of Phantom #42 - turned phantom op ed piece - here comes the extra tidbits - one partially silly - one very useful.

TIDBIT # 1 - the main page for the official sight has changed - I kind of like it - although it isn't as haunting as the prior main page.
New official main page

TIDBIT # 2 - very silly one - my PHan PHriend who lives by me is coming over later - we are geeking out to more phantom - we will watch the phantom movie - or play return of the phantom - and just hang out and have possible non phantom talk as well (surprisingly we do have non phantom talk) so even though I've seen the show last night - Janette and I have both agreed that to us there cannot be too much or enough phantom. Asking her or I or any other phan if we've had too much phantom - is like asking a normal person if they breathe too much (that I have to credit Janette with) so that's the sillyness.

With that last note -for now I say goodbye - tomorrow I may have a possible movie review depending on if Janette and I watch something tonight.

Some Youtube Phantom

2010-07-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do reviews - but I haven't been re reading any books or catching any phantom movies - although tomorrow is phantom #42 - which will be reviewed. So for now I'm providing links to some of my PHavorite phantom videos on you tube.

Night Wish performas their version of the title song

Howard McGillin sings MOTN for CBS Halloween 2008

Iron maiden performs their song Phantom of the Opera

Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley sing the title song - it's a bit cheesy

George Lee Andrews - 22 years in the cast of Phantom

2010-07-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

On July 5, 2010 the official Phantom website announced that George Lee Andrews has been in the cast for 22 years - he's also now in the Guinness Book of world records for it - here's the link - the phantom has his hold on Broadway *devious grin*

George Lee Andrew's RECORD BREAKER!