Phantom Las Vegas to come to an end

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!