The Dream Phantom

I have a confession to make.. I dig “The Phantom of the Opera“.  Not just the original book and the several film versions that have come out over the years, but Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical too, plus the film adaptation that was released a few years ago.  I’ve seen the stage version three times, and the movie about 300 times on DVD.

I have another confession to make.. when I saw the stage musical for the first time, I wept at the end.  It was just so darned LOVELY.  I know I’m losing points with my testosterone laden brethren out there, and gaining points with pals like Rick Rockhill (The Palm Springs Savant), but I really mean it..

I DIG THIS MUSICAL AND I THINK IT’S BEAUTIFUL.

It even once inspired the two most vivid and memorable dreams I’ve ever had.  They were memorable because they were about this show, and because they were downright weird.  The weirdest part of it is, they were in sequence.. exactly one week apart.

Nearly ten years ago, I was a company house manager at a small regional theater in Ashland, Oregon.  Coffeesister was a stage manager, and I not only performed the duties of a company house manager, I designed the sound plots for shows and occasionally took the stage in small roles.

Not too long ago, I had a dream that I was back there and we were putting on Lloyd Webber’s musical version of “The Phantom of the Opera.”  This was odd in that it was a 99-seat theater and as such, it’d be kind of difficult to mount a lavish production like that.  What was even stranger was..

I WAS THE PHANTOM.

That’s right.. I had the lead role, which I sang all the way through.  This too is odd, since I’m not really enough of a singer to carry a show like that.  I’ve never been in a musical, and for good reason.. if I sing in the shower, the soap walks out.

Have you ever had a dream where you can fly, or you have super powers, or you can sing really well and everyone is in awe of your amazing abilities?  I’m not so fortunate in the nether-world.. I can’t really sing there either, so I was terrible as the Phantom.  I made it through the whole thing though and, at the end, as I sang the last note and the lights faded, there was a smattering of light sympathy applause.. then the house lights came up and the poor, beleaguered audience beat a path to their cars to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.

I dreamed this on a Saturday night, and it was a Saturday night in the dream too.  Exactly a week later, on the FOLLOWING Saturday night, I had part two of the dream, and I was back at the theater again.. only this time in my old job as company house manager.  The show was some average kind of thing you find in these theaters, like “To Kill A Mockingbird” or something and, as the first act ended, the audience made their way into the lobby to partake of refreshments.  So far, it all played out precisely as it had in real life back when I worked there.  I hung out in the lobby greeting people, thanking them for coming, making sure they were enjoying themselves, etc..

THEN.. the old man collapsed.  I don’t know who he was, he was just some older fella in my dream who clutched his chest and keeled over from a heart attack right there in the lobby.  As he laid prone on his back, I tried to make him comfortable and keep him awake after we’d called 911 and were waiting for help to arrive.  Someone had given me a jacket to bundle up and put under his head as a makeshift pillow and as I did so, he looked up at me and said, “Say.. you’re that fella who played the phantom in that show last week”.

“Yessir, I am..” I stammered, not sure why he was bringing it up..

“Well son, I hate to tell you this..” he clutched his chest harder as his breathing grew shallow and labored.. then he gasped out the last part of his sentence.. “that sucked too.”

Then he closed his eyes and died.

Aficionados of dream interpretation are welcome to take a crack at that in the comments below, but I personally think it was a sign from God to NOT head to Broadway.  So I won’t.  Fans of this blog can rest assured that I’ll just sit here and keep right on typing, and I’ll never EVER sing in one of my occasional VLOGS either.. unless you’ve misbehaved.

No post on “The Phantom of the Opera“, or even dreams about it, would be complete without some copyright infringement, don’t you think?  While doing a little research I found that some naughty person ripped a few scenes from the DVD and posted them on YouTube, so I’ll share them with you here.. quickly.. before YouTube discovers them and they get pulled.  If you’re reading this and the vids aren’t here, EMAIL ME, K?

From the film version of Lloyd Webber’s musical, we have the title song “The Phantom of the Opera“, as sung by the sweetly beautiful Emmy Rossum (as Christine) and the gruff and tumble Gerard Butler (the Phantom).  In this scene, Christine is sitting around in her dressing room after a performance and the Phantom shows up in the mirror and drags her through it down to his lair.  He even uses a horse at one point, and then a boat, because they’re in the labyrinth underneath the Paris Opera House and I guess it’s really big or something.. and wet..

This next clip takes place right in the sequence of events, where the Phantom arrives at his cool goth apartment with Christine and he mesmerizes her with a beautiful song, “The Music of the Night.”  This is the part where I probably really sucked as the Phantom, like the old man said.  Gerard Butler kind of sucked as the Phantom too, because he’s not that great of a singer.  Die hard fans hate hearing that, but I’m sorry.. it’s just true.  I bet HIS soap runs away too..

A little later on in the show, Christine gets to sing a song with someone who can actually carry a tune.. her lover Raoul, who has brought her to the roof of the opera house to hide from the pesky Phantom, who’s running amuck and killing everyone down below.  Every musical has a love song, and this is it for this one.. Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson (as Raoul) sing “All I Ask Of You” in one of the most beautiful numbers ever shot on film.  YouTube doesn’t do it justice.. go rent the DVD if you’ve never seen it, and do it right.

By the way, yes that IS the Phantom, hiding behind the statue.. in the dark.. because NOBODY can escape from that sneaky bastard.  Got it?  NOBODY!  BWAHAHAHA!!!

So, later in the show, and months later in the story, Christine is cast as the lead singer in an opera that the Phantom himself wrote.  During the first performance of it on opening night, he kills the lead tenor backstage and slips into his role, joining Christine on stage in front of “all of Paris”.  The audience slowly catches on that this isn’t the guy who started the show with her.. it’s (gasp!) possibly that scary Phantom dude! Oh no, what’s he going to do to her?

So the little tart pulls the mask off of him, revealing a really bad case of acne, which is my only OTHER problem with this movie besides Gerard’s “singing”.. he’s supposed to be hideous.  He’s HIDEOUS in the stage production! Here, Gerard looks like they slapped some silly putty on the side of his face.

Well, anyway.. he gets all pissed off over that mask-pulling-off thing, and drags her down to his lair again, with Raoul in hot pursuit.. get it? HOT PURSUIT! The building is on fire.. HAHAHA!

Geez, tough room..

Okay, so FINALLY here comes the best part.. the ending. This is what made me break down and cry like a little girl. The Phantom has Raoul all trussed up and is going to strangle him, but a kiss from Christine on his hideous silly putty face turns it all around in an instant. When she gives the ring back to him just before she and Raoul sail off in the little boat, I turn to silly putty..

That’s it. The ending’s a bit different in the stage version.. the Phantom doesn’t break any mirrors, he just plops down on his chair as Christine sails off with Raoul, and he drapes his cape over himself a second or two before the torch-bearers come in. As they look around, the blonde babe, Meg, walks over to the chair where he was just sitting, pulls the cape off, and there’s only the little white mask.. the Phantom has disappeared. She holds the mask up as the lights go out on the final note of music.

Beautiful! And it’s exactly how we did it at the little 99-seat theater in Oregon.  By the way, that old man didn’t know what he was talking about..  I was incredible!

You should have been there.

In the event you agree with me that Gerard Butler isn’t much of a singer, but you’ve never seen or heard this show done properly, check out this video from the 1988 Tony Awards.  Here we have the original Broadway Phantom, Michael Crawford, performing with Sarah Brightman, who was the original Christine, in a stage rendition of “Music of the Night” the way it was meant to be done.

If you’d seen the show live back then (or in my head that night of the dream), this is what you would have witnessed..

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Tagged as: Michael Crawford, musical theater, Phantom Of The Opera, Sarah Brightman