Musicals

I checked out Phantom of the Opera from the library. I guess I HAVE seen it live before, at the Ordway in Minneapolis. We went two times, Thalians, which was our school's speech group. The first time we saw Les Mis which obviously made a bigger impression than Phantom. We were in the nosebleed, which means folding chairs in the second balcony (yes, folding chairs). Those were the best two school trips ever, all of us on a school bus to Minneapolis, and we traipsed around downtown until the performances. And, afterwards we would stop at the Mall of America.

I've always been fascinated by Phantom, but not the musical. I have my favorite Phantom of the Opera TV miniseries on an old video tape somewhere in my parents' house. It was a great miniseries, which didn't have all of the songs, and featured a very handsome Raul, and actually showed a glimpse of the Phantom's face and how he got that way. (His mother, who resembled Christine, had an affair with the opera director. He refused to marry her when she became pregnant, and she tried to commit suicide by slowly walking deeper and deeper into a lake. Which I thought was kind of a romantic way to commit suicide, albeit frightening and painful. He saved her, but she got more and more pregnant and more and more miserable. The next time he saw her, she was at the end of her pregnancy, buying some potion presumably to induce abortion. After drinking the potion, she went into labor, and he delivered the baby under the opera house. So, the potion burned the baby's face. Alternatively, he had a birthmark on his face, and it didn't have anything to do with the potion. ?? But I digress.)

Here's the list: Les Mis twice, at the Ordway and at Hancher. Victor/Victoria with THE Julie Andrews on Broadway with my aunt and uncle. Cabaret on Broadway with my uncle, and then at Hancher. And Hair at the Des Moines Civic Center on a trek with my college friend AH. And may I say that Hair was the first time I saw a naked man, which was shocking and disturbing and...I was so disappointed. I can't even tell you how much I love Hair.

-MsLin