![]() By now, we’re so used to Phantom’s ubiquitous presence on the Great Bright Way that most of us seldom stop to think about, like, how fucking weird it is. The show’s key symbol and instantly recognizable logo, the Phantom’s mask, also makes the play an interesting one to consider now that another sort of mask is becoming a symbol of a completely different kind as the centerpiece of a country-wide debate. Some critics have deemed the musical too high on spectacle and low on depth and character development to be a truly satisfying one, an interesting criticism of a show that is in many ways about the power of images and the seductiveness of spectacle. ![]() Oddly enough, it’s also one of Donald Trump’s. It’s also one of my “not-really-theatre-people” parents’ favorite musicals. For instance: it’s one of my all-time favorite musicals. It’s been a fixture there for over thirty-one years (aka more than six times longer than the confederacy existed…) thanks in part to its almost universal appeal. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 smash hit, The Phantom of The Opera, is the longest running Broadway show of all time. It might seem tempting, but it causes waaaaaay more problems than it’s worth.” There are few theatre-goers who wouldn’t get the joke. ![]() She continues: “If you’re in a mask, that means you’re afraid.” During the first days of the pandemic, I vividly remember coming across the following tweet posted by “I know self isolation can be hard, but PLEASE do not wear a mask that covers half your face, go down in the ancient waterways beneath an opera house and devote your life to the perfection of music. And, on the off chance I do have a soul, I assume mine is already plenty scarred. How the hell was I to know? I’m a writer, not a theologian. “Do you think all this being in masks is hurting people’s souls?” My mother asked me one day, as we put on ours for a routine trip to the grocery store. ![]()
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