The Phantom Project Forum

It's weird...

I find the Lloyd-Webber musical entertaining, despite it's flaws...

On one level I'm grateful to it. Before his musical took off in a big way, the book was very hard to find (at least here in Australia).

But the musical helped revive public interest in the book and now you can find it in virtually any bookstore in the country.

I've also only been able to find certain film versions because of the musical's success... the Max Schell version was put out on DVD around the time that Schumacher's movie of the musical came out - and although it wasn't the best Philm I've seen, I was entertained by it and I was glad I got to see it.

And yet, I feel a kind of resentment against Andrew Lloyd-Webber's musical.

I don't think that it's the best version out there and it irritates me that this version has eclipsed the memory of all other versions in the public mind - including the original novel.

It also irritates me that the musical seems to have spawned a lot of popular myths and misconceptions regarding the Phantom's story.
(admittedly, this was definitely not the intention of the creative team, but...)

What I resent most is the myth that has spawned of the Phantom as being the "true hero" (the exact words of a good friend of mine) of the story and Raoul being the "real villain". This has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Does anyone else feel this way about the Lloyd-Webber musical?

Liking it but kind of resenting it at the same time?

I've struggled with a bit of that resentment, myself. There are a lot of popular misconceptions about Leroux's story that come from the wild popularity of Webber's musical, and I have to admit that sometimes I do have a bit of a knee-jerk annoyance reaction when I see them in action.

However, in the end, it's not Webber's musical (which I really enjoy... yeah, it's different from the original, but they all are, really, and it's one of my favorite versions) that I resent; it's just the reaction that it engenders in some of its fans that hits the button for me, I think. It's such a great and complex story; it rubs me the wrong way to see people misinterpret it for lack of information or understanding, and, the vast majority of the time, that comes up in connection with the Webber musical because that's simply the version people know. For that reason, and also because I'm trying my very hardest to stay as impartial as possible when I look at new things for this project, I try not to let it get to me.

Ben wrote:What I resent most is the myth that has spawned of the Phantom as being the "true hero" (the exact words of a good friend of mine) of the story and Raoul being the "real villain". This has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Oh, dear. You're not going to enjoy the sequel musical very much, then, according to the internet rumors.