Phantom of the Opera: Coming to A City Close To you!

Christal Cooper

caccoop@gmail.com   caccoop@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/christalann.ricecooper

Phantom of the Opera

At a Theater New You!

https://maineventspecials.com/the-phantom-of-the-opera-play-tickets/

Are you looking for a place where you can buy tickets to attend many special events? You know, we have here at Main Event Specials. We are the home when you want to search for concert, sport, and theater tickets.  So, are you interested in watching a play at the theater? If so, you definitely should not forget to try watching Phantom of the Opera. This musical play is widely known around the world. Many people are satisfied with watching it. Have you known about this before?

https://maineventspecials.com/the-phantom-of-the-opera-play-tickets/

If you are not that familiar with this musical play, we will tell you more about it in this opportunity. You see, the play of the Phantom of the Opera is based on a French novel called “Le Fantôme de l'opera”.

The plot goes on the story of a perfect soprano who becomes the mysterious musical genius. However, the play appears to offer more than that. Passion, desire, and ambition are shown splendidly.

Erik attributed to Chris Rice Cooper 

This play has what it takes to be a great classical musical play. Suspense, horror, love, and heartache are what you will get from watching it. This play had its premiere on October 9, 1986 at Her Majesty’s Theater, London. In that year too, it opened in London’s West End.

Phantom of the Opera in London 

It then immediately won an Laurence Olivier Award to Michael Crawford as best actor for his portrayer of Erik. 

 This play continued showing on Broadway in 1988. That year too, it gained another award called Tony Award for Best Musical. Soon, it becomes the most successful event financially.

An official 1983 publicity photo of the Antoinette Perry Award Medallion known as the Tony Award.

Well, it is not like the story remains the same all years long. The Phantom of Opera has experienced over 150 remakes of movies, television shows, books, comics, documentaries, children shows, translations, and radio broadcasts so far.

Left:  Poster for the 1925 silent movie version of the Phantom of the Opera.

1990 television miniseries Phantom of the Opera

Novel 

First Sunday Strip may 28, 1939 attributed to Ray Moore 

It just shows that Phantom of the Opera is worth play to see. This play has its music handled by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Do you want to know more about its plot? Then, let’s talk more about it below.

Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2007

Charles Hart 

Richard Stile 

We have said before that this story has been remade over 150 times. The plot in Gaston Leroux’s novel and the musical play might be a bit different, though. Let us tell you the plot summary of this story from Gaston Leroux then.

Gaston Leraux 

The story is a love triangle between Erik, Christine, and Raoul. Ever since Christine’s parents died, she has been living with Mamma Valerius. She then started singing and dancing at the Opera Populaire. She makes her triumphant debut as Carlotta.

Soon, she meets with Erik, who becomes known to her as the “Angle of Music.” He gives Christine music lessons, and he falls in love with her. However, it is not mutual love since Christine falls in love with her childhood friend, Raoul.  That makes Erik so obsessive with her, and Christine hates it. Even so, after Erik brings her for a fortnight, she begins to have a feeling for him. Then, he releases her, and Christine tells Raoul what happens all along. Raoul promises to take her away.

Emily Rossum as Christine and Rauol

Knowing this, Erik kidnaps Christine and forces her to choose him or Raoul by saying that he will destroy the opera house with the explosives he has if she chooses Raoul over him. One day to make her choice seems to have driven her into a corner.

She agrees to marry Erik for the sake of saving the people in the opera house from the danger of the explosives. However, in the end, Erik lets her go to choose Raoul instead. Three weeks later, there is news that Erik is dead because of broken heart.

You see, there have been countless plays of the Phantom of the Opera in the theater since its premiere. 

Micheal Crawford and Sarah Brightman, 1986 

In 2009 for example, it was performed at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Champa St, Denver, CO. In that year too, it was performed at the Detroit Opera House, Detroit, MI

Denver Center for the performing arts 

Detroit Opera House 

It had also been on its national tour around the UK from February 27, 2012 to May 4, 2013.

London

Aside from that tour, the story was played at the theaters in London, New York, Las Vegas, Kyoto, and Budapest.  In 2014, this play made more shows in all sorts of locations too. Among them, there was Dallas TX, Tampa, Orlando, OKC, Milwaukee, Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. Of course, there are all sorts of theaters used to perform this play, like Boston Opera House, Fox Theater Atlanta, DPAC, Orpheum Theater, etc.

Meanwhile, 2015 is the year you can expect for its US tour that will continue to the next year. Even before this tour, there had been various locations where this play was performed.  The locations included are Seattle, Portland Oregon, Pittsburgh, Tulsa OK, Phoenix, etc. The theaters used are like ASU Gammage in Tempe, AZ, Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing MI, Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in PIT, etc.

The Phantom of the Opera’s North American Tour has begun on June 11, 2015 at Hollywood Pantages in Los Angeles (LA). It will keep being performed in various locations and theaters until October 16, 2016 at Saroyan Theater in Fresno.  Those various locations in that tour are New York City (NYC), San Francisco, Omaha, Louisville, London, Houston, San Diego, Cleveland, Costa Mesa, Tucson, San Antonio, Toronto, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, and still many others.

As for the theaters used, there are Majestic Theater, Orpheum Theater, Princess of Wales, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Landmark Theater, Murat Theater, the Kentucky Center, State Theater, the Kennedy Center, etc.

Here, at Main Event Specials, we have listed the schedule for the upcoming live performances of the Phantom of the Opera this year. It includes the dates and the locations that the play will take place.

https://maineventspecials.com/the-phantom-of-the-opera-play-tickets/

There are still many plays to see up ahead, although you might need to pick the location you can come to. So, are you interested in coming to see this play after reading these reviews?  Of course, we have provided the Phantom of the Opera tickets for each date right from the start of the tour to the end of it. We do offer a discount you can consider if you buy from our website.

https://maineventspecials.com/the-phantom-of-the-opera-play-tickets/

By taking advantage of that, surely you will be able to get a cheap prize for the tickets. Would you ignore this? Come on, get the tickets now! Don’t miss your chance when the date and the location are just around the corner! Get them here, at our Main Event Specials!

The Illustrated Analysis of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Christal Cooper

caccoop@gmail.com   caccoop@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/christalann.ricecooper

Right, media photo of Paula Hawkins on the London train.  Attributed to Kate Neil. 

The Illustrated Analysis of

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in hardcover on January 12, 2015 and in softback on July 12, 2016.

http://www.penguin.com/meet/publishers/riverhead/?ref=2B4575AB81AF

It is the first novel written by Paula Hawkins who worked as a journalist for fifteen years before she turned to writing fiction. 

Media photo of Paula Hawkins.  Attributed to Kate Neil 

http://paulahawkinsbooks.com

https://www.facebook.com/PaulaHawkinsWriter/

Mixed Media Painting by Christal Rice Cooper 

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is a psychological thriller and a murder mystery, but on a much deeper level it is about three women – Rachel Watson, Megan Hipwell, and Anna Watson - connected by trauma, pain, a London suburban neighborhood, two men, and a train.

RACHEL

Rachel is still coming to grips with her divorce and her husband’s remarriage to his mistress, Anna, and the existence of their baby girl, Evie.  Rachel and Tom had tried to have children during their five-year marriage, but Rachel was not able to get pregnant, which led her to drinking. 

She is also having trouble of letting go and exhibiting obsessive behavior  – she can’t stop calling Tom, texting Tom, emailing Tom, and finally she can’t stop going to their house, the same house she and Tom once shared – number twenty-three Blenheim Road.

As a result she is unemployed, renting a room from a friend, and drinking to extreme excess.  There is one thing she finds solace from that doesn’t produce a hangover, vomiting, or blackouts – it is the London train.

She loves to listen to its music as the wheels caress the tracks; she loves to feel its vibrations as she rides in its carriage, almost as if it’s a mother and she is the baby protected and loved in the womb.  Finally, she never feels stuck, like she is always going somewhere, taking one step ahead. 

She rides the train Monday through Friday every morning at 8:04 and every evening at 5:56 p.m.  It is when the train makes its scheduled red traffic stop that she finds her greatest escape – at trackside house number fifteen Blenheim Road. 

It is here that the perfect couple lives – Scott and Megan Hipwell.  Every day and every evening she sees this couple, loving, perfect, beautiful, full of laughter and joy.

More importantly she can’t help but notice Megan and imagine her own reality of who Megan is and how perfect she is.  This Megan is her escape, her interpretation for what success is, what happiness is, everything she is not.  

But then she sees something that literally earthquakes her world and the depressed, tired drunk woman is full of energized rage.   Now her only escape and joy that she could find in her black and gray world has been shattered.  And this shattering sends her into a tailspin of sobbing rage – rage enough to want to kill. 

Then she wakes up to find blood on her face and on her hands.  And she can’t remember anything.

MEGAN

       Megan is blond, beautiful, talented, loves to paint but has secrets as well as unresolved pain over two deaths that happened in her life; pain of being a victim of statuary rape over a period of years; and, as a result, to find relief from that pain, Megan seeks sexual liaisons with other men.  This sexual addiction lasts for years and in the end, plays a role in her losing her art studio. 

Even though she is sure of her husband’s love for her, she can only imagine what he would do if he were to find out her secrets.   Or should she say sins.

She tries to fiend fulfillment not in these affairs but in being a nanny for a couple’s baby that lives a few houses down from hers.  But even this doesn’t suffice and she quits. 

Finally she decides to see a psychiatrist – Dr. Kamal Abdick, and is determined that she will get over this.  But then she can’t help but notice that Dr. Kamal Abdick is a very handsome man . .

ANNA

       Tom chose her over his ex-wife and she feels lucky, especially since she and Tom now have their own little baby girl Evie.  There are just two problems.

Anna never wanted to live in the house that he shared with his ex-wife Rachel.  She begs Tom for them to move to a different location, but he insists they cannot move due to financial reasons.

Rachel will not leave her, Tom and even their daughter Evie alone.  She is constantly calling, sending text messages and the final straw is when she takes baby Evie from their home into the family’s garden.  Anna is now full of panic, paranoia, and she can’t sleep nor focus. 

Anna wants to call the police but Tom tells her he will take care of it; that he doesn’t want to get Rachel in trouble.  Anna knows that Tom feels some guilt for Rachel and the trouble she is in now; after all, Tom left Rachel to be with her.

 But no matter what Tom does Rachel still some how manages to do something else– and this time Anne is even more panicked when she realizes that Rachel has been spending time with Scott, Megan’s husband – and she’s been spending time with Scott since Megan has disappeared. 

Anna is scared for herself and her family, but Anne also knows she should be scared of something else.  She just doesn’t know who or what that something else is. 

BETWEEN THREE WOMEN

       These three women share a bond so strong – the bond of pain, escaping from that pain, which is the condition of the world today.  We all respond differently to traumas -  rather it be alcohol, food, caffeine, sex, - the book delves into the mystery of a vanishing woman, who ends up being murdered, but more importantly the books explores the mystery of how we as women and men handle our grief, pain, and trauma.

        It also explores the question of at what risk should we as humans continue to escape from our pain?  These women escape through sexual addiction, construed reality, alcohol addiction, obsessive behavior, grandiose thoughts, and self-denial.  It seems to work – but only for a moment. 

       The Girl On The Train is all of us – trying to find some distraction from our boring, painful or just unsatisfactory lives.  We may not be on a train waiting for it to stop at the red light so we can view the beautiful couple on number fifteen Blenheim Road – but we are that person who sits at their sofa every night immersed in television or in bed at night immersed in a book.