Lot666 said: "Miles2Go2 said: "I’m not sure I think of POTA as a romance either."
You're the only other person I've encountered who doesn't look at Phantom as a "romance". To me, it's always been about intolerance and inhumanity, and the potential repercussions of treating people like they aren't people."
I’m fine being in the minority while not begrudging others their opinions. When people call it a romance I assume they are talking about the Phantom and Christine relationship. Based on the plot, I don’t see it as a romance:
Deformed since birth, a bitter man known only as the Phantom lives in the sewers underneath the Paris Opera House. He falls in love with the obscure chorus singer Christine, and privately tutors her while terrorizing the rest of the opera house and demanding Christine be given lead roles. Things get worse when Christine meets back up with her childhood acquaintance Raoul and the two fall in love. The Phantom decides to kidnap her and imprison her with him in his lair. Raoul is now the only one who can stop him.
Now if it was the relationship between Christine and Raoul, I might consider that a romance. I will qualify my remarks by saying that I only saw a touring production of POTA once. My favorite part was the chandelier which based on last night's clip, pales in comparison to the Broadway chandelier. It’s quite possible my feelings about POTA night change if I saw it on Broadway, but right now it ranks towards the bottom of the 70 or so (Broadway, Regional, Off-Broadway, West End, touring) shows I have seen.