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#1

POTO ending

I have sceen the show twice and both times the Phantom has disappered(sp)at the end,but a teacher told me that sometimes they kill the Phantom...WFT is up with that?
#2

re: POTO ending

NEVER, the crowd never kills the Phantom in ALW's production.
#3

re: POTO ending

Crowd doesn't kill the Phantom.
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
#4

re: POTO ending

They determine how impolite the audience has been at each performance, and that decides whether or not there is a bludgeoning.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#5

re: POTO ending

wait what? i have never heard that rumor
#6

re: POTO ending

ah, yes. sometimes the ensemble gets to the layer a little early and they are forced to slay him right there live on stage.
#7

re: POTO ending

There's a 1925 silent film version with Lon Chaney, and in that movie, the mob does kill the Phantom. (So I've been told, I haven't seen the movie yet.) Maybe your teacher was referring to that, or maybe she confused the two.
#8

re: POTO ending

Meg Giry grabs his mask off of the chair, hunts him down, and cuts his throat with the mask's sharp edge.

This occurs only in Wednesday matinee performances.
#10

re: POTO ending

That only happens every once in a while. That's when they have to change the actor to play the leading role. They kill off the actor at the end of their contract so they won't reveal how the disappearing is done... re: POTO ending

Seriously, there is a musical PHANTOM which is based on the same book The Phantom Of The Opera by Gaston Leroux. PHANTOM is composed by Maury Yeston and in that musical The Phantom dies in the end. Maybe your teacher has seen that show and mixed them up by mistake.
#11

re: POTO ending

ok the Phantom does not get killed! Your teacher is wrong!!!
"Life will be frozen peaches and cream. Baby, dream Your Dream" ~ SC
#12

re: POTO ending

When Meg Giry removes the Phantom's cloak, only his mask is there. It's left up to the audience to interpret what happened to him.
#14

re: POTO ending

Yes, the blanket isn't supposed to be part of the special effect. You watch him cover himself in the blanket, then Meg Giry comes and tears the blanket off of him and there is nothing left but his mask.

In the special features for the film's DVD, the magic consultant for the original production said that his original idea was to have Meg Giry tear off the blanket and the mask would be floating in mid-air, but Hal Prince said no.
#15

re: POTO ending

Nope, he's still in the chair, actually. He doesn't fall through it.

Notice how thick the chair is -- he actually retracts into it. If Meg sat in the chair, she'd be on top of his lap.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#16

re: POTO ending

When they say "in the chair", I think they mean actually sitting on the chair. He retracts into the chair, so he is no longer "in the chair."
#17

re: POTO ending

the phantom never dies. though one time i saw it and the chair didn't work. so he kept the black cape over himself then meg giry picked up the wedding veil that christine threw.
#18

re: POTO ending

<< HE falls through a hole in the chair - you can see him throw up the blanket.>>

That would be quite a special effect re: POTO ending
#20

re: POTO ending

Sometimes they send the Phantom to prison, where he is gang-raped by the chorus of Irma La Douce.
#21

re: POTO ending

I think the flying mask would have been too "magical" or whimsical for the ending of the show. Its supposed to be a little more dark, but really just bittersweet, because we know the phantom's life sucks, but Christine and Raoul are both free.
"That Sondheim kid has a big future."-Nathan Lane
#22

re: POTO ending

I think you basically got it neocomposer, with just a little difference in my thinking. The ending is bittersweet, but it's more for the Phantom than just his life sucks. Christine has empowered him to go on through life without the mask. That's the significance of Meg picking up the mask at the end. Also, well some of this I kind of interpreted from a couple things, the movie, a couple of books, but I've decided I like my interpretation: also when she gives him the ring back and says nothing, I once thought it just kind of bitchy of her, but now I realized/decided that since it technically was Raoul's ring to her she certainly could have kept it but she gave it back to the Phantom to reinforce what she told/sang to him that he is not alone.

And I really love the idea further explored in the movie that he always had a piece of her and while she was Raoul's on earth, perhaps she's with the Phantom in death.

"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli

Updated On: 5/7/05 at 01:48 AM

#23

re: POTO ending

Raoul. O before u.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#24

re: POTO ending

When I saw Phantom in NY with Crawford in it. The end he gets into the chair and disappears only the mask it left for meg to find no killing. Maybe in the new movie they kill the phantom I have not seen it yet also there is a sword fight.
MAKE SOMEONE LAUGH!!!!!*******************
#25

re: POTO ending

The sword fight between the Phantom and Raoul happens when Christine goes to her father's grave. No one dies during it.

The Phantom doesn't die during the movie, either.

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