Phantom

(SPOILERS!  If you haven't seen Les Mis or Phantom of the Opera proceed with caution!)

Biggest fan

We are full of the phantom here at Casa Doyle.  It all started when Ella found out that the traveling Broadway production was coming to Pittsburgh and she began lobbying.  She offered to pay for tickets if one of her sweet parents would take her.  Instead, Chris decided to take the whole kit and caboodle, the entire motley crew, all seven of us Frodos.  March 3rd was the last day of the run and we attended the very last performance.  In the snow.  Large beautiful flakes fell on our heads as we walked the short distance from the parking garage to the Benedum.  Many kind theatre employees held umbrellas and helped shuffle the crowd inside as quickly as possible.  We found our seats easily but only after Ella made the souvenir purchase she had been planning, a mask on a chain that she has not taken off since. It is the first thing I have seen her buy with her own money aside from one used book, candy (too much) and Christmas gifts.
I have to admit, even with Ella's incredible enthusiasm, I had only marginally looked forward to the play.  Les Mis is my favorite of favorites and I could not remember much about the story of the Phantom.  Since the show, that has changed.  I have been listening to the music constantly, not only because the girls have the sheet music and have been playing it instead of the music they are supposed to be practicing for piano festival (Ahem!) but because I have been trying to "get" the story. What is really happening here?  What I have discovered has amazed me.  Les Mis and POTO may be totally different stories but boil them down a bit and you get to the same heart of the matter--mercy versus judgement and the power of love to heal and transform.  In many ways, it is the same message one might hear in a homily.  In a story though, instead of being told, we are shown.  Which is why stories are so powerful.
Take Les Mis for instance.  The first key moment is when the bishop forgives Jean Valjean for stealing the silver and tells him to use it to change his life and become a good man.  Suddenly, the silver itself becomes as nothing in comparison with the bishop's mercy, which is really God's mercy.  Jean Valjean chooses to accept that gift and becomes an instrument of mercy himself when, in the final important moment, he forgives and releases Javert, his persecutor.  Sadly, because Javert is so wedded to the idea of the supreme importance of justice, he cannot accept mercy and chooses to bring judgement on himself in the form of suicide.

Ella's necklace

On the surface, The Phantom of the Opera is the ultimate love story and there are at least three kinds of love in the play: romantic love, parent-child love and love of music.  The phantom is a miserable and broken soul, a basement dweller who shuts out the light of day, of life and of love.  As the story unfolds, we discover that the rejection he experienced as a result of his deformities spurred him to embrace that rejection and live a life outside of society becoming not only a phantom but a kidnapper and murderer.  He tells Christine that he has to live in hell, "not for any mortal sin" but for his face.  Wow!  Who talks about mortal sin? Normally a priest not a mask-wearing villain who, by the way, has committed a couple of mortal sins since becoming a basement dweller.  Which is of course the problem with shutting oneself up away from the light, you tend to become dark.
The Phantom demands that Christine choose a life with him and freedom for Raoul or Raoul's death and freedom for herself.  Rather than choose, she sings so beautifully, "Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known?  God give me courage to show you, you are not alone."  Then she kisses him tenderly, saving both him and herself.  Be still my heart!
While "All I Ask of You" oozes romance, this moment of crisis in the watery basement is the pinnacle of true love.  Who among us should not be asking God to give us the courage to show those lonely, broken people in our lives that they are not alone?  Perhaps not with a lingering kiss on the lips, but still!
What is love?  It is empathy and sacrifice and risk and action in the critical moment.  Most importantly, it always comes from God.  As this beautiful play points out so clearly, the light of God's love is present in the darkest of basements.  Not just in Paris opera houses but in every house, everywhere.

I love this play!
But---probably not as much as Ella.

We had a post-play feast back at CD.  Sophie made the dessert.