The Phantom of the Opera is Here…Finally!

One of my favorite things about giving the kids experience gifts for Christmas is that Kevin and I get to do fun things as well. As you can imagine, I was terribly excited to give Nathan tickets to see “The Phantom of the Opera.” He has wanted to see this show for years and was desperately hoping we’d be able to get tickets ever since we heard a couple of years ago that it would be coming here. We got lucky and were able to snag tickets. It made for a fantastic Christmas present and after seven months of waiting, today was the big day. The anticipation had Nathan in a state of high excitement. He was grinning like crazy as we waited for the show to start.

And the grin did not waver after the fact. Not only was he completely thrilled with the performances of the cast, he was totally mesmerized by the sets, the lighting, the effects…the stage crew side of him was just as entranced as his performer side. And rightly so. Christine and the Phantom were very well cast. Christine actually sounded like the young girl she was supposed to be (although a very talented one) and the Phantom was about six and a half feet tall which added a lot to the imagery of his domination of Christine. The Phantom’s make up was fantastic, very grotesque. The sets were amazing, so clever in the way they turned to portray different locations and changed as the actors moved within them. Although he has heard all the music many times before, seeing everything in context gave him insights into just how masterfully the music conveys the progression of the story. And the lights. Oh, the lights. Nathan has fallen in love with designing and running the light boards and was absolutely fascinated with the lights and the effects they created. Sometimes experiences can fall flat after such intense anticipation but that was not the case today. He came away feeling completely satisfied with his experience. He was “geeking out” about everything, not just to me, but to my sisters via text.

As for me, the last time I saw the show was during my senior year in high school. I loved it then and was definitely not disappointed today. In fact, I felt like today’s cast was better than the one I saw at my two previous viewings of the show. And it was so much fun to watch Nathan’s reactions! We had a wonderful time!