Broadway's most opera-inspired musical, The Phantom of the Opera

Broadway is an important north-south road in New York City, running from Battery Park in the south to Manhattan Island from south to north. Because of the large number of theaters on both sides of the road, it is an important development of American theater and musical theater, and "Broadway" has become synonymous with musical theater.

There are dozens of broadway repertoire, of which "Les Misérables", "Beauty and the Beast", "Phantom of the Opera", "Miss Saigon", "The King and Me" and so on are the most outstanding. The repertoire staged there is often 7 to 8 years, and some even 10 years.

Let's take stock of the most characteristic musicals of Broadway musicals.

The most opera-style musical - "The Phantom of the Opera"

The first of the musical "Four Masterpieces", adapted from the novel of the same name by French writer Gaston LeRoux, composed by Weber, premiered in London in October 1986 and premiered at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on January 26, 1988. Its biggest features are the dazzling set installation, the almost dialogueless and song-through style, the choir and orchestra of 30 or 40 people, producing an operatic musical with strong aural and visual effects.

The story is about an opera house in Paris, where strange things happen frequently, the original chief heroine is almost smashed to death, and a creepy unreal male voice appears in the theater. This voice comes from the "ghost" who lives in the labyrinth under the theater, he falls in love with the actress Christine, secretly teaches her to sing, and helps her get the position of heroine, while Christine loves the theater patron Raoul, which causes a series of plots such as jealousy, chase, murder and so on. Eventually, the "ghost" discovers that his love for Christine has exceeded his personal possessiveness, so he frees Christine, leaving behind a cloak and mask, and disappears alone in the dim underground labyrinth.

In addition, the success of the play is also due to the flesh-and-blood characters, the tension of the dramatic structure, the eerie suspense storyline, and the luxurious and stunning stage effects. In particular, it is worth mentioning the grandeur and dark mystery of the Paris Opera House, which is carefully built and reproduced on the stage, and the design is full of mechanisms. For example, at the end of the first act, a large chandelier composed of 6,000 small light bulbs falls on the audience's head, just hanging obliquely on the stage, making the audience frightened; another spectacle scene is the underground secret room where the ghosts live in seclusion, and the ghosts row small boats, leading the heroine through the sparkling lake, surrounded by candles with fire and slowly rising candlesticks, creating a fantastic world...

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