Errata For some reason I keep calling Andrew Lloyd-Webber Andrew Lloyd-Wright, which is weird because I know nothing about architecture. Anyway, the author of Phantom of the Author is Andrew Lloyd-Webber, not Andrew Lloyd-Wright. Together, however, I feel they would make a spectacular opera house.
Intro: On Oct 13, 2016 the Phantom of the Opera is scheduled to open in the Mogador Theater. The narrative is, of course, set in the majestic, surreal, very gothic Palais Garnier, and the opera house is also key to the plot.
The show has been running in London for 20 years, never been performed in Paris. It's getting a little prickly; the musical is based on a book by French writer Gaston LaRoux and there’s some kerfuffle afoot. Andrew Lloyd Webber isn’t exactly forthcoming crediting the LaRoux estate. Since LaRous was French, that complicates matters. But it has all been worked out…to the satisfaction of the estate, the lawyers, the production company, and the theater. But not, perhaps, to the satisfaction of the Phantom. A disaster would strike, and the production would never open. To this day, this classic French story, in an iconic French location, that is the archetypical example of French Gothic storytelling, has not been performed in France.
This episode will explore the musical production, starting with the Lloyd-Webber version of events leading up to it, looking into the various charges and counter-chargers, and trying to find out if the musical succeeds because of the book, if the book only survives because of the musical, or if there's some other formula out there.
And finally, what happened that prevented the musical from being performed in France?
(References in Episode 4)
NYT: On the credits issue: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/11/theater/old-novel-returns-to-haunt-a-current-musical.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap
What the fire looked like:
https://www.tumblr.com/operafantomet/184591545852/do-you-what-ever-happend-after-the-fire-in-the
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