How Did You Become a Phan?

Today I think they would enclose the "Phantom of the Opera movie companion" book with the response, since they seem to have an endless supply of those .

Today I think they would enclose the "Phantom of the Opera movie companion" book with the response, since they seem to have an endless supply of those.

ROFL, so true. I am livid that they put the Perry book out of print and replaced it with that error-ridden self-promotion Companion. Even as a movie companion it stinks, no interviews with any of the cast, just a load of self-contradictory rubbish from ALW in that interview where he says that the movie is an "excellent documentation" of the stage show and then says it's a "completely different" animal or something.

I suspect they might even include a flyer for LSDLND. Which I'd have to send back to them like someone here did (who was that again?).

And perhaps a warning notice saying that if I make my own mask, it must not look like theirs at all or else they'll sue me for all I'm worth.

Ah, I tease...they're not all bad. I think it was in 2002 that I won a RUG competition for one of those SF Music Boxes, which was nice. But then there weren't any film companions to get rid of back then...

It was me that sent it back Scorp, with a post-it saying "no thanks." It was just because they said BECAUSE I had seen Phantom of the Opera (random date inserted) would I like to book for LND.

Also, that's true about your earlier comment being annoyed you didn't get a mask back. They were nice about it though.

Ha, the movie companion book isn't really even worth the postage to mail in the first place.

I was actually disappointed with the book before the movie opened here. I'd ordered it on Amazon and did not expect it to be a cheaply condensed version of my beloved Perry book with just a few movie pics and the draft script tossed in. I really expected more "Making of..." features about the movie, more pictures, background information. I guess I was expecting something more like the gorgeous companion book from The Age of Innocence.

Since this is in the ALW forum, I'm assuming this is a "How did you become a phan of the show" as opposed to "How did you become a phan of the Phantom" in general. So...my introduction to ALW's Phantom was through Erich Kunzel's CD, Chiller. I had been a fan of the whole Phantom genre since I was introduced to the Claude Rains version many, many long years ago, through reading Leroux over and over again, watching mediocre versions of the movie, and so on.

I'd been aware had written a show from around the time it had premiered, but hadn't paid that much attention to it. I could not, for the life of me, figure how Phantom could be turned into a musical! (I know. Silly me! ) It wasn't until I got that Chiller CD and heard an orchestral version of the overture that I was hooked. That, and this doofy woman I used to work with took her daughter to see the show in Toronto...and I hadn't been there!

That ticked me off. I figured that if Clare could afford to go to Toronto to see it, I could.

And I did.

And my life has never been the same since.

I had allways been a fan of musicals especially ALW's, I was a young teen when Cats came out, I saved up my money and took a bus to a record store in Kent, OH to purchase Cats the Original London Cast Album, and when Phantom came out luckily a friend sent me the Album in 1987 and I was hooked, the very first time I heard MON I sobbed, and still continue to on certain versions,.. I Instantly became a fan of Micheal Crawford and Sarah Brightman and Steve Barton, the music sent chills down my spine, and I was intranced by the music, the singers, the story.

I was extremely lucky to see Micheal Crawford and Sarah Brightman in 1988, I scrimped and saved working two jobs to see the show in NY, and I was not disapointed, my first night I saw it with Patti Cohenour and Micheal Crawford, I was estatically thrilled with MC's performance, while I thought Pattice Cohenour was Strong in the managers scenes, I was'nt to thrilled with Patti, the next night I managed to buy tickets off a scalper, 280 dollars at the time that was a lot of dough, and it was worth every penny I was thrilled with Micheal and Sarah and their incredible rapport on stage, while Sarah was great she was to be honest weak in the manager scene. but she was absolutely flawless.

and I suppose what made me a long term phan was the power of the story, the emotion, the joy of singing, the love. I myself was an ugly duckling in my early years and I felt akin to the phantom, I also lost my father when I was very young and felt Chritines, torment and pain over the loss of her father,and when I was in my 20's and 30's I was considered to be a beauty, and I felt akin to Christine's beauty.. and in my time I have had my share of Phantoms and Raouls, and I have encountered many comical managers in my career, and I have had many Carlottas as co-workers, and I have been very lucky to have my share of Megs as friends.,

I am a long-term fan of the phantom, and a newbie to internet and posting and such, so I hope to bring photos images your way, believe me I have 100's off rare stage piccies and will hope to share when I get a scanner and get on. Thank you, Danke

Mary. B

Hello ladygodiva. I look forward to seeing your pics! And I am extremely jealous! You got to see Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman? *sigh*

dolly-ry wrote:It was me that sent it back Scorp, with a post-it saying "no thanks."

Love it.

I am a long-term fan of the phantom, and a newbie to internet and posting and such, so I hope to bring photos images your way, believe me I have 100's off rare stage piccies and will hope to share when I get a scanner and get on. Thank you, Danke

Looking forward to this immensely!

HDKingsbury wrote:Since this is in the ALW forum, I'm assuming this is a "How did you become a phan of the show" as opposed to "How did you become a phan of the Phantom" in general. So...my introduction to ALW's Phantom was through Erich Kunzel's CD, Chiller.

My mom had that CD! (probably still does, somewhere in their disc changer.) I loved it--not only for the excellent version of the PotO overture (which I was already into) but also stuff like "Danse Macabre" and Bernard Herrmann's excellent Psycho score. Lots of really good spooky music there.

~LCD

I'd bought the CD for Halloween. I love "spooky" music, too, and gotta love Bernard Herrmann's score to Psycho. After all, a boy's best friend is his mother!

LadyCDaae wrote:

HDKingsbury wrote:Since this is in the ALW forum, I'm assuming this is a "How did you become a phan of the show" as opposed to "How did you become a phan of the Phantom" in general. So...my introduction to ALW's Phantom was through Erich Kunzel's CD, Chiller.

My mom had that CD! (probably still does, somewhere in their disc changer.) I loved it--not only for the excellent version of the PotO overture (which I was already into) but also stuff like "Danse Macabre" and Bernard Herrmann's excellent Psycho score. Lots of really good spooky music there.

~LCD

That sounds interesting; might have to check it out...

unfortunately, i saw the Film first, but when i saw a video recording of the Show, i hadn't the same feelings for the movie.

ladygodiva wrote:280 dollars at the time that was a lot of dough

Hell, that's a lot of money now. And with inflation, that's over $500 in today's dollars, which is even more.

operafantomet wrote:

Rebecca wrote:I absolutely love it! That's adorable! Whoever the 'assistant' was that replied definitely deserved bonus points for such a cute response!

I agree, it really is a cute letter. I wonder what they would reply today?

"For a Phantom mask replica please send $200 to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webbers personal address at etc. etc. etc."


I had just turned four on August 29th, 1994. My parents 5th anniversary fell on September 3rd, 1994 and as a present my Grandmother presented my parents with 2 tickets to The Phantom of the Opera's Los Angeles tour sometime in October. I wasn't there, so I have NO idea who their Phantom and Christine were (my parents do not recall as well, except that my father complains that it was neither Sarah nor Michael). When they returned home that evening they had purchased a CD (which was like, a bazillion dollars back in 94), and a Souvenir Book.

While I don't remember listening to it the first time, my parents told me that every time I took a bath or shower I would insist on listening to the CD in our brand new CD Player and on long car drives. I read the Souvenir Book constantly, trying to piece together the story. In 1998, we got our first home computer with AOL and I looked up The Phantom of the Opera and got a synopsis of the story.

When I was 11 I had a friend who had actually SEEN the play and we would go to each others house, rein-act the play (to the best of her memory) with Barbies.

I continued to listen to the music for years, then finally in October 2003 when I was 13-years-old it was my turn to see the play. As opposed to nose-bleed seats like my parents had for their first viewing, my father got us Orchestra seating. An announcement was made that Brad Little would be preforming that night, even though he was not originally scheduled, the overture began and I was hooked. Shortly after I got the novel, read Susan Kay, and inevitably saw the 2004 movie. (What I won't mention is that I saw it 5 times in theaters. Oh crap)

Since then I've seen once in Vegas with Anthony Crivello and I am set to see it again in Los Angeles in October this year. I've started collecting Phantom CD's and have the Original Cast recording, 2-Disk special edition original cast recording, the Japanese Cast, Canadian Cast, German Cast on the way. As for the original CD that started it all?

I still have it. The case is cracked, the paper torn and the CD has not played since 2002, but I hold onto it and keep my ticket stubs in the back of the CD's. My playbills were stored in a box in my closet until my cat got to it and shredded and pissed on them.

In hindsight, I do regret alot of my behavior on previous forums. I was gung ho about the 2004 movie, I thought the book could do no wrong and was the best thing ever written, I was rude to other forum members and of course, the Opera Ghost moderator stalking. It's hard to believe that was all 6 years (almost 7) ago, but then again it's hard to believe that phansonline is gone as well. Time and unforeseen occurrence I suppose.

But I do love it here. It's like coming home.

Alyssa, enjoyed your story on your becoming a fan. I was another one of those girl staging Phantom with their Barbies(and ponies). I'll fess up to seeing the movie a bunch of times in the theatre too. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone.

I credit my becoming a Phan to a disaster that was happening in my first fandom.

I was a big CSI:LV fan and am a Grissom/Sara shipper. Well, in summer 2004 some drama went down and CBS fired the actress who plays Sara (although thankfully it was only temporary). Anyhoo, in the midst of that I was all over E! News website trying to figure out what was happening and I noticed a link for some Phantom movie. I knew my Dad was a fan, so I decided to click over just so I could see it to tell him about it.

After watching the trailer I was hooked! I immediately switched over to FF.net and started looking up Phantom phanfic. I spent the entire summer reading whatever Phantom related books I could find a the library.

So basically, the 2004 movie is what drew me in... but now I can't stand it. lol

My Phantom is now based mostly on ALW musical, Leroux and lots of particular fic.

MasqPhan wrote:Alyssa, enjoyed your story on your becoming a fan. I was another one of those girl staging Phantom with their Barbies(and ponies). I'll fess up to seeing the movie a bunch of times in the theatre too. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone.

*fist bump*

MasqPhan wrote:I'll fess up to seeing the movie a bunch of times in the theatre too.

I need to dispose of a box of old movie ticket stubs before they incriminate me, too.

I became a phan after I heard Sarah Brightman sing Think Of Me, a friend of mine had it on tape. I was so impressed I bought the cast recording the very same day and that was it! This was 10+ years ago.

As for the show itself, I am a late bloomer, as I saw the show 1st time live 2008 in Vegas and since then have seen it in New York and London.

I'm another who came to fandom through the movie (don't tell anyone)! I had seen POTO in London in 2002 and in my hometown in 2003. We'd always had the music, which got played a lot around Halloween, but seeing the movie fleshed out the story for me. I started lurking on the PFN site and that summer (2005) I got up to NYC for my first visit and bought matinee tickets to see POTO at the Majestic. I heard this divine phantom called Hugh Panaro and can remember telling hubby that "he had a wonderful voice"! We went together later that week and Hugh officially became my favorite phantom!! Got to hear both his last show on October 1, 2005 and his wonderful return September 7, 2010!! Inbetween times, I've been going to his concert performances whenever they came to the deep South!

Phantom's given me some great friends and some wonderful vacations with my kids!

I was innocently going over to a friends house for the first time, after being reluctantly coaxed into staying the night. I was then sat down infront of the tv and forced to watch a movie I didn't want to watch. Two and a half hours later, I had died and a phan stood in my place. I watched the 2004 movie twice that night, not finding sleep until after the sun had risen because I couldn't stand to turn it off before the end on the second run. The next morning, my phan-of-a-friend introduced me to the Lon Chaney movie and sent me home with a copy of the novel. I've been seeking new versions ever since.

I've been hopelessly hooked ever since that faithful night.

How have I just now found this forum? This is wonderful.

Let's see. The story for me begins in the mid-90s when I was three years old. My parents, curious about the hype, had gone to see the tour in Chicago a few years before I was born. They claim they saw Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford; I'm not sure if this is possible, but I envy them if it is. They really enjoyed the show and picked up a copy of the OLC Highlights CD.

We live in Michigan and used to make a long drive up from the Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula to visit relatives. Now, keeping a very young child entertained on a long car trip is no easy task, and my parents tended to fall back on music for such entertainment. One of the CDs they would play was their copy of Highlights. When I grew old enough to speak and to recognize the music, I started requesting it every time we would get in the car. I associated it with road trips and traveling, and eventually my mom told me a very abridged version of the story. Way back when, my favorite track on there was track #13, Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer. It still is, oddly enough.

By the time I was five, I thought I knew enough of the story and music to stage my own production, so I did. I gathered together three of my closest friends, one of whom had already expressed an interest in the theater, and told them what Phantom was all about. I cast one boy, then my "boyfriend" in that way that little kids think they have boyfriends, as Raoul and another as the Phantom, and a younger girl as Meg. I, of course, was to play Christine. I pictured the entire playground listening in a state of rapture to our performance. Unfortunately, the staging never came to be.

Even as I broadened my musical horizons to Sarah Brightman's solo career and a few other things, Phantom remained my favorite piece of music all through elementary school. I found a few chapters of the original Leroux novel on the internet and read them voraciously (I later got the entire book for my twelfth birthday). When I began to learn to play the piano, my parents indulged me by purchasing the Phantom sheet music. The best part of lessons was always when my teacher would let me stumble through the melody line of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" or "All I Ask of You." I still remember one thrilling lesson when she let me play these songs on the pipe organ in the church where I took my lessons. I felt like the real Phantom!

I went through the usual phases of fan-hood, I suppose. I learned all the songs (and eventually the plot). I saw the movie when it came out and hated it because no one in it could hold a candle to the original London cast. I found the Perry book at the library and ate up every glossy photo. When I could get the money, I bought music boxes, t-shirts, pens, bracelets, replica masks, posters, the Kay novel, the works. I made a lousy imitation version of the musical for French class. Finally, when I was going on thirteen, my parents took me to see the show across the state. It was thrilling to finally see a real production, but we had lousy seats and, for some reason, there was no boat. The other two times I've seen it have more than made up for that, though.

A lot of people seem to think that Phantom fans are "pathetic people," but I think the show has had a really positive impact on my life. Without it, I don't think I would have gotten involved with theater or choir, the latter of which has been one of the best things I have ever experienced. No matter what shenanigans he might be pulling these days, I really am grateful that Leroux, ALW, Hart, Stilgoe, and all of the brilliant others involved in the genesis of the show were able to bring such a wonderful thing into being.

No, your parents would most likely have seen Mark Jacoby and Karen Culliver in Chicago. MC and SB never did the 2nd National Tour.

I had a similar "production" of Phantom when I was about 5 or 6 and first getting into it via the Highlights tape (before we had a CD player, and I don't think the tape had the Final Lair on it, but it's now my favorite scene). My show never came to pass either, but I remember making up a cast list (with me as the Phantom, of course, and my brother as Raoul) and poster and inviting my grandparents.

My dad got me into PotO. I'd seen the Lon Chaney and Charles Dance versions and had read Leroux and heard the OLC recording, and liked them, but nothing made me jump out of my chair.

Then my parents saw the 2004 movie and the traveling US production, and my dad called me up and said "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS. YOU WILL LOVE IT."

There wasn't a stage version playing within more than an overnight trip away from me, and I couldn't take the time off work at that point, so I saw the movie. And I'm ashamed to say, my world was rocked. There's something about seeing the chandelier rise as the overture plays that just GETS me.

After that, I looked for stage promo vids on YouTube and for the first time in my life went looking for fanfiction and found Aria. (Alas, poor Aria.)

And then I started writing, and had to hide my fic from my dad (who sends me emails like "hey, I found you on DeviantArt!") because my dad reading R-rated scenes I wrote is just Not On.

The end.

When I was eight years old I saw the Phantom cartoon. I loved it! Then my middle school teacher had me listen to ALW's Phantom and as soon as I heard the overture I was done for....lol When I was 13 my Dad (who isn't into musicals at all) got my mom and I tickets to see ALW's Phantom in the Twin Cities, will never forget that. Basically I've been a fan since I was 8 and have never stopped. It's timeless....my absolute favorite!!

I thought about this thread last night. I was cleaning out some boxes in my basement (it's so dark and dreary that it makes thand started rummaging through them. I found a folder labeled "Misc." and it was full of old ticket stubs, some post cards, clippings from the comic page of the Sunday paper.

And there was the small program for The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber - Special Guest Star Michael Crawford at Albany's Knickerbocker Arena (it's been renamed twice...now it's the Times Union Center...it's still an ugly building and the acoustics are still wretched[/] on July 10, 1991.

I squee'd out loud when I saw it, especially since the larger souvenir program was accidentally thrown out in the trash a long time ago.

But it brought back some good memories of my early phan-dom. Seeing this concert was, at the time, the next best thing to see Crawford in Phantom on Broadway. Actually, at the time, I didn't think I'd ever get to see the musical itself.

I see that Laurie Stephenson - a Broadway Christine - was one of the singers.

One thing that's interesting...the song list says that Lauri Landry sang "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," but I remember very vividly that Michael sang that one himself. It was one of the most memorable moments of the show...that and "Gethsemane." It was pretty much the only time hearing a man sing that song has worked for me. I even called my best friend who'd been at the show with me and asked him if he remembered who sang "WYWSHA" and he immediately said MICHAEL CRAWFORD!!!!!!

How did I become a Phan...

Let me see... (and please don't laugh when I tell you my antidote of how I became that Phan):

It all started as a child of 8 years old, when I was introduced to Phantom through a extremely close family friend of ours down in San Diego (where I grew up). My father prior to this would always have Rogers and Hammerstein's night as he had growing up, so I wasn't unaccustomed to musicals.

My mother instaniously fell in love with it!

When she heard that "Phantom" was coming to San Diego, her and my father got tickets. However, wrong "Phantom..." I believe that it was Ken Hill's. They were so disgusted at what they saw, it ALMOST (but not quite) turned them off from ALW's Phantom permenantly!

Flashing foreword to when I was about 8 and 1/2, my godfather (uncle) Wayne, saw it with his now extremely close freind, my godmother Beth with Michael Crawford, and Dale (insert her last name here, due to the fact that it's been years since I've been told whom they actually saw). With that, I would "confiscate" my mother's old digital tape recordings of Phantom, and (please don't even scoff at this!) would be singing at the top of my lungs, attempting to hit the high "B flat" in "Think of Me," at 4-in-the-morning! Boy! Were those tapes confiscated back, as you could have very well imagined!

Flashing foreward again, my belayed 16th birthday present was to see it live with Franc D'Ambrosio (my first and forever live Phantom).

As an ending note with me attempting to hit that "B flat" in "Think of Me," I've been told by 2 people, one my HS choir director that clearly pulled me aside to see where I truly was (he was also a professional voice teacher on the side... teaching doesn't pay anything... and didn't back then), and I sang -- rather cleanly -- as low as a tennor "C" to "A" to all the way up to that "B flat." He questioned where I've gotten my range from... because he hadn't seen that range in quite sometime! I sheepishly said "from attempting to sing "Phantom." He remarked that I'm lucky to still have my singing voice, as well as my hence afterwards vocal coach!

However, I am now currently undergoing voice lessons -- in which my voice teacher said that it's close to merely imposible to rank me. She said, that they were both right, yet both wrong at the same time. My voice teacher's been doing this for over 20 years, and is apart of the National Teacher's Association of Singers. She even has stated to me time and again -- about me attempting to hit that "B flat" in "Think of Me," that you were presumably meant to hit that note one day... but in accordance to what they're referring towards... not then... "... no child girl soprano is apt into hit that note as of just yet..." She goes on to explain to me!

That's my "Phantom Phan story," and I'm sticking to it!