Phantom of the Opera - Nightcrawler Connection :?
Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:10 am
:?Has anyone else seen this play? I just rented it last night (and couldn't get anyone else to watch it with me because its a musical ) Anyway, I really liked it.
I think it's #5 in the Nightcrawler Series where Christine and Kurt go to see the play. When I first read the issue where that happens I was a little disappointed because I thought the writer had misinterpreted Kurt's character when he implied that he was someone who didn't like showtunes. Maybe he isn't someone who likes them, but I always imagined he was a sucker for that kind of perfoming thing.
But, now that I've actually seen it I can imagine that it might be a really uncomfortable play for someone like Nightcrawler to have had to sit through. And now I think the writer was extremely brilliant for including it, besides it being a down-time scene (always apprec iated ) the lead character's name is Christine!
This probably isn't a new thought for people on this site, and I may have been one of the last people to have seen a very old and popular play. But, I was all excited drawing the connections last night with Kurt's character, so I thought I'd post about it, hope nobody minds!
Spoilers for those who've yet to see the dvd/play
[spoiler]The most blatant example has to be the scene where the young Mme. Giry goes to visit the traveling fair with the rest of her class of ballerinas' in training. They walk past all of the contortionists, fire eaters, sideshow exhibits before finally going into a tent to see The Devil's Child. Inside of a cage (like the one in the Nightcrawler series) is a boy of a similar age to Mme. Giry at the time, about 10 or 12, wearing a sack over his head with the top tied to look like he has two horns. He's playing with a little stuffed monkey with bells on it and is trying to ignore all the jeering people. The man who controls the exhibit is said to be a gypsy (another similarity to Kurt's history) and tears the sack away to reveal his face, about 1/3 of which is grossly deformed. The boy scrambles to cover his face with the bag again and the girl is the only one who has any compassion for him. It was all very sad, and yet strangely familiar. (So, Kudos to the writer because this was a brilliant lead-in to the second story arc)
I guess I could go on, say something about how the Phantom, if he hadn't felt he had to hide himself from the world, could have been an accomplished in so many fields, from composing to architecture (Storm and other characters have commented time and again about how Kurt could be a great athlete, baseball player, gymnast, if only he wasn't a mutant)
The Phantom is obsessed and possessive of young Chistine to the point of madness. He's jealous and he murders people when his will is crossed. He's described as a pitiful creature of darkness, an angel of the shadows, and the target of his mother's loathing and fear (those aren't exact quotes)
There's a nice swordfight in the cemetery towards the end of the middle of the play. Which the phantom loses, being the twisted, misunderstood villain and all. He also writes a play entitled Don Juan and ends up staring in the play himself. Christine finds his presence mesmerizing (also a trait that Kurt has shown in the comics - with the ladies)
In the end he forces Christine to choose between a life with him or the death of her childhood friend and true love, the heroic Raoul. When she chooses to go to him to save her lover's life, the fantasy that the phantom had built up, comes crashing down and he tells her to take her man and go as he treats to the darkness of his cave. He's not there when the police come looking for him, and the opera house burns above them.[/spoiler]
I guess I just wondered what everybody else thought Kurt was going through when he had to sit through that play. Had he ever seen it before? Did he only not leave to be polite? Are musicals just not his thing? Considering what he just went through with the priest thing and finding out who his father was I wonder if it really did hit a bit close to home.
Last question: In Issue #5 someone, and I thought for sure it was Christine, says that PTO was the first play they saw when they first came to NY. Am I wrong? I read something somewhere that claimed it was Kurt who said that.
I hope this post belongs in this section - sorry in advance if it has to be moved.
(Editted to fix spoiler tags)
I think it's #5 in the Nightcrawler Series where Christine and Kurt go to see the play. When I first read the issue where that happens I was a little disappointed because I thought the writer had misinterpreted Kurt's character when he implied that he was someone who didn't like showtunes. Maybe he isn't someone who likes them, but I always imagined he was a sucker for that kind of perfoming thing.
But, now that I've actually seen it I can imagine that it might be a really uncomfortable play for someone like Nightcrawler to have had to sit through. And now I think the writer was extremely brilliant for including it, besides it being a down-time scene (always apprec iated ) the lead character's name is Christine!
This probably isn't a new thought for people on this site, and I may have been one of the last people to have seen a very old and popular play. But, I was all excited drawing the connections last night with Kurt's character, so I thought I'd post about it, hope nobody minds!
Spoilers for those who've yet to see the dvd/play
[spoiler]The most blatant example has to be the scene where the young Mme. Giry goes to visit the traveling fair with the rest of her class of ballerinas' in training. They walk past all of the contortionists, fire eaters, sideshow exhibits before finally going into a tent to see The Devil's Child. Inside of a cage (like the one in the Nightcrawler series) is a boy of a similar age to Mme. Giry at the time, about 10 or 12, wearing a sack over his head with the top tied to look like he has two horns. He's playing with a little stuffed monkey with bells on it and is trying to ignore all the jeering people. The man who controls the exhibit is said to be a gypsy (another similarity to Kurt's history) and tears the sack away to reveal his face, about 1/3 of which is grossly deformed. The boy scrambles to cover his face with the bag again and the girl is the only one who has any compassion for him. It was all very sad, and yet strangely familiar. (So, Kudos to the writer because this was a brilliant lead-in to the second story arc)
I guess I could go on, say something about how the Phantom, if he hadn't felt he had to hide himself from the world, could have been an accomplished in so many fields, from composing to architecture (Storm and other characters have commented time and again about how Kurt could be a great athlete, baseball player, gymnast, if only he wasn't a mutant)
The Phantom is obsessed and possessive of young Chistine to the point of madness. He's jealous and he murders people when his will is crossed. He's described as a pitiful creature of darkness, an angel of the shadows, and the target of his mother's loathing and fear (those aren't exact quotes)
There's a nice swordfight in the cemetery towards the end of the middle of the play. Which the phantom loses, being the twisted, misunderstood villain and all. He also writes a play entitled Don Juan and ends up staring in the play himself. Christine finds his presence mesmerizing (also a trait that Kurt has shown in the comics - with the ladies)
In the end he forces Christine to choose between a life with him or the death of her childhood friend and true love, the heroic Raoul. When she chooses to go to him to save her lover's life, the fantasy that the phantom had built up, comes crashing down and he tells her to take her man and go as he treats to the darkness of his cave. He's not there when the police come looking for him, and the opera house burns above them.[/spoiler]
I guess I just wondered what everybody else thought Kurt was going through when he had to sit through that play. Had he ever seen it before? Did he only not leave to be polite? Are musicals just not his thing? Considering what he just went through with the priest thing and finding out who his father was I wonder if it really did hit a bit close to home.
Last question: In Issue #5 someone, and I thought for sure it was Christine, says that PTO was the first play they saw when they first came to NY. Am I wrong? I read something somewhere that claimed it was Kurt who said that.
I hope this post belongs in this section - sorry in advance if it has to be moved.
(Editted to fix spoiler tags)