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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=google1tapWhat the fire looked like:
https://www.tumblr.com/operafantomet/184591545852/do-you-what-ever-happend-after-the-fire-in-the
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It’s the fall of 1923, and Lon Chaney Sr. has just starred in a smash hit based on Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. There is going to be a follow-up show, and it is going to be a hit. But who’s idea was it? And why will that matter to the critical reception of a musical that won’t come out for another 80 years?
Flash forward two years, and now It’s the summer of 1925. Universal Pictures has invested a pile of money in a new movie, but there’s a war council that’s been called because the production is going so poorly that it’s on the edge of collapse, and had so much been invested in the show it might simply have been dropped.
I’m sure you’ve guessed the title by now. But if this movie isn’t made, the Phantom story will languish, and it’s very likely the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical mega-hit will never come to be.
What happened? Why was the show in such dire straights, and what was done to save it?
How many endings were considered, scripted, and shot? And after the brush with disaster, what finally made the movie work?
And….where ARE THE GHOSTS? If one Hollywood production should have some really juicy ghost stories surrounding the set and the performers, it’s this one. If there’s a good ghost story out there, by god, I’m going to find it.
We’ll try to find them in this episode, part 2 of a 3-part series on the Phantom. Season 1, ep 4 we looked at the book. Today the movie, and next time the musical. But the themes here will make a difference to understanding what may be the most profitable musical of all time.
(References in Episode 4)Support the show
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This is EPISODE 4. The next episode, EPISODE 5, will drop on December 16.
It’s 1786, and a male ballet dancer (“Dahn- sir”) and ballerina both dance at the Paris opera house, and the man falls in love with the woman. But so does a solider, and in the love triangle the dahn-sir is killed. With his dying breath he asks that he be buried in the opera house to be near his love in death if not in life, and his bones are later used as props in theater productions.Could this story be the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera?
Or in 1873 the original opera house burned down just as the majestic new Palais Garnier is being finished, leaving a ballerina dead and her fiancé disfigured.
Could this story be the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera?
Ironically, the Phantom of the Opera isn’t a phantom at all – it’s a real guy and not a ghost. So it might not be that surprising that number of non-ghostly mysteries surround the Phantom of the Opera. SO MANY QUESTIONS.
What, and who, inspired the characters?Was there a real chandelier accident, and if so, what happened?The story has obviously gained traction, but when the book was published, was it a flop or a hit? How did Carl Lemmele, the CEO of Universal Pictures, find out about the book?What makes the narrative so enduring, that it’s inspired a book, a movie, and musical?What makes the musical so popular – maybe even more popular than any entertainment production, including any movie – and is it the same thing that makes the book work? Does the narrative of the book make the musical work, or did the musical resuscitate a poorly written book?Was Andrew Lloyd Webber a fan of the book or did he consider it a classic penny dreadful?How does the story end?As interpretations fly, an intrepid “independent scholar” finds a previously undiscovered ORIGINAL manuscript that shows what the author was thinking at the time the book was printed. What did that manuscript reveal?And where are the ghosts?In this episode we'll discuss the author, the original books, and separate out what real and imagined incidents inspired the original book.
REFERENCES
Babilas, D. (2013). Paris Opera as an Edifice and a Literary Haunted House. In Dark Cartogrophies – Exploring Gothic Spaces (pp. 67-87). Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.Biancorosso, G. (2018). The phantom of the opera and the performance of cinema. The Opera Quarterly, 34(2), 153–167. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/8/article/716827
Blake, M. F. (1995). A thousand faces: Lon Chaney’s unique artistry in motion pictures. New York: Vestal Press.
Chandler, D. (2009). “What do we mean by opera, anyway? ”: Lloyd webber’s phantom of the opera and “high-pop” theatre. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 21(2), 152–169. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-1598.2009.01186.x
Cui, A.-X., Motamed Yeganeh, N., Sviatchenko, O., Leavitt, T., McKee, T., Guthier, C., Hermiston, N., & Boyd, L. (2022). The phantoms of the opera—Stress offstage and stress onstage. Psychology of Music, 50(3), 797–813. https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356211013504
Curiosity Damsel. (2017, July 24). The opera ghost really existed.. Curiosity Damsel. https://curiositydamsel.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/the-opera-ghost-really-existed/
Frey, A. (2016, July 22). The
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In the early 1970s and a writer for plays, movies, and television is holed up in Palm Springs at one of the most unusual restaurants in operation. There was a sole proprietor, the menu has one dish, and there is no advertising or tourists because there are only 4 tables. The topic of conversation is whether to turn a stage play into a musical, and the server, cook, owner, and sole employee is also a psychic.
The cook is consulted about the project and predicts: “It will be extremely successful,” she says, “In fact, it will overwhelm your life.”Two years later, in 1972 the production would open as a musical.
The playwright was Dale Wasserman, the project was converting The Man From La Mancha into a musical, and it would go on to play over 2,000 shows
There was something mystical afoot: “Facts cannot explain the success of the Man from La Mancha. Something more was at work…”
Part 1 looked at the significance of the book Don Quixote. Part 2 looked at the life of Miguel de Cervantes. This episode, part 3, looks at how the book was converted into a musical that went on to be one of the most successful musical theater productions ever. And the crazy coincidences that were necessary to bring it about...
(References listed in episode 1)Support the show
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This is the story of how one of the greatest books ever written, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, became one of the most successful musicals in broadway history, which of course was The Man from La Mancha by Dale Wasserman.
The year is 1579, and a solider being held in an Algerian prison, and he’s about to make his 4th, and failed, attempt to escape. And this is only one of a multitude of life mishaps that makes it very unlikely the solider even survived. And it wasn’t until the age of 58 that the solider, then prisoner, then tax collector, would write the world’s first novel.What utterly impossible set of circumstances had to happen for this prisoner to even get out of prison, much less become one of the greatest writers of all time?
Flash forward 350 years to the mid-1960s where a playwright is looking to convert a stage play into a musical, he has an acquaintance who is a psychic, so the writer asks whether the musical will be a successful endeavor. The psychic predicts not only that it will, and will soon overwhelm the writer’s life.
Both predictions are entirely accurate.
This is a 3 part dive into Don Quixote. In part 1 we looked at the impact of the book and what made it so important. Take home points are that it is a really big deal, and it had a lot of important ideas wrapped around a really funny and accessible story.
In this part we’ll look at the star-crossed life of Cervantes, including the ominous predictions surrounding 1588, his deeply ironic relationship with the greatest playwright of his day, and try to answer the question of how someone with his life could possibly write comedy.
In part 3 we’ll ask how that narrative, 350 years later, get translated into one of the most successful musicals in broadway history?
What series of impossible and unlikely events had to happen for the world to inherit Don Quixote?
(References in Episode 1)Support the show
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This is the story of how one of the greatest books ever written, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, became one of the most successful musicals in broadway history, which of course was The Man from La Mancha by Dale Wasserman.
The year is 1579, and a solider being held in an Algerian prison is about to make his 4th escape attempt. It will fail, and there’s a very real chance that although he’s escaped severe punishment the first 3 times, this failure could be fatal. (McKendrick 82) His foiled attempt will not result in being put to death, but will leave him utterly without hope of escape.What utterly impossible set of circumstances had to happen for this prisoner to even get out of prison, much less become one of the greatest writers of all time?
The year is 1615, and a very conventional playwright is writing the second part of a very unconventional book. Really wanted to be a playwright, seemed almost ambivalent about being an author of books. In it he pens the phrase “My guess is that there is not a nation or language into which the book will not be translated.” This prediction will prove to be entirely true.
What about this book is so compelling that it makes its own equivocal author an accurate prophet, beyond his own wildest dreams?
The time frame is now the mid-1960s a playwright is looking to convert a stage play into a musical, and he’s having a meal at small restaurant where the cook is also the sole proprietor and the menu has one item. The cook is also a psychic, so the writer asks whether the musical will be a successful endeavor. The psychic predicts not only that it will, and will soon overwhelm the writer’s life.
Both predictions are entirely accurate.
Not only are these 3 events connected, but they are connected by a straight line and by the exact same narrative.
In this 3-episode series I pursue the history Don Quixote, and episode 1.1 starts with the book -- how did it get written, what's it about, and why has it become such a class? Episode 2 will explore the life of the author, MIguel de Cervantes, and episode 3 will get to how the author and the story got woven into a musical.
REFERENCES
Albrecht, J. W. (2005). Theater and politics in four film versions of the Quijote. Hispania, 88(1), 4-10. https://doi.org/10.2307/20063070Bayliss, R. (2006). What Don Quixote means (today). Comparative Literature Studies, 43(4), 382-397. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25659541
Gregor, K. (2016). Collaborative encounters? Two recent Spanish takes on the Shakespeare–Cervantes relationship. Palgrave Communications, 2(1), 16033. https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2016.33
Johnson, M. (2007, April 23). Why Don Quixote needs show tunes. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2007/apr/23/whydonquixoteneedsshowtun
McKendrick, M. (1980). Cervantes. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Miller, S. (2024). Inside man of La Mancha. In New Line Theatre. https://www.newlinetheatre.com/lamanchachapter.html
Mineo, L. (2016, April 25). A true giant. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/04/a-true-giant/
Oyebode, F. (2016). Cervantes and Don Quixote de la Mancha. BJPsych Advances, 22(6), 397-401. https://doi.org/10.1192/apt.bp.115.015040
Russell, P. E. (1969). “Don quixote” as a funny book. The Modern Language Review, 64(2), 312.
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