I’ve always taken those lines to mean that while the Phantom is physically able to have sex, he has never been able to get close enough to a women for this to happen. I’ve never thought it meant he was impotent. I don’t think that view really fits in with how else the character is portrayed. MOTN is supposed to be the Phantom seducing Christine, it is filled with sensuality and very sexualized. Gillian Lynne, the choreographer, explicitly created the scene to be that way, and various actors have taken it even further in their portrayals. If Christine had not fainted at the end, I do think his intentions were for her to go to bed with him.
And yes, Christine’s line is basically asking if he is going to rape her.
Yes. Although, in **Phantom **the audience is *supposed *to feel enraptured by the Phantom. Through his voice and way he moves, he cuts a very romantic sensual figure. If he was portrayed as simply a horrible, unspeakably evil person with no redeeming qualities, there’d be no real conflict to the story and I don’t believe the show would have become the massive worldwide success that is has. Of course, we also know that he is a highly unstable murderer and that Christine choosing to stay with him just is not possible and would not work. Which is why the ending to **Phantom **works so well, and why the plot of the sequel is garbage.
Christine’s cry at the end of MotN is pretty orgasmic; I can imagine them having sex in that scene, if they’re hidden from view. But I can’t imagine Raoul not putting two and two together if that was their only time. The dates just don’t work.
Oh, sorry I think I may have been unclear. They don’t actually have sex after MOTN, the text is pretty explicit about that. I just meant that I think that would have been where the scene was leading if she hadn’t fainted. At least as far as the events up til the end of Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom is still a virgin. I posted how the issue of having a son in the sequel was resolved in a spoiler a few posts up.
In Christine’s defense, Sampiro, I don’t think the musical has her torn between Raoul and the Phantom – she’s not thinking “I wish I could quit you.” She’s thinking, “This poor sick bastard has nothing and he’s murdered all these people and yet he loves me and has helped me… Am I guilty? Am I supposed to be grateful? How can I not feel pity for what this creature has endured in his life, even as I hate him for what he’s put everyone through?”
Basically she’s seriously fucked up, torn between guilt and sympthy and gratitude and probably some love in there too (left over from the years he spent as pretending to be a spirit sent by her father). This is explicit in the lyrics when Raoul’s come up with the plan to set her up as bait to kill the Phantom. "Twisted every way, what answer can I give?/Am I to risk my life to win the chance to live?/Can I betray the man who once inspired my voice?/Do I become his prey?/Do I have any choice?/He kills without a thought/He murders all that’s good/I know I can’t refuse/And yet, I wish I could/Oh god, if I agree, what horrors wait for me/In this, the Phantom’s opera… "
All bets are off when it comes to the sequel, however. The story’s a laughable travesty, and this is an example of an egregiously cynical attempt to cash in on the (forgive me) “Phandom.” (Bluuurgh!) Not that POTO was genius or anything, but it had a lot of strengths and some beautiful music, cannily produced. I think there was a way to do a sequel that didn’t involve spitting all over a classic.
True, but if the Phantom had worn baggy pants and a torn sweater and looked less like Michael Crawford/Gerard Butler and more like Squiggy or Andy Dick she’d have probably knifed him before he got her to the mirror or clubbed him with a candleholder as soon as she came too in his lair.
The sequel only works as a nightmare, though I’m not sure who’s having it. Or perhaps they could bring in an Elvis impersonator and Tyler Perry as M’dea to make it a Springtime for Hitler absurdist masterpiece.
With the exception of Fiddler on the Roof and that episode of BTVS, I hate all musicals. His haven’t struck me as any better or worse than others I’ve had to watch.
Jesus Christ Superstar may be my favorite movie ever. Ever.
This cat right here* is the coolest, sexiest brotha on the planet (R.I.P). And that song is sung often by me at the top of my lungs with equal passion and expression! People often look at me like I’m crazy. And don’t get me started on What’s The Buzz?
I guess I liked Evita ok, too. Never saw the play. Just the film with Madonna.
I may not sing it every day but living where I do gives ample excuses for “*You’ve *begun to matter more/Than the things you say” and “All your followers are blind!/Too much heaven on their minds” to reverberate in my thoughts.
Kyla… i LOVED him when I was a teenager too…Now it’s Sondheim ALL the way.
Then again there are Sondhiems that I’m not exactly fond of (Sunday in the Park with George, Company.) but there are ALW that I like…He really is hit or miss…and I mean he can’t even COMPARE with Stephen King.
I think ALW will be one of those popular but forgotten in thirty years composers. My grandkids will be all " who the eff was THAT?" the way we’re " Who the eff was THAT?" to mentions of people like Gary Cooper