Black Friday & The Phantom of the Opera

Instead of camping outside Best Buy for 18 hours or getting trampled to death at the doors of Wal-Mart and the likes, we spent the day after Thanksgiving far away from obsessed shoppers and the madness of Black Friday.

Here we were in the comfort of Bubba Gump, once again, just before our afternoon matinee of Phantom of the Opera. After all these years, I finally made it to the most widely acclaimed musical on earth. Phantom is now the longest running show on Broadway. It celebrates its 20th year this year and what a treat! We found very good seats (Front Center Mezzanine) in spite of the last minute purchase. I won't vouch the same for Equus though. Lines for Equus snaked outside Broadway & 8th. Avenue. Yes, throngs of people lining up to see Daniel Radcliffe baring all on stage. Would have also been interesting but Phantom is still won me over.

The Theater District

Majestic Theater

Broadhurst Theater

Shubert Theater

Rebecca Judd (Madame Giry) & I after the show

Some of the casts were selling CDs and other merchandise to raise funds for charitable causes. Unfortunately, the Phantom, Christine and Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny didn't come out to meet the fans.

I did my part for charity and bought a piece of Phantom memorabilia.

The 20th. Anniversary Poster

What's good and bad? Being such an old theater - 80 years, the seating in the Majestic is extremely crammed and the slope of the stair case is quite extreme. However, the superb performance from the casts and amazing theatrical effects made up for it. Was it worth every $$$? YES!!! After all these years, I am still entranced by the music and story.