2012.06 The Phantom of the Opera
This was a business trip to the United States, and the amount of time I could actually spend wandering around New York was only the two spare days at the front and back of the trip. It would have been very easy for this to become a quick checklist visit: ride in from New Jersey, walk through Times Square, take a few photos of giant billboards, and then behave myself and go back to work.
But since I was already in New York, and since Broadway was right there, I still wanted to find out whether the long-running The Phantom of the Opera was really more impressive than Ming Hwa Yuan's Legend of the White Snake!!
My stage-show credentials, from Qiaohu to an opera house in Milan
When it comes to stage shows, I have seen more than ten of them over the years, big and small. You could probably call me an old hand at this.
Granted, the most recent eight were all Qiaohu children's shows, but you cannot honestly say those do not count as stage shows, right? XD
And even if you say those were not meant for adults, the La Traviata I saw more than ten years earlier in some opera house in Milan, sung entirely in Italian, should count at least ~.~'"
So my original idea of opera was actually very simple: was it not just a group of people pushing boxes around on stage as scenery, then talking and singing? Strictly speaking, was that really so different from the Taiwanese opera performances I saw near temple plazas as a kid... right?!
With that very disrespectful expectation in mind, I decided to spend half a day in New York watching The Phantom of the Opera.
Riding in from New Jersey, then meeting Penn Station
Because I could not be sure exactly when I would make it into the city, the safest approach was to go to the TKTS booth at Duffy Square, north of Times Square, and buy same-day tickets from whatever seats were left. That was my experience in 2012. Anyone planning the same thing now should check current official information instead of treating a decade-old diary as a live guide.
From New Jersey, the easiest route into New York toward Times Square was to take NJ Transit to New York Penn Station. Before I even saw Broadway, I first saw this escalator down to the platform, and it looked like a sci-fi boarding gate for space travel @.@'"
See, do these people not look like they are waiting to go back to Mars? XD
Coming out of the station, I was around 34th Street. The first thing I saw was Hotel Pennsylvania. That old-fashioned hotel facade quickly pulled me out of the station tunnels and back into the streets of New York.
Then, looking up, there was the Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue. This stretch was not really about checking off landmarks; it was a walk from Penn Station toward Times Square, letting the scale of the city open up one block at a time.
Walking up Seventh Avenue toward Times Square
As I walked north, the street characters started appearing too. Some looked cute and very photo-friendly, but this was not an amusement park. It was a New York sidewalk business.
Do not be fooled by how cute the Winnie-the-Pooh costume looks... if you want a photo together, you need to tip ~.~'"
Following Seventh Avenue north, Times Square was around 42nd Street. Before I was properly inside the square, the signs, traffic, and crowds had already started getting denser, as if the whole city were telling me to look up.
The NASDAQ building is also in this area. Almost all the billboards around here were huge LED screens, and even in broad daylight they were flashing everywhere. The whole place was dazzling @.@'"
Times Square is less a landmark than an entire glowing intersection
Times Square is where crowds gather every year for New Year's Eve. Standing there in person, the strongest impression was not any single building. It was that screens, signs, tourists, and traffic were all squeezing into your eyes from every direction.
Midtown Manhattan is famous for its grid of streets. The one road cutting diagonally through it is Broadway. Times Square sits where Broadway and 7th Avenue cross, roughly from 42nd Street to 47th Street.
Duffy Square is right beside this busy crossing. The TKTS booth for discounted theater tickets was between 46th and 47th Streets. At the time, there were two lines, so you had to ask first: one was for musicals, and one was for plays. It would be pretty annoying to reach the front and only then realize you had been in the wrong line ~.~'"
The advantage of buying from TKTS was flexibility. I did not have to worry about buying a ticket in advance and then being unable to go, and there was even a 50% discount ^.^ The downside was that popular shows usually did not have many seats left. Something like The Lion King was basically not worth dreaming about. But for The Phantom of the Opera, if you did not go too late, there was usually a chance.
Again, that was the ticket-buying experience in 2012. Ticket rules, discounts, and show popularity may all be different now, so check current official sources if you actually plan to go.
The crowd outside proved the long-running show was no joke
The Phantom of the Opera had already been running for more than twenty years, but judging from the crowd outside the theater, it looked like it could probably keep going for another ten @.@'"
For me, the interesting part was not simply reaching a must-see landmark. It was that I had taken a train in from New Jersey that morning, and by afternoon I was standing in a crowd waiting for a famous Broadway musical to begin. A very ordinary business-trip gap had suddenly turned into something not ordinary at all, and that is the part of this diary worth keeping.
Before the show started, I saw camera flashes going off everywhere. I figured it must be okay to take photos, then, so I joined in. Inside, the theater actually looked kind of like a regular movie theater back home, not that different ~.~'"
Once the show began, I realized how different it really was
But when the actual performance started, I realized it was different... very, very different!!
The stage design, the scene changes, the transitions, the lighting atmosphere, the acting, and the beautiful singing... all of it made me understand what a truly wonderful opera could be.
The full story of The Phantom of the Opera may be complicated, but the version playing out on stage felt simple enough. It is basically about a haunted theater. The ghost, known as the Phantom, is actually a very ugly man wearing a mask, pretending to be supernatural while living under the theater.
By chance, the Phantom discovers that a supporting performer named Christine has great potential, so he takes her underground for special training. Christine later reveals her talent, and then falls in love with the theater manager, Robert.
This makes the ghost very unhappy, because he likes Christine too. He feels that all the effort he put into training her has gone off with someone else, so during one performance he makes the chandelier fall from above the stage, forcing the show to stop. That is also the famous ending of the first half.
Later, during another performance, the Phantom secretly kills the male lead, takes his place on stage opposite Christine, and then kidnaps her back underground. Robert follows to rescue her, but the Phantom catches him. To save Robert, Christine is willing to sacrifice herself and stay with the Phantom if only Robert can be freed.
After Christine gives the Phantom a tearful long kiss, he suddenly comes to his senses and decides to let go. With the stage lighting and the mournful singing at that moment, it really did make his choice feel moving...
He may be ugly by quite a lot, but he still has a conscience ~.~'"
Then, heartbroken, the Phantom hides inside a mirror and disappears, leaving only his mask on the chair T.T
The above was a very long plot summary squeezed out in a burst of feeling... This post has already broken my personal record. After writing more than a hundred blog posts, I had never written a single paragraph longer than ten lines...
If the plot above does not match your memory, please Google the correct version yourself.
After the curtain call, this half-day suddenly felt very worthwhile
During the curtain call, camera flashes started appearing everywhere again, so...
Watching The Phantom of the Opera turned out to be the most worthwhile part of this trip. The rest can wait until I have time to write it up slowly~
Related Posts
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 1 The Phantom of the Opera
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 2 New York: Statue of Liberty
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 3 New York: Empire State Building
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 4 Princeton
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 5 Impressions of America
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Originally published: 2012-06-18 Revised: 2026-07-15 View the original Blogger post
