The Phantom of the Gotham Opera
[Er, this is another post that I apparently wrote and never posted. This is a fairly silly one, though, so don't mind me.]
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Okay, I just re-watched the 2004 Phantom of the Opera movie (Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Joel Schumacher directing). I am not the least bit ashamed to say I love this movie. I also loved the musical when I saw it here in Toronto as a kid in the early 90s, and listened to the soundtrack with the original Canadian cast over and over and over again until the tape wore out (later I acquired the CD, thankfully).
Schumacher may have made horribly cheesy Batman movies, but a musical like this is a movie in which cheese works so goddamn well. The opening sequence may be my favourite part, where you see time run backwards and the old, dusty and dilapidated theatre suddenly rise up again and become bright and shiny, decadent and new, while the main Phantom theme music pounds out. It's awesome.
But anyways. I have a habit of imagining how various musicals can be adapted to fit a completely different set of characters, and thus, I am trying to figure bat-characters in there.
Now, obviously, with the Phantom living in the sewers beneath the opera house and his fluttering around dramatically wearing a cape and a mask bears some resemblance to Batman. But the resemblance really ends there.
So then I thought, okay, potentially a good guy with a disturbed mind and a disfigured face? Harvey Dent/Two-Face! Sweet! But who would he have all this stalkery misplaced affection for? His wife is dead, but wait, he was in love with Renee Montoya for a while there, wasn't he?
Although Dick would probably be perfect for playing Raoul, Renee wouldn't want to marry him, so....Batwoman/Kate Kane? (Who else has Renee dated that we know of? At least Kate fits the Raoul role given that she's rich.) Although making Renee play Christine would mean that either Harvey Bullock or Cris Allen would be her ballerina friend, which...could be a lot of fun.
With Two-Face being the Phantom, it works that he's always giving Christine/Renee and other people choices, like put her in the leading role or there'll be a disaster, perform my opera or I'll blow up the theatre, marry me or Raoul/Kate dies, etc.
And it could work so well with the Masquerade scene! Everyone in masks could be various DCU heroes and they'll all SING and DANCE! Ahhhhh perfect.
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Okay, I just re-watched the 2004 Phantom of the Opera movie (Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Joel Schumacher directing). I am not the least bit ashamed to say I love this movie. I also loved the musical when I saw it here in Toronto as a kid in the early 90s, and listened to the soundtrack with the original Canadian cast over and over and over again until the tape wore out (later I acquired the CD, thankfully).
Schumacher may have made horribly cheesy Batman movies, but a musical like this is a movie in which cheese works so goddamn well. The opening sequence may be my favourite part, where you see time run backwards and the old, dusty and dilapidated theatre suddenly rise up again and become bright and shiny, decadent and new, while the main Phantom theme music pounds out. It's awesome.
But anyways. I have a habit of imagining how various musicals can be adapted to fit a completely different set of characters, and thus, I am trying to figure bat-characters in there.
Now, obviously, with the Phantom living in the sewers beneath the opera house and his fluttering around dramatically wearing a cape and a mask bears some resemblance to Batman. But the resemblance really ends there.
So then I thought, okay, potentially a good guy with a disturbed mind and a disfigured face? Harvey Dent/Two-Face! Sweet! But who would he have all this stalkery misplaced affection for? His wife is dead, but wait, he was in love with Renee Montoya for a while there, wasn't he?
Although Dick would probably be perfect for playing Raoul, Renee wouldn't want to marry him, so....Batwoman/Kate Kane? (Who else has Renee dated that we know of? At least Kate fits the Raoul role given that she's rich.) Although making Renee play Christine would mean that either Harvey Bullock or Cris Allen would be her ballerina friend, which...could be a lot of fun.
With Two-Face being the Phantom, it works that he's always giving Christine/Renee and other people choices, like put her in the leading role or there'll be a disaster, perform my opera or I'll blow up the theatre, marry me or Raoul/Kate dies, etc.
And it could work so well with the Masquerade scene! Everyone in masks could be various DCU heroes and they'll all SING and DANCE! Ahhhhh perfect.