#but i saw killian donnerly as erik and honestly he just didnt do it for me like i couldnt buy into his acting sadly

[dervampireprince]

Hi Prince. I just listened to one of your Erik audios for the first time and it's gotten me interested in The Phantom of The Opera now. What would you suggest watching as a first introduction to it?

oooo okay okay okay okay. so. you'll quickly realise how much of a nerd i am for phantom, look, i had a whole two years where this was all i was drawing and thinking about and making up my own aus and comics and just. a lot.

if you want a musical watch the 2011 live concert 25th anniversary performance, it's not exactly the same staging as if you saw it on the west end of broadway, but it's pretty close and it's professionally filmed and it's a good easy way to get into the musical. if you're not bothered about something pretty i'd recommend any recording with ethan freeman as the phantom, that man makes me sob. i know a lot of people got into the musical via the 2004 film adaption but... but, i don't be upset if you love the film, it's not a great film and it's not sung the best. so i'd always recommend watching a live version of the musical over the movie version.

now if you want something non musical well i first have to recommend the actual original novel. it's wonderful and it's one of the few places you can actually find the character of the daroga, who is almost always cut out of every single phantom of the opera adaption, which is not a good luck when he's the only poc in the book. and he deserves to be included for being the only man who can cope with putting up with any of erik's bullshit, like can you imagine having erik as a friend, this man deserves a medal. the andrew lloyd webber musical cuts out entire characters, rearranges the plot, and makes up a backstory for erik which is taken from 'phantom' by susan kay, a novel that is basically published fanfiction, but in the novel and older stagings of the musical erik's backstory wasn't explained and i think it's better that way.

and if you're wanting something to watch that's not a musical, there are many film and tv adaptions. the 1990 miniseries with charles dance as erik is so sweet omg, it's the nicest like morally good version of erik, i want to just hold him, he's often called "cherik" by the fandom (mashing up charles + erik) and he's just a sweet little baby.

another movie that's an adaption of phantom even if you didn't know it? a monster in paris! it's cute, it's animated, it's a musical, i wanna take Francœur home and look after him.

other movies? there's a lot. i'd stay clear of a few in particular because they're... either really bad or way too trigger warning inducing (i'm talking about you rat phantom), there's the original (well the first ever phantom film was actually before this, but it's lost media) 1925 black and white phantom with lon chaney, that's one of the most book accurate but not really because once again, no daroga... or well sort of daroga, but not really. but there's so many movies and i haven't seen most of them so i can't really say which ones are good or not. the most known ones are the 1925, 1943, 1962 and 1989. however there is also The Phantom of the Paradise, which is a rock opera horror musical movie with the very talented Brian de Palma as director, very cult 70s film.

did you know there's other musical adaptions other than andrew lloyd webbers? he actually made his musical because he say ken hill's phantom of the opera musical on stage and wanted to make his own. the next popular after alw's would be Phantom by yeston and kopit, there are some beautiful japanese productions by takarazuka of that musical (an all female acting troupe where yes the male characters are played by women).

don't watch love never dies. don't. it's. webber's bad fanfiction of 'what if erik and christine banged during the original musical and what if i ruined the personality and character and agency of all the female characters, but also made raoul just horrible because i ship erikstine 4ever and also i can definitely do basic addition and the 1910s definitely take place 10 years after the 1880s"... sorry if you like love never dies, you're a braver soul than i.

if you can find a copy of it, the 1980s manga adaption that i was lucky enough to find a copy of on yahoo actions jp a few years ago is beautifully illustrated. as is like every japanese publication of the book, which they also have published it multiple times as a children's book?? well the illustrations are pretty.

and if you like metal you might wanna listed to nightwish's cover of 'the phantom of the opera' from webber's musical.