Phantom of the Opera

As parents we are charged with educating our children in all aspects of life including cultural education. Although they had just seen "Chicago" on Broadway last month, yes in New York, we felt that the Phantom of the Opera is the finest production of our time, so they should see it with us.

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the 1976 musical, which in turn was based on the book written by the French novelist Gaston Leroux. The musical focuses on a beautiful soprano, Christine Daae, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius known as "The Phantom of the Opera", who terrorizes the Paris Opera House.

It is now the second-longest-running West End musical of all time, behind Les Miserables and the longest-running Broadway musical of all time, breaking the record held by Lloyd Webber's Cats on January 9, 2006. The musical won both the Olivier Award and Tony Award as the best musical in its debut years on the West End and Broadway.

We figured seeing this would give them an idea of what a "great" show looked like. So last night we headed off to see the Phantom and we were not disappointed. We sat mesmerized as the story unfolded. For me personally I enjoyed it even more this time (2nd time) as I already knew the plot and most of the songs.

We left the theater feeling very satisfied and as a parent, I felt we had educated them well in musical theater.