1.  Who is your favorite ALW musical Phantom?

Well, hell, I don’t think there’s a four-way tie for it anymore.  Scott Davies.  Saw him in London last year and pretty sure he wrecked most, if not all of us Phantom veterans.  He doesn’t fit my ideal Phantom visually (I like tall actors), but he was the perfect combination of experience, insight, skill, control, and energy.  It is so difficult to find actors with that level of experience in the role, and that much familiarity with the character and score, and still have the incredible enthusiasm he has for it.  His Final Lair left us all speechless, and we had probably seen the show 150-160 times between us.  Perfection.  Will never forget that performance.

5.  Who is your favorite character that’s not Erik?

In general, I think it’s probably The Persian.  He’s such a mystery in the original novel and there is SUCH a story there that we’ll never really know….I also loved Nadir in the Kay novel as well.  In the musical, I’d say it’s a toss up between Christine and Madame Giry.  Christine because she has such an incredible character arc and ends up being her own hero.  Mme Giry because again, there’s so much left unsaid about her, who she is, how she knows the Phantom, and what her motives are. 

And for what it’s worth, I love Raoul and I’ll stand up for him any day.  Haters gonna hate.

10.  Do you prefer Leroux!Erik, Kay!Erik, or ALW!Phantom?

Oooo…I think it depends on my mood.  If I’m forced to make a snap decision I guess it’s going to be ALW Stage!Phantom.  When I close my eyes that’s just what I see, and that’s what got me into POTO in the first place.  But I have a strong appreciation for Leroux!Erik. I like Kay!Erik’s personality (sarcasm is my jam) and the fact that there is “a” backstory there, but I think I still prefer Leroux over Kay.

And Kay’s ending just ruined all the goodness she created in the rest of the novel for me, so no matter what I do, I always think of Kay and am disappointed. 

27.  Does your real life environment know about your obsession?

No, not really.  I actually keep the POTO (interest in the musical/books/movies) and cosplay/makeup stuff very separate from my day-to-day.  Most of the folks I interact with at work, or in my “real” hobbies (horses and hockey) have absolutely no clue that I’m a phan, let alone someone who’s known around the world for cosplaying the title character.  Some of my friends/family that aren’t interested in Phantom might remember I did/do costuming and have seen the show a lot, but I don’t talk about it with them.  You wouldn’t know it walking in my house either - I have two POTO posters up in my living room and a couple of music boxes on top of the bookshelf upstairs in my office.  That’s it.  Costume, makeup, and Phantom On A Budget stuff stays tucked in one of the closets in storage until it’s time to take it on the road.

I’ve lived in an environment that was saturated with POTO homage and memorabilia, and honestly the only thing that did was make me lose interest in Phantom completely.  I have a limited amount of tolerance for it, believe it or not, and for me to want to stay into it at all, I have to keep the day-to-day exposure to Phantom to a minimum.

Some might think that’s weird, maybe some of you are surprised by that, but for the most part, that’s kind of how I live my life.  When I’m at work, I talk about work and focus on work.  When I’m at the farm, I’m focused on the horses and riding, and talk horses.  Same thing for hockey or hanging out with my non-POTO friends.  I have my different outlets and mostly keep them separate.  So I suppose it’s no surprise that I generally only talk Phantom-related things with my circle of phandom friends.  They get it and I don’t have to spend 75% of the conversation convincing them I’m not a nutter or explaining everything. I. Say.