Ghoul Hair

I got roped into going to see Phantom of the Opera. My family grieves over my lack of culture and taste in these things. Above all, my lack of regard for Musicals in general aside from West Side Story is a burr under a number of saddles. Lest you feel inclined to join in the pitying of Rich for his boorishness, let’s leave it that Musicals just are not truly my cup of tea. I happen to love the opera, ballet, classical concerts, music of virtually all sorts and have a great respect for the arts in general. Perhaps a certain snobbishness inspired by my dad’s love of the true art of opera has rendered me incapable of really appreciating even the Gilbert and Sullivan stuff. Always the Musical lout, I guess, I just prefer Verdi or Mozart.

Having said that, “Phantom” was still pretty cool. The sets were fantastic; music good enough; the voices were amazing, needless to say. In all I thought it not a scourge and a pox as I have other musicals I have been forced to endure in my life.

However, what really made it for me was Christine’s unmasking of the Phantom. The thing that made this so impressive for me, and I almost blurted it out in the performance is that, my hair would look exactly like his if I let it grow out. I did not know before this experience that along with his megalomaniacal obsession with music and a certain younger woman’s voice and some obvious burn scarring and so forth, the phantom has alopecia areata…Who would have thought it?