My name is Mallory and I am 13. I went to see the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway in August 2000. When I saw it I was amazed! I couldn't wait to start working on the music, because I plan to be on Broadway when I get older. It took a while but I finally got the music and I was exstatic, but I wanted the sheet music. So I ordered it and it came soon after, ever since then I have been working every single day on it after school. When I started learning it my grades went way up, and now I have straight A's! I now have every song down to a science and I am going to sing 'Think of Me' at my school, Caravels spring Fine Arts Festival. I am also a Cantor for my parish. 'The Phantom of the Opera' really inspired me to do what I really love to do and that's sing and act. It has also helped me do better in school. I hope you see why I absolutely love the Phantom of the Opera.

Well, to begin with I'm several hundred dollars poorer than I would be otherwise :-). Seriously, though, every time I have that instinctive initial reaction to somebody, (particularly if it's negative), remembering the story helps me stand back from that first impression and remember that who we are is not how we look or even how we behave, but what's in our hearts that only a rare few people are allowed to see.

I first saw the cartoon version of POTO when I was eight. For the rest of my childhood, a child-version of Erik was my imaginary playmate, feeding my naturally over-active imagination and musical "bend." However, it wasn't until I was in 5th grade, and my band played a medley of Webber's POTO that I truely became a Phantom Phanatic. I gathered everything I could find connected to POTO to me, drove my family nuts w/ 24-7 playings of Webber's musical, and got kicked out of class a couple of times for reading Leroux's novel instead of heeding the lesson!

Jr. High started a battle between everyone and me over my singing voice: I was certain that I had the potential to be a professional vocalist--everyone else told me I hadn't a chance. So, I turned to Phantom. I listened to warm-ups from Yeston and Kopit's Phantom and the movie, Rigoletto; and sang along with Sarah Brightman, gradually increasing my range and tonal quality. POTO, especially our beloved Erik, also influenced my stories and art, influencing everything I wrote or made.

With God's guidance and Phantom's influence and motivation, I developed my musical and artistic abilities to a point no one could deny. By my sophomore year of high school, I had defeated the top vocalist in my area in a music competition. I won a number of other competitions, often singing songs from one Phantom musical or another, or one of my own POTO-inspired pieces. I finished my high school career by singing at my graduation (the musical equivolanent of valedictorian). I am now a junior commercial music major at Millikin University (I got in by singing "Music of the Night"), and am looking forward to singing at a national conference in Atlanta, Georgia in the fall. In the nearer future, I will be exhibiting a mask I made in Springfield next month.

How has POTO effected my life? How hasn't it? Thanks be to God for the inspiration of Phantom of the Opera, and for the hope of every Erik-lover: to have HIM!

I was never into the arts as a young child. It was always cartoons on TV and all that nonsense.

When my bigger brother made me listen to 'Phantom' on cassette, I was captivated by the story itself, and fascinated by all of it's characters.

Then I did more research on it as I grew up. I learned all the secrets, all the lyrics to the play, I read most of the versions of the book and learned about every character's role.

I learned to love Erik, in every version. Sadly, I have never seen the Broadway musical, but maybe someday I will.

No I'm 14 years old. I love to sing, and write. I quietly sing Phantom songs to myself almost everyday. The story has inspired me to go deeper into the heart and mind than just what meets the eye.

The Phantom of the Opera has influenced my dedication to the arts (singing in particular) and my view of deformed people or 'different' people. I am glad for its influence on/in my life.

I'm a 19 years old girl from Holland, I try to write english the best I can, bur please forgive me my mistakes.

I'm not (yet) really sure if i'm allowed to call myself a phantom fan. One thing is sure, I love almost everything that got something to do with Erik, Christine, Raoul and al the others, bur especially Erik.

It all started when I was about 15 years old. I saw the clip from "Music of the night" on television. And it touched me, a way i can't discribe. Soon i bought the dutch version on CD, and I saw the serrie (where Erik dies on the roof), but that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to see the Musical, for real. For (i tought mij 16th) birthday, my parrent bought 2 tickets for the Musical. I was very happy (more than that, but I cant find the englisch word). At least I could see Erik in real, well, not really real, but for a 16 year old girl, that was real. The musical was really fantastic, again i don't know how to discribe it in english. But my curiosity was still there. I bought the english version on CD, and my mind was just about the musical. Then suddelny, a few years later, my mother in law gave me Susan Kay's "The man behind The Mask" I started reading, no idear of what i could exspect (again a mistake, sorry). The story facinated me, I had no idear tha Erik had such a misreble life. I feld really pitty for him. Since then, my intrest grew more and more, and stil I looking to find new things. I just finnished the story by Gaston Leroux. Many people say i'm crazy, when i tell theme that Erik was real, and that the story was real. At least, everything was based on a true story. Almost every day the CD is in the player.

Still I have 3 dreams:
1) To see the Paris operahousem see box 5, see the lake, although we are not allowed toe go there, or, not able to go there, since Erik closed all doors before hie died.
2) I want to see the musical again, onlu this time the english version.
and 3) (and maybe you can help me with this one) I want to have the musical on video. I've seen almost all movies (including Phantom of the mall). But I just have to get the video of the musical, do you maybe know if that's availeble? Somewhere, anywere...

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