Tag Archives: musicals

Finding the Phantom in Paris

Did you know that the Phantom of the Opera was based off a real accident at an opera house in Paris? In 1896, a counterweight for the grand chandelier in the Palais Garnier broke free and fell, killing a worker in the process. That incident and the theater itself served as inspiration for Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera (and the subsequent Broadway adaptation by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I blame Doctor Dolittle….

I’ve recently come to the realization that my entire life can probably be explained by my childhood obsession with Doctor Dolittle. No, not the Eddie Murphy version with the hilarious guinea pig, but the 1967 Rex Harrison-in-a-top-hat-searching-for-the-Great-Pink-Sea-Snail version. A multitude of animals…a desire for exotic travel…and a dash of a musical…. My mother might have preferred that I fancied a different movie.