Hi,
in the 1925 movie version the phantom's mask covers his entire face. In this version and the movie adaption from 2004 it just covers one half of his face. Has it always been like this in the musical? Because on the DVD cover they again used a full face mask.
Personally, I think the Lon Chaney phantom was the most frightening.
Yes, it's always covered half of his face in the musical. This was decided so that the phantom could have an uncovered part of his face that could express emotion. And also, it gave him a "Rudolph Valentino" look that Webber wanted.
There's a behind the scenes book that came out in the late 80's when the musical was first performed that has all kinds of cool facts in it. I'd bet you could find it on Amazon.
"You know what a cautious fellow I am..."
Thanks, that makes sense. Do you know the exact title of the book?
shareThe Complete Phantom of the Opera by George Perry.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Phantom-Opera-George-Perry/dp/B0006SHMI 4/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328559743&sr=1-13#_
"You know what a cautious fellow I am..."
Further to lasvegasira's answer...
On the 2004 movie version's dvd extras, there's a documentary about the show. They explained that originally they were going to have a full face mask, and they produced all the artwork for the show based on this and the change to a half face mask was made too late to change all the posters and such. Then the show became a hit and the artwork became quite iconic in itself, and was never changed, which is why the full mask is still on the DVD cover.
Look, I'm sorry I called you an inanimate object earlier. I was angry.
Whatever the original reason was I'm glad they wound up with half a mask. I think it serves as the perfect metaphor for his tormented personality- half of him was a truly beautiful person but the other half had a pretty serious dark side and both sides where in constant conflict.
Also, the half mask and it's design is rather sexy and when the Phantom appears in it with his wig he does come across as a handsome man-there is a certain sex appeal to his character.
Plus, from a technical side I think a full mask would have made it pretty hard to sing around.