Scene 1
A SMALL COTTAGE OUT SIDE OF PARIS, 1852
(A woman is laying in bed with a doctor nearby, her husband near her. She is giving birth to her first baby boy. He comes out and the doctor cleans him off and hands him to his mother with a sigh.)
MOTHER:
Oh! Mon garçon! Il est ... il est ... un diable! Oh, mon garçon est un diable! Je ne veux pas les moyens de son diabolique dans cette maison! Emmenez-le!
(She sobs and finally lets out a scream, where it cuts to a young girl screaming and running away from a lobster man in a sideshow on the streets of Paris in 1863)
Scene 2
A SIDESHOW ON THE STREETS OF PARIS, 1863
(The audience sees the normal attractions of a circus and then the view moves into a certain tent where a young boy is sitting in a cage with a burlap sack over his head. Crowds come from miles to see "The Undead Boy". In the crowd, is a young girl, named Marie Giry, watching as the master beats the boy.)
MASTER:
Erik! Take off your bag! Show the world your hideous face!
(The young boy, Erik, sits motionless and the master strikes him once more.)
MASTER: Go on! Show them!
(Through the eye holes in Erik's sack, Marie Giry sees Erik's eyes, glistening with tears of rage. The master, drunk and enraged, tears the sack off of the boy's head. Various gasps and screams are heard throughout the crowd. The crowd runs away, leaving only young Marie standing there watching.)
MASTER:
(To Marie) Go on! Get out of here! (She leaves, but hides behind the tent, looking through a small hole in the tarp.)
MASTER:
(To Erik) Come on boy, want a little bread? (Erik reaches out to grab it from his master's hand, but the master strikes his hand) MASTER:
Well, you can't have any!
(The master laughs drunkenly. Erik sits there, clenching his fists. Slowly, he takes the rope out of his burlap sack, and, as the master starts leaving the cage, strangles him with it as Marie looks on in horror. Erik then removes the sack from his head, and runs off, leaving the man in the cage there, dead. Marie Giry holds her scream and runs from the circus. We see young Erik running, finally reaching a dark alley. We hear church bells and Erik looks up to see a steeple and he looks back at the side entrance of the church. He goes in and sits in a pew, saying a few prayers of forgiveness and he stands, slowly approaching the church organ.)
ERIK:
(Curious) Hello there.
(He walks up to the organ, pressing a sour note, he looks nervously around the empty pews, checking for life. He turns back and then seats himself on the velvet seat of the organ stool. He starts playing, immediately catching on. We hear the first few notes of "The Phantom of the Opera" and then a different note.)
ERIK:
No, no!
(We hear the first few notes again, then a bad note. This repeats as we see Erik transform into a teen about 15. We finally hear the correct notes of "The Phantom of the Opera" and then a priest enters the room. Erik, scared turns around and the music stops playing.)
PRIEST:
What are you doing here? Get out! (running towards him) Get! Out!
(Erik, cornered, looks around with fear, and, seeing nowhere to run, grabs a small Punjab lasso from his tattered clothes and leaps onto the priest, knocking him down. He wraps it around the priest's neck. Erik looks into his eyes and, as they close, leaves the church and ran to his old, now abandoned, home.)
Scene 3
A SMALL COTTAGE OUT SIDE OF PARIS, 1869
(Erik, wearing is sitting at a desk, now 17, painting an odd looking lead monkey. He sticks it onto a small music box and starts playing it. It plays a tune as Erik turns around as there is a knock on the door. There, Marie Giry is standing, now almost 20 years of age.)
MARIE:
I know who you are
I know what you've done
I know what's been done
To you
I saw you
Saw you
At the cirque du freak
I watched you
Watched you
Watched you, small and meek.
I saw what that man did to you
I saw when in rage you cried.
Take off that mask; I won't notice
You have nothing to hide
(She rips off the mask and the intimidating notes of the Phantom's theme song play as the audience sees his face. Marie is unaffected by his disfigured features and she steps into the house, closing the door behind her.)
MARIE:
The crowds that saw you face
And gasped in fear
They saw you; a disgrace
Not welcome here
And though you ran from them
From all mankind
I saw that broken beaten little boy
Inside my mind
ERIK:
Those days are over now
Try to forget
Do not remember how
I was a threat
I killed that evil man
I must remind:
That man treated me like dirt;
A life declined
MARIE:
But what you did was wrong
What of his life?
ERIK:
He never did belong
He had no wife
MARIE:
But still of subtle worth he could have been
ERIK:
I never knew my own dear mother's love
Because of him
MARIE:
I think you should come with me. I can show you a place where you can stay.
ERIK:
Where? MARIE:
(Whispering) The opera house.
ERIK:
The opera house?
Scene 4
(Marie Giry and Erik arrive at the opera house, where masquerade is being held for the New Year. Erik is wearing a red velvet outfit with a large mask to cover his face. Marie is wearing a beautiful gown. They join in on the masquerade. They begin dancing, not really together, though. Erik is over whelmed at the sight of all the people and, his head spinning with the gowns of the women dancing, he passes out. The crowd gasps and a few people go up to him as Marie Giry slowly backs out of the building. They get him some water and decide to take off his mask for him to drink it. Ask the mask comes off, the crowd screams and backs away. Some leave the building. He wakes up and sees his mask off, then runs off, down the stairs and into the basement. There he sees a large mirror.)
ERIK:
This face is nothing but trouble. The world shall never see it again!
(He hits the mirror and it opens, revealing a long, narrow hallway filled with large candelabras.)
ERIK:
What is this?
(He walks down the hall way a sees a wonderful room filled with water and a few old pieces of furniture, covered with tarp. He gasps in amazement, and puts his mask back on. Over the next few years, we see him bringing in more and more furniture and eventually he sits at his desk with the music box and starts playing it again.)
Scene 5
THE OPERA HOUSE, BOX 5, 1872
(Erik is now known to the people in the opera house as "The Phantom of the Opera," and he is sitting in Box 5 in the Paris Opera house, now his opera house, and is being paid monthly fees by the managers. He is watching a production. After it is over, he sits outside, still hiding in his mask. He sees a young girl, about 9, and her father.)
FATHER:
How did you like that show, Christine?
CHRISTINE:
I thought it was very interesting. I would love to do that when I'm older, Father, I'd love to sing in the opera.
FATHER:
Well, maybe one day, when I've moved on, I'll send you an angel of music, and he can teach you to sing like the angels.
(Christine gives her father a big smile. He picks her up in his arms and carries her off on his shoulder. Erik slinks back to his home. Over the next few years, he watches her intently as she grows. After a show one day, the phantom is looking at the crew, and he sees Marie Giry.)
THE PHANTOM:
It's her! Her! She is evil!
(The Phantom jumps down. He walks up to Marie hastily. An actor, Piangi, is standing next to her.)
PIANGI:
Madame Giry, who is that?
MARIE:
Oh, no. I know who it is.
THE PHANTOM:
Marie! Look what you've done to me!
(Marie stares at him silently and wide eyed. The Phantom just stares at her in disgust, then walks away.)
Scene 6
THE OPERA HOUSE, 1876
(Christine has finally become a young extra in the opera. But one day, she comes in, her eyes red. A young girl, named Meg, approaches her.)
MEG:
What's wrong, Christine?
CHRISTINE:
My father… he… passed away.
MEG:
Oh, Christine! I'm so sorry…
(Meg holds her.)
CHRISTINE:
I need to get ready.
(She gets up, leaving Meg on the floor, and wipes off her tears. The Phantom watches her sing, curiously, and he says to himself,)
THE PHANTOM:
Oh, Christine. You poor, poor child.
Scene 7
CHRISTINE'S DRESSING ROOM, 1980
(Christine is now more of a major actress in the opera and she is sitting in her small dressing room. The Phantom gathers up his courage, and starts speaking to Christine from behind the mirror.)
THE PHANTOM:
Christine! I have come for you!
CHRISTINE:
(frightened)What? Who…. who's there?
THE PHANTOM:
Who am I? I am your Angel of Music!
(Christine looks wide eyed up to the ceiling and the scene goes black.)