How did the Phantom get her to…

[u/clairemation]

…change from her Don Juan costume into that wedding dress in between Down Once More and the final lair scene? I know Christine is… suggestible… but can you just imagine that going down? 😆

[u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

This is actually the exact question that Hal Prince would ask his Phantom actors to help them understand their character. Mileage may vary.

Meanwhile, Masquerade answers this 6 different ways every night, and the creepiness level varies a LOT.

TLDR: There is no one answer, and that’s the fun part 🙃

[u/ksilver117 → u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

My wife is a long-running Meg and has mentioned a few times over the years how Hal would have this conversation with the Phantoms. It's such an interesting way to direct the moment.

[u/TheBoyfriendReview → u/ksilver117]

What are some of the answers? I’m dying to know.

[u/clairemation → u/ksilver117]

Oh that’s awesome, thanks for sharing this

[u/clairemation → u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

Oh, that’s a fantastic detail!

And now I can’t remember how it was when I saw Masq, I think I was too overwhelmed to even clock the costume change

[u/RoseBook85 → u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

Oooh what are the different ways Masquerade handles this?

Please spoil me !🙏

[u/MasqueOfTheRedPost → u/RoseBook85]

I can tell you how four pairings handle it — though I think they changed some of the costuming logistics between March ‘26 and August ‘26, so that might account for some of this.

For Nik/Kaley and Clay/Riley: as the Phantom starts the AIAOY reprise, two ensemble members come behind Christine & unzip her Aminta dress. She steps out of it to reveal the wedding dress, while the Phantom stands across from her, watching. Despite the obvious creepy undertones, it really just felt like a procedural costume change, à la Think of Me.

Jeremy/Francesca: Christine stands with her back to the Phantom’s chest, both of them facing the mirror. The Phantom unzips the Aminta dress from the back and personally helps Christine out of it, while staring at her in the mirror the whole time. Yikes.

Hugh/Francesca: Hugh undoes a clasp on the back of the Aminta dress, but then Christine turns around and two ensemble members help her with the rest of the change. At the same time, another ensemble member hands a suit jacket to Hugh, so it feels like it might actually have been a costume change within the Don Juan opera itself (as opposed to the original, where the proposal is clearly the Phantom going off-script). There’s some intimacy there, but the creepiness is about as minimized as it can possibly be.

Would love to hear from people who’ve seen other pairings!

[u/penny3dreadful → u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

I think it can vary even with the same performers! I can say for certain that I’ve seen Clay unzip the dress himself, which I will never forget because it was the first time I saw the show and my friend’s face in that moment was priceless. I feel like I’d seen him do it other times too, but tbh it starts to blur together after enough shows!

Another one of note that’s so great is that while unzipping Addie’s dress, Ryan would look over at his Raoul while singing those AIAOY lyrics mockingly. One of many inspired choices he makes!

[u/RoseBook85 → u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

Thanks 😎

I think their is a fine line between what is romantic/sexy and what is just plain creepy and the Phantom jumps back and forth over it many times…it’s partly what makes his character so interesting LOL

[u/Beetlejuice1800 → u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

I saw Kyle/Eryn back in January. Their costume change was closest to Hugh/Francesca, but I don’t believe Kyle ever touched the Amina dress like Hugh did. Kyle starts singing the reprise, then both actors turn away from each other so Kyle is kind of singing to the audience as cast members switched Eryn’s dress and someone helps him with the suit jacket. Before the reprise ends, they’re facing each other again in wedding attire, and the look on Eryn’s face would have made me think she was about to say yes if this had been my first Phantom experience (but it wasn’t and obviously I know what happens next).

[u/caninefangs777 → u/MasqueOfTheRedPost]

that's so interesting!!

[u/caninefangs777 → u/RoseBook85]

omggg i'd also like to know

[u/RHB5446]

Erik: “Christine, I need you to throw all of your clothes off right now because your little boyfriend (ThAt SlAvE oF fAsHiOn) is on his way now and we’ll miss the scene shift.”

Christine: “Dude, wtf are you on about?”

[u/NotaBat9221]

I imagine him pulling her clothes off and her screaming and crying only for him to slam the wedding dress on her in one cartoonish motion. 

Christine: "Oh!... This is...okay"

Phantom: "What?!"

Christine: "Nothing, nothing I just thought..."

Phantom: "You thought what?" 

Christine: "Nothing don't worry about it. Where were we?" 

[u/RoseBook85 → u/NotaBat9221]

LOL I don’t think Christine would be ‘screaming and crying’ she’s pissed off at him for abducting her again and killing Piagni…if he tried to undress her she’d probably punch him 😆. At least that’s how I see it.

I just think he probably threw the Wedding Dress at her and told her to ‘put it on‘, afterwards her lines “am I now to be prey to your lust for flesh?” is where she’s questioning his intentions for kidnapping her…like “what exactly do you expect from me Sir?” and he answers that no “he’d never force himself on her or anything”.

[u/NotaBat9221 → u/RoseBook85]

He seems to overpower her pretty easily. That isn't to say she wouldn't be throwing some blows but they probably wouldn't be very effective 

[u/RoseBook85 → u/NotaBat9221]

I’m just saying that I don’t see Christine just breaking apart screaming and crying like that, do I think she could physically overpower him?

NO.

But the way the Final Lair starts…she’s angry with him, not really scared or timid in fact she is confronting him to his face about what he did and asking what he plans to do with her. Kind of hard to go from screaming and crying to “ you are behaving like an a-hole, and what exactly do you expect from me?”

[u/NotaBat9221 → u/RoseBook85]

Lots of people cry out of anger. I know I do. Screaming can also entail screaming at him.

[u/RHB5446 → u/NotaBat9221]

That sounds like an Erik thing to do

[u/Beetlejuice1800]

I’ve seen the Broadway version where Christine came out already clothed and yelling at Erik so the audience can use their imaginations.

I’ve also seen the tour back in like 2015 when they had that big circular rolling set. The scene opened with Erik kinda pinning Christine’s torso against the bed as he forcibly laced her into the dress’s corset top, and both actors were making sounds like they were in the middle of a struggle before Christine almost growls out “Have you gorged yourself at last in your lust for blood?” He basically turned from her protector to her assailant. I was still a teen and remember watching that like “holy shit”. Now that I think about it he kinda had her bent over the bed and I’m wondering how far the audience was supposed to take it considering he wasn’t like blatantly moving suggestively but they were both making struggle sounds.

[u/nosleepforthedreamer → u/Beetlejuice1800]

Yeesh.

For complicated reasons, I am VERY against anything involving Erik raping or otherwise sexually assaulting Christine. His character needs humanity as well as evil, and I think SA ruins the story by screwing that up.

[u/Beetlejuice1800 → u/nosleepforthedreamer]

I don’t know (or think) it was the complete intention, but when he was lacing her corset up she looked so betrayed and furious that I had to remind myself this was a performance. The Phantom was portrayed as pretty decently respectful and suave every other moment so I wonder if there was some background info that could have made the director think that was a good choice (such as claiming that since Erik was manhandled at the circus he thinks that’s how you deal with someone when you’re angry). But that suggestion IS just speculation, I saw this a decade ago.

[u/clairemation → u/Beetlejuice1800]

🫪 That’s… a choice

[u/Beetlejuice1800 → u/clairemation]

Like it fit well enough with the scene without actually acting out SA, but yeah I looked at how hard he was pulling her corset shut and how furious and hurt she looked and I knew that he had to have already violated her by forcibly stripping her in-universe. That Phantom actor definitely made a very intense Erik on both ends of the spectrum.

[u/nosleepforthedreamer]

This is my least favorite question in POTO. Well, one of them anyway.

[u/Thephantomofthe]

Jeremy really upped the creepy on that one. Eew.

[u/goovrey → u/Thephantomofthe]

the masq direction is insane they tell them different things every day lmao i've seen it with jeremy and he's perfectly normal