the phantom of the opera.

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this amazing, spell binding piece of utter beauty, is my ultimate, and lifelong obsession. it is a book, written by gaston leroux, a french writer, and is in actual fact named la fantome de l'Opera, and was first published in 1909. the book was then adapted into a musical by sir andrew lloyd weber in 1986. i live and breathe it. i've read the book, i've seen the play, 3 times, i've watched the film, i own the dvd, i have the original play soundtrack, and the movie soundtrack, and i am actually fortunate enough to own an original record recording. this record, is what originally provoked my interest and obsession. when i was 7 years old, my daddy attended an aution. he wanted to buy some vintage piece of furniture that he wanted to restore. when he got it home, he found an old record player, with one record still in it. the record was the recording of the broadway musical of phantom of the opera by sir andrew lloyd weber. what the record was did not interest me, in the slighest, for all i cared it could have been playing the wheels on the bus! it was the record player i was interested in. i loved the smooth leather casing of the box, and how the lid lifted off to reveal the record player sitting inside. i liked to crank it up, and fiddled with the little pointly needle, placing it on the groves of the record.. and playing it over, and over and over. before i knew it, i knew every word, of every song from the phantom of the opera, and at this stage i still didn't even know the story, merely the songs. i didn't know if it was a band singing these songs, if it was from a play, a film, a tv show.. nothing. but i knew every single word, and i would sing along at the top of my lungs. until one day my daddy, completely out of the blue, asked me if i knew where those songs were from. upon replying no, i was shown the picture that was on the paper in the middle of the record, only to see a picture of a mask, but it was only a half mask. there and then daddy told me the story. how it was a book. how it was written many many years before he or i were born, and how a man called andrew lloyd weber had made it into a play, a musical, a year before i was born, and how he and my mum had seen it.. ever since then i've been completely and utterly obsessed! i just love it. the story, the songs, the words, the plot, the characters.. everything. does anyone else share my love?