The Frisky Boat

Submitted by Barbara H.

O.k. folks, here once again is the infamous Phantom boat story.

From the very beginning of rehearsals, the boat was not Michael's friend. They were plagued with problems with it in all three shows. On opening night in London, the cast was understandably nervous and excited. During the Journey (when Erik takes Christine through the mirror and down to his lair), the audience response was audible. The last half of the song takes place as Erik is poling the boat across the lake to his lair. The mist is rising, the candles are appearing out of the floor and the boat heads downstage. The audience went wild at the scene. Michael looked at Sarah and whispered, "Wow, this is great!" Just as he said that, the boat headed off stage instead of continuing downstage. So now he's got his back to the audience trying to sing and thinking frantically what to do. The boat then backs up back on to the stage and swings round to go down stage. It was meant to go all the way to the footlights but it jerks to a stop about two thirds of the way down. Now they're behind in the music and Michael is thinking, "I've got to get us out of this thing." So he throws down the pole, steps out of the boat and helps Sarah out of the boat. He turns her back to the audience and is walking her backward telling her, "Just follow me". He then turns her so she can sing her part. As she is singing to him, her eyes get very big and she starts jerking her head to the side. He's thinking,"God, she's really nervous or else she's drunk! But, she doesn't drink!" Just then, from behind him, the boat prow gets him between the legs with the lantern attached and lifts him off the ground. It is now moving him downstage with his feet off the floor. Now he's pissed. He gets off the boat, turns around and grabs it and flings it to one side. BTW, the more often he told the story, the heavier the boat got. It started out at 1 1/2 tons and went up to about 3 tons.

That's the basic story. The boat was his enemy. It caught him on several occasions from behind and would follow him across the stage butting him in the legs.

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