Glut your soul upon his accursed hideousness! Prepare for a phantasmagoric evening at the theatre! Master of horror, Chris Cook has penned a non-muscial version of Gaston Leroucx's Phantom of The Opera. This rendition is a faithful re-telling of the story of horribly deformed Erik and his abduction of reluctant soprano, Christine Daae. At plays' opening, a suspenseful ride of terror begins. . . The Paris Opera House has long been reported as a portal for hauntings, disturbances, and sightings of mysterious shapes and shadows. Disembodied voices emanate from the rafters and echo throughout the halls and cavernous sewers. Aftern an innocent man is killed, the two managers of the company are issued threats of continued murders. A self-described 'Opera Ghost' reveals his true identity and toturous mayhem ensues in a shocking climax. Lyricism abounds in this frightening portrait of unrequired love and adoration-turned-obsession. Bereft of commercial show-tunes and glitzy folderol, there is nothing Broadway about this Phantom. It is pure, unadulterated horror! "Chris, thanks for the book. This is great. Stay scared!" -George Romero, Director Night of the Living Dead
GASTON LEROUX'S PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
By Chris CookAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Chris Cook
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4389-3649-9Contents
SCENE 1 "A Duel to the Death".....................................3SCENE 2 "Company Meeting".........................................4SCENE 3 "Manifestation"...........................................14SCENE 4 "Ghost Stories"...........................................15SCENE 5 "Hung, Flung, and Sung"...................................24SCENE 6 "The New Margarita".......................................34SCENE 7 "Doctor's Orders".........................................39SCENE 8 "Box Five"................................................55SCENE 9 "A Bittersweet Rendezvous"................................59SCENE 10 "A Visit to Box Five"....................................69SCENE 11 "Of Horses and Hearses"..................................72SCENE 12 "Ultimatum"..............................................84SCENE 13 "Carlotta Croaks and a Smashing End".....................93SCENE 1 "Masquerade Ball".........................................103SCENE 2 "Aftermath"...............................................109SCENE 3 "The Enchanted Violin"....................................117SCENE 4 "The Lair"................................................125SCENE 5 "Mifroid Arrives".........................................132SCENE 6 "Dark Caverns"............................................138SCENE 7 "A Wedding Macabre".......................................141SCENE 8 "Barrels! Barrels!".......................................143SCENE 9 "Scorpion and Grasshopper"................................148SCENE 10 "The Living Corpse"......................................151SCENE 11 "Requiem"................................................153
Chapter One
ACT I
SCENE 1
"A Duel to the Death"
(At rise, we see the interior of the backstage area of a grand old theater in France. It is the Paris Opera House, circa 1885. It is also known as the National Academy of Music. The backstage is represented by a red velveteen grand drape, the backside of flats set at either side of the proscenium, yellowed and cracked billboards from previous operas, suspended sand bags, heavy roping stretched above from one end to another, a table littered with props, a full costume rack, rusty old metal buckets, a fire axe, lanterns, and a few cracked and yellowed posters from past seasons. A prompter's chair and music stand upon which is attached a lit lantern is situated backstage right. Backstage right serves as a "dressing room" with a couple of make-up tables, chairs and vanities.
High above red velvet curtaining, furthest away from the audience, we see the upper portion of a grand chandelier, presumably hanging directly over the stage. The whole area is dark, mysterious, and tinted with the patina of antiquity. It is certainly a place we can believe is haunted by ghosts of operatic performers long gone, long dead.
Suddenly, fast-paced orchestral music starts in and two men burst into the backstage with swords. It is Raoul and The Persian. In an explosive, exciting, and positively terrific duel, the men fight their way from the rafters and catwalk to the boxes, and from the dressing room spot back to the center of backstage. All the while they shout threats and epithets back and forth in French. Then, at the climax of the swordplay, Raoul "kills" The Persian. The death is dramatic, underscored by musical crescendo and riddled with stage blood. The dead man lies prostrate on the floor. Raoul is victorious. A beat and then out from the wings comes all the members of the company, most notably, the two new managers of the opera house. Everyone is applauding the impressive display of derring-do.)
SCENE 2
"Company Meeting"
MERCIER
Bravo! Bravo! My dear Raoul!
RAOUL
Merci beau coups, Monsieur Mercier.
MONCHARMIN
Absolutely splendid!
FIRMIN
An impressive display of derring-do, young man.
LACHENEL
I suppose you can get up now, young man.
THE PERSIAN
Merci beau coups, Messieurs. I thought you'd never ask.
MONCHARMIN
What may we inquire is the occasion of this little exhibit?
RAOUL
As I am a naval officer, I have been trained in the martial art of swordsmanship. With my friend as a partner in this exhibition, I have decided to present the company with a gift. As I am no actor, singer, performer, I felt that I might bestow your talented company members with a skill of mine own.
MERCIER
And you, Sir? Have you fancies of becoming a performer in the grand tradition?
THE PERSIAN
Oh, no, Monsieur. I, too, live vicariously through the works of your operatic performers.
FIRMIN
From whence do you hail?
THE PERSIAN
From Persia do I come in earnest intent to observe and learn from the tradition of your opera.
PHILLIPE
An announcement! My brother, Raoul, the Visconte de Chagney and myself do hereby sign on as your patrons of the company. We shall fund this season as our first endeavor of philanthropy of the arts and sciences of operatic performance.
(Applause. Then, Joseph Buquet, the principle stage hand, an old and haggard sort with an eye-patch, steps forward.)
BUQUET
Well, this is an eye-opening development! Funding for the arts is alive and well! With any luck, we may be able to finance the replacement of my patch with a finely-blown glass marble!
MERCIER
Ahhhh, Monsieur Bucket.
BUQUET
That's Buquet.
MERCIER
Oh, mais oui, of course. We will certainly do what we can to purchase a brand-new eyeball for you.
BUQUET
Much thanks to you, my dear Monsieur Mercier.
MERCIER
Well, on behalf of our benefactors and Le Government Francais, as Acting Manager, I feel it my duty to make another exciting announcement. As you all know, our previous and beloved managers, Monsieur Debienne and Monsieur Poligny have retired. It is my esteemed privilege and pleasure to formally introduce to you all our new managers, Monsieur Armand Moncharmin and Monsieur Richard Firmin.
(Enthusiastic applause. The managers smile and take a humble bow.)
MERCIER
Tonight we present a special performance in their honor ... Our very own Opera Compane Le Roi shall perform Seasons, an operatic revue. The greatest scenes from the greatest operas in history! With a bonus of dance by our very own Corps de Ballet.
(The five ladies of the Corps de Ballet curtsy. Enthusiastic applause.)
MONCHARMIN
While we appreciate your warm welcome, we were never told why your first two managers, Messieurs Debienne and Poligny have resigned.
MERCIER
Well, it's difficult to say. Salary, exhaustion, ... Who can say why anyone resigns?
BUQUET
I can tell you why they resigned!
(Lights gradually fade to an eerie glow. Dark mysterious music eases in and plays gently beneath the following monologue.)
BUQUET
This house of opera is haunted by an evil presence. The apparition manifests itself as a spirit of malevolence. So much blood has been spilled in the dark history of this building. And no one knows why the presence is here, yet many, including myself, have seen the image of this demon stalking the house from the stalls to the pit. From the cellars to the rafters ... Monsieurs, beware. The very sight of him will cause a loss of sanity. He is extraordinarily thin and his dress-coat hangs on a skeleton frame. His eyes are so deep that you can hardly see the fixed pupils. Just two big, black holes, as in a dead man's skull. His skin, which is stretched across his bones like a drumhead, is not white, but a nasty yellow. His nose cannot be seen side-face and is therefore little worth talking about. And the absence of that nose is a horrible thing to behold. All the hair he has is three or four long, white locks on his forehead and behind his ears. He is a sadist and on a quest to satiate his desire to spill innocent blood. And will surely seek to slay those he perceives to be overseers of the opera house. Namely, it's managers.
(Pause. Lights restore. Music out.)
BUQUET
Well, good luck to you both. I'm off!
MERCIER
But, Monsieur Bucket!
BUQUET
Buquet, sir. Buquet.
MERCIER
Oh, yes, yes, of course. Pardon, but what may we do to thwart these rampant hauntings?
BUQUET
Nothing. But stay vigilant, Messieurs, stay vigilant! I shall do my part.
MERCIER
That's the spirit, Monsieur Buquet. Well, keep your eye peeled. Pardon, poor choice of words ...
BUQUET
No offense, Monsieur. Now, my team of stage hands are just now commencing pre-show duties. I will have to request that we clear this backstage area as soon as is possible.
GABRIEL
Very well! Quickly! Quickly! House opens in ten minutes!
MERCIER
To the dressing rooms with all of you!
(Performers, Company members, and Corps de Ballet disperse. Sorelli stops the ballerinas.)
SORELLI
Not so fast, girls! Come back here. Let's run through the entre-act ballet. It will only take a moment. Take your places, please. Monsieur Gabriel, if you would—The symphony for the first entre-act, sil vous plait?
GABRIEL
Oui, Mademoiselle. With pleasure.
(Gabriel exits to the orchestra pit. The girls take their places. The two new managers, Moncharmin and Firmin enter and watch the ballerinas. The music begins and the girls dance. The piece is "Adoramus Te". The dance is appropriately upbeat, lively and perfectly executed. At the end, Sorelli and the corps de ballet practice their curtsy. The managers applaud. At just this moment, La Carlotta enters, shooing the girls away. They leave the backstage area and make their way to the dressing room. La Carlotta must have all the attention.)
LA CARLOTTA
Make way, please! Make way for me and my beautiful custom, please! We are both very big. I'm coming to work up my voice, please. Please, no one watches me to work up. This is secret and I need my privates as I am the star. No one to watch me, please! Everyone go away and allows me warm-up my breast.
(The managers begin to leave. La Carlotta sees this, panics and calls them back.)
LA CARLOTTA
All right. No hay problema. You two can stay if you insist.
(She takes them both by the hands and brings them back where they can watch her.)
LA CARLOTTA
So persistence are you! Who are these two little man?
MONCHARMIN
I am Armand Moncharmin and this is my partner, Richard Firmin. We are your two new managers.
LA CARLOTTA
Si, Senor. It is a pleasure to have me. And now I know who to blame for my discomforts. I am La Senora Carlotta, your star of the Seasons. A legend in my own mind. And who is this one?
FIRMIN
I am Richard Firmin. It is an honor to make your acquaintance.
LA CARLOTTA
It must be. Now, Senors, if you shall excuse mine talent ...
(La Carlotta goes into a ridiculous vocal warm-up. It sounds both painful, frightening, and humorous all at the same time. She contorts her body in embarrassing positions and assumes the "roles" of monkeys, goats, boars, and hyenas. The managers are stunned. She finishes.)
MONCHARMIN
Have you sufficiently warmed-up, Senora?
LA CARLOTTA
Si, I have sufficiently worn out my voice. Gracias. Por favor, give me my room to breath.
(She nearly trips as she is stopped in her tracks by the sight of a random leotard on the floor.)
LA CARLOTTA
Can you believe it? One of these puny ratons from the corpse de ballet have left her leopard upon the floors and temptations me to sprained my anchor. I cannot trip over any things back in this dark, filthy places. MIRA! Tippy-Toes! Come to the stages PRONTISSIMO!!!
(The ballerinas arrive, alarmed.)
LA CARLOTTA
You four brats clean up your basura! When I am returned, my noises shall pierce the air, for "great art", they say, "stings the senses"! Therefore, from my voice tonight, the ears of my audience shall be in great pain!
(La Carlotta exits to her dressing room.)
MEG
Of that there can be no doubt.
(End of Scene)
SCENE 3
"Manifestation"
(The girls laugh, pick up a few things from the floor and start to return to the corps de ballet dressing area. At this moment, ethereal music, lighting and fog creep in. The phantom manifests as if a strange apparition. He materializes as if made of fire, ice, and fog in the gloom of the room. The girls are frozen, rooted to the spot. As he gradually vanishes, the girls back out of the area. They run to the safety of Sorelli's dressing room.)
SCENE 4
"Ghost Stories"
The ballerinas enter the dressing room, startling Sorelli. They report what they have witnessed. Music fades as Jammes speaks.)
JAMMES
It's the ghost!
SORELLI
Mon dieux! You're a silly little fool!
JAMMES
I speak the truth!
SORELLI
Have you seen him?
JAMMES
As plainly as I see you now!
MEG
If that's the ghost, he's very ugly!
ALL
She's right. Oh, yes. Indeed. He is ugly. It's true!
CECILE
The ghost appeared to us in the shape of a gentleman in dress clothes, ...
NICOLE
He suddenly stood before us in the passage, ...
JAMMES
We never saw where he came from, ...
MEG
He seemed to have come straight through the wall!
SORELLI
Pooh! You see the ghost everywhere!
MEG
Joseph Buquet would do better to hold his tongue.
NICOLE
Why should he hold his tongue?
MEG
That's Mother's opinion.
SORELLI
And why is it your mother's opinion?
MEG
Hush! Mother says the ghost doesn't like being talked about.
JAMMES
And why does your mother say so?
MEG
Because, ... Because,.. nothing.
ALL
Come along! Fess up! Do tell! Share it, all Meg. Tell us all!
MEG
I swore not to tell!
ALL
Oh, come on! Please! You can reveal it to us! Yes, Share!
MEG
Well, it's because of the private box.
JAMMES
What private box?
MEG
The ghost's box!
ALL
Has the ghost a box? Oh, do tell us! Do tell us!
MEG
Not so loud! It's Box Five.
ALL
(sotto voce)
Box five? What is that? You know? Really? Box Five?
MEG
You know, the box on the grand tier, next to the stage-box, at house right.
SORELLI
Oh, nonsense.
MEG
I tell you it is. Mother has charge of it. But you swear you won't say a word?
ALL
Of course not! Nothing at all! Our lips are sealed! Of course!
MEG
Well, that's the ghost's box. No one has had it for over a month, except the ghost, and orders have been given at the box office that it must never be sold.
JAMMES
And does the ghost really come there?
MEG
Yes.
NICOLE
Then, somebody does come?
MEG
Why, no!
CECILE
The ghost comes, but there is nobody there.
NICOLE
If the ghost comes, then somebody must be there for he wears a dress coat and a death's head.
MEG
That's just it. The ghost is not seen. And he had no dress coat and no head! All that talk about his death's head and his head of fire is nonsense! There's nothing in it. You only hear him when he is in the box. Mother has never seen him, but she has heard him. Mother knows, because she gives him his programme.
SORELLI
Giry, child, you're getting at us.
(Enter Joseph Buquet. The girls are startled.)
BUQUET
Never you fear, young ladies. I know you've been talking. The look is on your faces. But remember, the opera ghost can only hurt you if he has access to your throats. For he is a strangler. When you're in the dark, keep a hand in front of your face. That way he cannot throw his noose about your neck.
MADAME GIRY
Monsieur Buquet! I'll appreciate your not upsetting our girls. All this talk of the opera ghost portends no good upon the theatre. Girls, you would do well to ignore his fantastical tales and you, Buquet, must tend to your duties ... Now, enough of this hysteria! Meg, no more!
MEG
Yes, Mother.
(Overture begins.)
MADAME GIRY
The show is starting! Beginners at places!
(General hubbub and scattering about backstage from company members.)
GABRIEL
You hear that? The overture! The orchestra has begun, the house is full! For tonight is the night of nights! We shall send off the former managers and ring in the new with heavenly voices and passionate song! The Paris Opera House, The National Academy of Music, L'Opera Compane Le Roi shall open the grandest of all seasons and La Carlotta will make history!
LACHENEL
But Monsieur Gabriel, shouldn't you be out there? Conducting the orchestra?
GABRIEL
Oh my! Mon dieu!, that's true. They've started without me. I'M ON MY WAY! Wait for me! Oh, my baton, ... Where is my baton? I left it in the foyer!
LACHENEL
Well, go get it!
GABRIEL
Monsieur Lachenel, stand in for me! Conduct them 'till I return!
(Gabriel is out of sight.)
LACHENEL
With what? My riding crop?
(Lachenel exits toward the pit.)
(End of Scene)
SCENE 5
"Hung, Flung, and Sung"
(Exciting music swells. It is clearly the start of the operatic revue. An animated Remy enters and begins summoning the company.)
REMY
BEGINNERS ON STAGE!!! Secondaries at places! The orchestra has begun! Where is Monsieur Conductor? Monsieur Gabriel!!!
(Costumed actors, stage hands in black garb, and a tuxedoed Mercier scatter about "back stage". Gabriel, dressed in his traditional tails seems to arrive late and with conductor's baton in hand, jolts out to lead his orchestra. In a state of hustle and bustle, actors take to the stage, ballerinas follow. La Carlotta and Christine Daae are left "backstage". The first operatic number is well underway "onstage". As they wait for their respective cues, the two ladies watch from "backstage", peeking at the action from cracks in the curtains. A shadowy figure appears at the top of the catwalk. Joseph Buquet, who enters the "backstage" area in order to place a water barrel and mugs for the performers, sees the figure. The ladies are oblivious.)
BUQUET
Hey! You, sir! Who are you?! You don't belong up there!
(The figure reacts to Buquet, yet stays where he is and does not respond.)
BUQUET
I'm speaking to you, stranger! Come down this instant!
(Buquet makes his way to the catwalk ladder and begins ascending.)
BUQUET
I'll escort you myself, forthwith! Stay put and hide not, for I've got my eye on you!
(The opera music from "onstage" builds and builds, underscoring the suspense on the catwalk. Just as a soprano hits a high note, Buquet reaches the platform but cannot find the stranger, as he appears to have vanished momentarily. Then, as Buquet turns his back on the shadow, a noose is tossed around his neck. A struggle. The noose is tightened, the dark man flings Buquet over the edge, we see a body hang from the rope and hear the crash of a symphonic crescendo from "onstage". The mysterious shadow vanishes. La Carlotta has turned just in time to witness the murder. She screams, faints. Mercier and Remy run in. Christine goes to La Carlotta who is now on the floor.)
MERCIER
MON DIEU! What in heaven's name! Remy, cut him down! La Carlotta!
(Remy exits. Joseph Buquet's body is cut down. He is placed on the floor to the opposite side of where La Carlotta has her fainting spell.)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from GASTON LEROUX'S PHANTOM OF THE OPERAby Chris Cook Copyright © 2012 by Chris Cook. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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