For me, I was lucky that my university offered tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera right before Mother's Day. I celebrated the holiday early by taking my mother to see her first professional performance. I purchased tickets to see the musical on Monday, May 2, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. at the Majestic Theater in New York. We spent the day shopping in New York with some of my college friends. When we arrived at the theater, I was slightly disappointed by the size and crampedness of the theater, as my imagination always cited the large, spacious opera houses as the venue for all the Broadway shows. What the Majestic Theater lacks in size, it certainly makes up for in atmosphere. It was very beautiful and ornate and it was like stepping back in time. I immediately remembered the movie Moulin Rouge when I walked in. It definitely has a glamorous, glitzy Old Hollywood vibe, with deep tangerine curtains and mesmerizing dim lighting, which seemed to fit the musical perfectly. There were a lot of steep stairs to climb to get to our living area. We arrived about two minutes before the start. Therefore, as we tried to find our places in this 2 minute countdown, the lights went completely out, leaving us in a haze of confusion and darkness. Somehow an usher made his way over to us and helped us find our seats. Our seats were moderately comfortable, but because our seats were located in the mezzanine, our vision was sometimes obscured when something was happening upstage; we had to crouch down in our seats to see it. The music for The Phantom of the Opera was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The music was provided by a large orchestra; the instruments I noticed were violins and a harp. There were also percussion instruments, an organ, middle of paper ......r croaking like a frog and being terrified by a shaking chandelier. The Phantom shows his jealousy throughout the musical, and at one point he gives Christine a chilling warning about her closeness to Raoul. Hugh Panaro as The Phantom was interesting. He has a beautiful tenor voice and plays the role of the Phantom well. There were times when I thought he went a little too far with his acting in the final scene. I understand that an opera dramatically embellishes the gestures, but the final act seemed a little disingenuous to me. His voice made him too pretty and delicate for the role. In my imagination, the Phantom was more physically intimidating. Nonetheless, my mother and I really enjoyed the show. It's amazing how you can sit for an hour and a half, your body glued to the stage, as if it were 10 minutes. We plan to attend more Broadway shows in the near future..