Erik Behind the Mask — Review of The Phantom of the Opera, London 2026

Once, in the most famous opera house in Paris, a terrible fire broke out. During the tragedy, the prima donna died, while her fiancé — a talented composer — survived but was left with a horribly disfigured face. After the accident, he disappeared from public life and was never seen in the theatre again.

Soon, strange rumours began to spread. People said that the heartbroken musician had settled beneath the opera house and that, after his death, he became a ghost haunting the theatre’s dark corridors. Some even claimed that during one performance, the mysterious Phantom caused a huge chandelier to crash onto the stage.

Years later, a journalist arrived at the opera house to investigate the legend and discover whether the stories were true. But instead of writing a newspaper article that confirmed or denied the mystery, he created something entirely different. The journalist’s name was Gaston Leroux, and the story he published became one of the most famous novels in the world — The Phantom of the Opera.

The story itself is as simple as the world — a love triangle between a young singer, her childhood friend, a viscount, and a mysterious ghost — both brilliant and terrifying. In a sense, we see another version of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ only here the ‘beast’ is not a selfish prince who changes through love, but a broken man who no longer knows how to choose the right methods to achieve his goals.

Phantom or Erik, has spent his entire life rejected by society because of his appearance. Music becomes the only language through which he can express his pain, his love, and his desperation. He wasn't born a monster. Society made him that way.

That is what makes the story so tragic. Erik commits terrible acts, yet at the same time, the reader understands the loneliness and cruelty that shaped him into who he became. Christine rejects him not because of his ugly face, but because of the fear and suffering his actions bring. And at that moment, the reader realizes that if Erik had chosen a different path from the very beginning, he might truly have had a chance.

Unfortunately, this conflict is often overlooked. Most adaptations (unfortunately, including this one, at His Majesty's Theatre in London) focus mainly on the love story, forgetting about the complex psychological portrait of the antagonist.

Gaston Leroux reminds us that sometimes people become “monsters” not because they were born evil, but because the world never allowed them to be anything else. And not to judge people only by what we see on the outside — because behind every mask there may be a person simply hoping to be loved.