Remembering Steven Bach: Phantom of the Opera

I’m not a very original guy. I have been known, on occasions, to hear someone I consider intelligent and funny make a witty observation, and then rip-it, verbatim, into my own observations where applicable. You could probably compare it to a child, mimicking his parent’s movements in play – and while it’s cute then, even useful, it isn’t a terribly attractive habit in older people.

Nevertheless, I am guilty of it, and a great deal of them come from Steven Bach. I’m going to share my favorite here, knowing full well it means I will never be able to use it again, but I feel it is only fair to give Steven his due.

One day in class, we were talking about current movies dealing with musicals and operas. The Joel Shumacher [of infamous Bat-nipple fame] remake of “Phantom of the Opera” came up, and Steven said this:

“Yes, I saw Phantoms, and I’ll tell you exactly what I think. The whole movie could have been done perfectly, and it wasn’t, but it could have been, and when those lit candelabras rose out of the water, all I could think was ‘Who in the fuck green lighted that?’”