That Masked Man

Thanks very much to Barbara Isenberg for her excellent feature article “The Phantom Phenomenon” (May 31). As a somewhat-fanatical fan of “The Phantom of the Opera” and actor Davis Gaines, I find it gratifying to see such attention being focused on a production that has become an obsession (or near-obsession) for so many denizens of this city, in which the realities of day-to-day life do tend to be rather grim.

I am very disturbed by the prevailing notion of the production’s executives that “Phantom” will “wind down at some point next year.” With tickets for the show still so much in demand, why they would even entertain the idea of closing the show at this point is beyond me. As Isenberg’s piece so aptly observed, the Phantom represents for many a dream come to life.

I for one have come to absolutely depend on the sweet escapist pleasure that is readily available to me via the very gifted Gaines and his tantalizing characterization. An evening spent in the company of the “Angel of Music” is positively therapeutic. The Phantom fills my soul with his passion and makes all my worldly problems and frustrations simply vanish.

In this impersonal and oftentimes unfriendly city, where life is complex and reality hard to swallow, is it any wonder that so many of us cling desperately to the noble and enticing masked man of mystery? L.A. needs its “dream man,” and never more than now, in these times of social and economic trouble. Long live the fantasy!

CAROLE EASTMAN

Los Angeles

Reader Eastman is a writer but, she notes, not the screenwriter best known for “Five Easy Pieces.”

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