History Awesome / ThePhantomOfTheOpera

** After the Phantom makes the backdrop fall near her, we get a good glance at just how much iron resolve Carlotta has. When told that "accidents do happen", how does she react? She chews him out and storms off. She endured this crap from the Phantom and the management for ''years'' and is rightfully pissed about it. Say what you will about Carlotta being a spoiled and temperamental prima donna but just the fact that she's had enough and isn't afraid to storm off right when they're about to open a show and leave them high and dry shows that she'll endure a lot but will stand up for herself when pushed hard enough.

** Come to think of it, during the ENTIRE FREAKING MUSICAL, Raoul is the only character who never has any of the Phantom's shit. Even when he's threatened to be killed by him.
*** Subverted in the novel, where he's basically a spoiled young noble who distrusts Christine at the height of her dilemma, faints as soon as he sees Erik in the graveyard, and hopeless flops his rescue mission even with the Persian to help him.
*** Eh, YMMV on that one since Raoul is put through even more in the novel than he is in the musical - he's explicitly threatened with disinheritance if he keeps seeing Christine (which was a ''big'' deal back then...and he still keeps seeing Christine), his older brother is murdered by Erik, he is ''tortured and almost killed twice'' when he goes to save Christine... And he never gives up. ''And'' he's one of the (very few) characters to stay rational and sensible about what the Phantom is. For an admittedly sheltered 21 year old, he actually does pretty well.

* Christine's performance in "The Point of No Return". She starts out playing a naive girl with "no thoughts inside her head but thoughts of love". The narrative tells us that she is merely an object to be seduced by the protagonist (which is arguably how Christine herself is treated throughout the film). But then when we come to Past the Point of No Return, Christine flips the narrative. Instead of being seduced, she's the one doing the seducing, which, judging by both the Phantom and Raoul's reactions, ''no one'' expected her to be capable of. Whether she's taking charge of her sexual desire for the Phantom or manipulating him into the line of fire is unclear and often depends on the adaptation, but either way it's awesome.
** When the show returned to Broadway after the pandemic-forced shutdown, there was a significant change in the staging. Instead of running away in fear after realizing that it's the Phantom she's singing with, Christine continues to sing and even waves off the men wanting to rescue her. Although she's still frightened of him, she's clearly determined to face him on her own.

** Made even more so by the fact that two of the other characters say earlier [[TemptingFate "What a pity that the Phantom can't be here."]]

* Christine's performance in "Don Juan". She starts out playing a naive girl with "no thoughts inside her head but thoughts of love". The narrative tells us that she is merely an object to be seduced by the protagonist (which is arguably how Christine herself is treated throughout the film). But then when we come to Past the Point of No Return, Christine flips the narrative. Instead of being seduced, she's the one doing the seducing, which, judging by both the Phantom and Raoul's reactions, ''no one'' expected her to be capable of. Whether she's taking charge of her sexual desire for the Phantom or manipulating him into the line of fire is unclear and often depends on the adaptation, but either way it's awesome.

* For the Broadway show's 30th anniversary, Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared with producer Cameron Mackintosh to kick things off with the cast of Film/SchoolOfRock (another of his productions) to play the theme in rock style, the way he'd always wanted it. And who should be singing but the original Christine herself, Sarah Brightman. It's capped off by them bringing out the entire "Class of 1986", as Mackintosh called them, to sing "Masquerade".
* When Carlotta accuses Christine of being in league with the Phantom, Christine ''refuses'' to be victim-blamed, getting right up in her face and screaming, "How dare you! You evil woman -- this isn't my fault!" Especially impressive since up until now, she's spent the entire song silently watching everyone else argue and freaking out about what Erik might do to her.

!!The Silent Film

* The unmasking scene. Lon Chaney's self-applied makeup was so incredibly well done, that some audience members in 1925 were reported to have fainted upon seeing his face. Still scary today, in a JumpScare sort of way.

* The Overture is one - the SET rises from its collapsed form on the stage ([[RunningGag as well as "something about a chandelier" doing the same]]). The Las Vegas production took it to the next level, with the chandelier reassembling from four pieces and dropping over the audience, only stopping just above them.

* Um... Something about a chandelier at the end of Act I.

** Even more badass when you consider that Raoul is almost certainly [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu provoking the Phantom in hopes that Erik will kill him]] and, by the terms of the bargain, free Christine.

* The Overture is one - the SET rises from its collapsed form on the stage ([[RunningGag as well as "something about a chandelier" doing the same]]).

** Even more badass when you consider that Raoul is almost certainly provoking the Phantom in hopes that Erik will kill him and, by the terms of the bargain, free Christine.