Stephanie Styles, Krystina Alabado, Will Roland - The Story of The Phantom

BROOKE
(To ZEKE) Ok. Put on your listening ears for five minutes.
Got them on? Good. Now just listen.

BROOKE
Long ago, there lived a man,
His name was Carlo, and he ran
An ancient theater where his daughter was the star.
With me?

ZEKE
Karla's the star, yeah.

BROOKE
No! His daughter's name is
Esmerelda, and she's famous,
People come to hear her sing from near and far.

ZEKE
Got it.

BROOKE
Good.
Now, there's a rumor going round
That in the tunnels underground,
There lives...

ZEKE
Wait, I know, can I guess?

BROOKE
Sure, if you can.

ZEKE
A mysterious phantom! Me! Right?

BROOKE
Right, well, mostly,
But the twist is that this ghostly
Evil presence isn't monster, but man.
Now, this man had been blessed
With a gift he possessed:
Musical talents completely unmatched.
But, as you often will find
In epic tales of this kind,
This gift came with a curse attached:
A face that was hideous
And so jarring
He wore a mask to cover all the scarring

ZEKE
Cool!

BROOKE
And lived underground inside a hole.

ZEKE
Wait, a hole? Why a hole?

BROOKE
All his life, he'd been tormented, teased, and taunted,
But now his hunters would become the haunted.
The world that always made him feel unwanted would hear the toll:
The sounds of a tortured soul.

ZEKE
Ok, so I was born with a lightning scar, got it.

BROOKE
No, no. Your typical, everyday scar.

ZEKE
Ohh, Scar like Lion King!

BROOKE
You know, you are actually the worst.
Listen up, you're gonna need to know this.

BROOKE
One day at his piano,
Distant sounds of a soprano
Drifted towards him from the theater above.

ZEKE
K, so this hole has a piano?

BROOKE
(Ignoring him)
Sweeter than a bird,
In all his life he'd never heard
A sound like this, and he was instantly in love.
The voice, of course, was Carlo's daughter,
And the Phantom went and sought her
To become his secret student, and his muse.
And if you think she found this oh-so-
Enigmatic virtuoso
Kinda creepy, then I've got some shocking news:
Because she fell, and fell hard.
He was battered and scarred,
But she could see that inside, there was more.
Something alluring, she'd find
In the sadness behind
That terrifying mask he wore.

ZEKE
Wait a minute, I'm your boyfriend? Are we gonna have to kiss?
That's gross, you're like my sister.

BROOKE
Zeke, it's called acting.
And though he was hideous,
And she was perfection,
Through music, they found their connection,
A bond beyond their own control.

ZEKE
You better not get sick, I am NOT kissing Tina!

BROOKE
And though his face tormented her and chilled her,
His compositions haunted her and thrilled her.
His mesmerizing melodies fulfilled her, made her whole...
The sounds of a tortured soul.

ZEKE
She was beautiful, and he was hideous...
Ok so this IS Beauty and the Beast?

BROOKE
Zeke, less talking. More listening.
'Cause here's where it gets interesting.

BROOKE
Ezzy has another man, some
Guy named Raoul who's tall and handsome,
And not all that pleased about her latest beau.

ZEKE
Ah, always a triangle.

BROOKE
Angrily, Raoul tracks him
To his lair, where he attacks him,
And they battle in the passageway below.

ZEKE
Awesome!

BROOKE
And when he took his last breath,
The Phantom welcomed his death;
He'd rather die than live apart.
When it was over and done,
Raoul had killed him—he'd won,
But he'd lost Esmerelda's heart.
'Cause though he was pretty, yes,
And a keeper,
The Phantom's love was so much deeper.
A loss that nothing could console.
No more, she'd see that face that once had chilled her.
No more, she'd hear that music that fulfilled her,
And people say that that's the thing that killed her, on the whole.
She ran away and was never seen again. But get this:
When they returned to find the Phantom and unmask it,
They never found a body for the casket.
They say he had, depending who you ask it, one last goal...

ZEKE
One last goal?

BROOKE
To this day, inside that theater, or near it,
If you listen very closely, you can hear it:
The songs of a tortured spirit's final role.
The sounds of a tortured soul.
That's the basic plot, anyway.

ZEKE
So it's about a person who died at a theater
And then haunts it forever?
BROOKE
Yes.

ZEKE
Brooke! That's just like the story Ms. Walker told!
This play is just like the story of our school.
That is so... meta. Man.