There are many readers on this website who have only recently discovered the Phantom of the Opera, and therefore haven't been frequenting forums or chatrooms for very long. Could you give us a brief introduction of yourself?

Well, I've been a Phantom fan for aout 15 years now, and legally changed my name to Christine Daae on my 18th birthday. I also ran an international Phantom fan club, the Phantom Appreciation Society, for 3 years (which also had the second Phantom page ever on the Internet!). I'm British, but have also lived in California for 7 years.

How were you introduced to the Phantom of the Opera? When and how did this happen (which version of the story was in question)?

It was the original London cast recording of the Lloyd Webber musical - my sister borrowed the cassette tapes from a friend, and I just fell in love with it. I sought out the original novel, and every other version I could find, to learn as much as possible about the story and the character. The London show was still booked out a year in advance back then, so by the time I actually saw the show in person I'd seen the Charles Dance and Ken Hill versions, as well as one or two others I think. The first time I saw the show on stage it was actually a little disappointing, because the actor playing the Phantom (who will remain nameless) wasn't very good in the role. But the story had already won my heart.

Why do you think it made such an impact on you that you wanted to know more?

It was definitely the character of Erik, of the Phantom. It was the tragedy, his pain and his loneliness. I've suffered from severe depression from a young age, and at 15 I was extremely depressed, miserable at school, miserable in life, generally miserable. I spent most of my school years being suicidal most days. So obviously I identified with the Phantom's pain - I remember thinking that this was someone who could truly understand me, it was a character who was expressing the pain I felt, at a time when no one else seemed to understand at all. All I wanted to do back then was retreat into a hole and be left alone. Erik would have been the perfect person to do that with!

The Phantom has changed your life, can you tell us some of the things that you think wouldn't have happened to you, had you not become a phantom fan?

That's hard to answer because I have no way of separating my life now from what my life would have been if I hadn't been a fan... I've no idea what direction it would have taken. Most importantly, Phantom has lead to my deepest and most meaningful friendships and love affairs. I met my husband through Phantom, and all but about three of my other best friends. It's led to travel around the world, to jobs, it was wanting to find more other Phantom fans that got me onto the Internet. I can't really think of any area of my life that it hasn't touched in some way.

It is apparent that the ALW version is very close to your heart. How many times have you seen the show so far? And how many different Phantoms have you seen on stage?

I've seen the stage show 83 times, with 18 different Phantoms - planning on going to see John Owen Jones in the role next week! One of the wonderful things about live theatre is how much changes with different casts, and different actors give you completely different Phantoms. I love seeing what someone does to make the role their own, what unique touches they bring to it. My favourite Phantom remains Peter Karrie, as I haven't seen anyone else put the sheer level of detail into their performance that Peter does; there are also many sides to the character, from the romantic to the sexy to the threatening to the utterly devastated, and he's the only one I've seen who has captured them all with equal excellence. But I've seen so many actors who have brought something passionate and real to the role, from Peter Cousens' foetal position at the end to Ciaran Sheehan's incredibly sexy voice.

How much money do you think you have spent on the Phantom? Not just theatre tickets, but books, memorabilia...

I am far too afraid to think about it to answer that question... it's something I really, really prefer not to dwell on, since I'm now broke!!

What do you think is the craziest thing that you have done as a phantom fan?

Well, it has to be the name change really, doesn't it??

You changed your name to Christine Daae. What was the initial response you got after doing that? How do people react when they get to know of this?

The initial response was from my family, and family friends, who obviously thought I was insane, but were too British to have me sent to a mental hospital. I suppose they thought I would "grow out of it." Then when it became obvious that Phantom was doing me a lot of good (going from being a depressed heap on the floor to running an international fan club and fanzine), they accepted it.

With other people, it varies. They don't necessarily know that I changed my name until they've already gotten to know me. Then the reaction varies from anywhere from "cool!" to "you're crazy!" Actually I think people who actually know me are generally intrigued as to why I did it; I only get the "you're crazy" response in random emails from people who came across my website or something I've posted somewhere, and disagree passionately enough with me on some topic that they feel the need to send me insulting emails. Usually people who just hate all Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, or are furiously angry that I think Gerard Butler isn't a good enough singer for the role of the Phantom.

It's sometimes surprised me how many Phantom cast members have been so extremely generous to me in terms of backstage tours and things like that, since you'd think they would think I must be deranged. I suppose I must make a good enough impression in person to make up for the name change!

In your website you state, that one thing which is difficult for a female fan is to find a man that matches Erik. Is your husband a hardcore fan like you? How does the Phantom involve your everyday living?

Well, we dress up in masks, and get out our candles, and... No, no, sorry, I couldn't resist it. ;-)

My husband is a hardcore fan, but also a different sort of fan. He collects, he's a horder. He has vast files on tons of different Phantoms, filled with souvenir programs, reviews, print-outs of photos of them, etc. He likes to collect, I like to connect with other fans and discuss and debate. He hasn't seen the show as many times as I have, but then I lived near a city where it was playing, and he lived in a city where it's only played for about 5 years altogether.

We have various Phantom pictures on our walls, but it isn't necessarily particularly involved in our everyday living - except at times such as when the movie came out, when of course we were talking about it and I was arguing about it on the internet, and he was collecting things on it!

You have been an active online fan for a very long time and also ran the Phantom Appreciation Society for a few years. What kind of a role does the internet play to PotO and it's fans?

I think the internet is an amazing resource, for fans of almost anything. I remember the first time I found someone else who was a Phantom fan - I was amazed, that there was anyone else who felt about it in the same way that I do, who shared my love for Erik. Then when I first started getting in contact with other fans, which inspired me to start the PAS, it was a wonderful feeling. Now you can just go online and find all of that - thousands of people who feel the same way about something that you do, who can share recommendations of which books to read and movies to bother tracking down, who you can talk with about every aspect of the story and the characters. Before the internet, there were a couple of fanzines and a number of fan fiction anthologies, but you had to join fanclubs of actors and slowly get to hear about them - now it's all right there. And people had to put their money into printing things, charge money to send out copies, deal with foreign exchange rates and banks... I do miss some of the old POTO magazines because they had such good in-depth articles, but the internet makes things much faster and easier.

What different things have you had online in regards to the Phantom? And what kind of feedback have you recieved throughout the years?

The first page I had was for the Phantom Appreciation Society, just a bit about what it was and how to join. Then when a particularly bad bout of depression stopped me from functioning well enough to run the PAS, I put some of the articles from Beneath the Mask on the web, and started a discussion board. I was also on the committee of moderators for Karin Willison's Phantom of the Opera mailing list, which was the first Phantom fan discussion list online. And I was an early member of #phantom on IRC, which was more of a fun place for Phantom fans to chat about everything else in life than a Phantom site, but I made some great friends there.

The feedback has mostly been very positive, from fans who were glad to discover the resource, particularly when there weren't so many Phantom sites out there. The old list and boards had some wonderful discussions and debates. There were also the flame wars and people on other forums who liked to insult and harass us Phantom fans, probably because people are often scared by seeing others so passionate about something they can't understand. I've also always been opinionated and happy to be outspoken about my opinions, which has no doubt upset people I've disagreed with at times!

Why do you think people become phantom fans? What is it that touches them?

It varies, and for some people it's just a musical they happen to love; but for people who become devoted fans, I think there's almost always something deeper and more personal. Many Phantom fans have suffered from depression or some other kind of mental health problem; many fans have had body image issues, been anorexic or made miserable for being overweight, or just convinced they were ugly. I know that a number of fans have physical disabilities and identify with Erik because of that, and some have been scarred or disfigured themselves in some way, or had close friends or family members who were. There has to be something personal that touches us and draws us to the story, a reason we relate to Erik (or sometimes one of other misunderstood.

What is your overall opinion on phantom fans? Positive / Negative aspects.

There are many different kinds of fans, just as there are people. Mostly, I've found that Phantom fans are probably more intelligent than average, and more educated (though not necessarily through traditional means of education). Phantom fans often like to think deeply about things - the story can be appreciated as literature, or as a musical, but also on various psychological levels, mythological and archetypal levels, even spiritual levels. Many fans use Phantom as a way of looking at ourselves and our own lives, as well as in relation to the world, to love, to the meaning of life. It goes much deeper than being "just a story" to some of us.

Phantom fans can also be incredibly friendly to people who are virtually strangers, except for our shared love of Phantom. We send copies of movies to people for no other reason than that we remember hunting so hard for them ourselves; we form friendships, and support each other through difficult emotional times. Recently I had to do some work on a forum, and couldn't get various technical things to work. I was offered help from someone I know only through a Phantom board, who wouldn't even accept payment for the hours of work they put in on a forum they don't even post on! At their best, Phantom fans can be deeply caring and generous people.

Of course there has been the negative, too. Phantom attracts people who've suffered difficult things, including mental and emotional health problems. Some of them deal better with those things than others. People feeling passionately about things can lead to flame wars online, but the more seriously negative people can create problems in real life - mostly for the actors in the show. A number of Phantoms have had stalkers - probably anyone who's played the role for some time will have one or two scary stories. Fans who follow them home, hide in their bushes, even break into their houses or get into their hotel rooms by telling the hotel they're their wives. I worked on Peter Karrie's concert tour selling merchandise once, and was shown a few letters from fans to beware of, and it's sadly true that some fans are a lot more disturbingly nuts than someone who changes her name... There are people who convince themselves that the actors are their personal friends, then getting resentful because they think they should phone them and give them personal attention. Then there are the ones who convince themselves that the actor HAS given them personal attention, of a romantic kind, and get very resentful when they don't get any phone calls!

Thankfully these kinds of fans are a definite minority, but they can be extremely unpleasant, or even dangerous, for the actors to deal with.

You've seen all kinds of phantom fans over the years. Are there any clear common traits that most fans have? What kind of different types of fans have you noticed?

I think I probably answered that in my last response, and the one about what attracts us to Phantom. But briefly, I think most fans combine an interest in the creative arts in some way (whether it's singing or acting or writing or another kind of creativity), and something that makes us respond to Erik more deeply - something that has lead us to feel rejected, misunderstood, isolated, or in deep pain.

How do you think RUG responds to phantom fans? What kind of attitude have you recieved from these "official" places?

The RUG seems to have improved in recent years - in the past, they were pretty terrible. When they first got on the internet the first thing they did regarding fans was to start writing to fan websites reprimanding them for copyright infringement. In the first case this was Jason Emery's site, which was the first Phantom website and an excellent resource for fans, because he had the libretto of the OLC online. A libretto, it should be noted, which they sent out for free if you sent them a stamped addressed envelope! They should have been thanking him for saving them money on printing costs!

When I first started the PAS I did get a warm letter from them, but it was pretty much impossible to get them to send me information for the newsletter, even on simple things like cast updates. I then had a letter from them complaining when one of our covers included the logo in a collage, and because I ran an advertisement for a fan who was selling Phantom of the Opera balloon pins her parents had found (they were apparently unlicensed merchandise). I replied apologizing and asking if we could discuss an arrangement for us to use their logo in the fanzine, similar to the one Cameron Mackintosh had with the Les Miserables zine The Barricade, but never received the courtesy of a response.

They were also absolutely lousy in dealing with harassment of fans on their forums back then, and on including fans in any way at the time of the 10th anniversary of the show in London. Livent, which produced the show in Canada, held a week of special events for fans at the 5th anniversary there. The Really Useful Group, in stark contrast, accidentally sold a few tickets to the 10th anniversary performance before stopping sales and writing to fans with tickets to tell them there had been an error and their tickets were not valid. After vocal complains on their website forums, they placed a newspaper ad shortly before the event offering tickets (not the good seats, of course) to the general public via a lottery. They didn't tell the fan club about this, or provide any opportunity for fans to get tickets before opening it to everybody (again unlike Les Miserables, for which fans were given first chance to buy tickets to the 10th anniversary concert). The anniversary itself had Sarah Brightman and some past Phantoms sing a few songs at the end, followed by a cast, crew and employee only Masquerade party.

It took a year and a half long letter-writing campaign by Carrie Hernandez and the POTO Magazine to get fans a first chance of tickets to the Broadway 10th.

So my opinion of the Really Useful Group has always been pretty low. It does seem as if they're being more friendly and helpful towards fan sites now, and have certainly improved moderating of their forums since the old days! But we'll wait and see what Phantom's 20th anniversary in London brings...

To be honest, given how forthright I have been in sharing these opinions on the internet in the past, if they remember me at all they probably hate me by now!

There is a lot of information about you online, and some fans regard you as some sort of a celebrity. Has this extended beyond the internet?

Well in spite of my frequent expression of my feelings about the RUG, I have given them plenty of good publicity as the resident UK Phantom fan for the media over the years. At the time of the London 10th, I was interviewed by a number of newspapers and radio stations, as well as being on a couple of TV programs, as a Phantom fan. I became such a Phantom whore I even agreed to let The Sun do a piece, since they offered free tickets and champagne for me and a friend! (The Sun is a very trashy, right-wing British tabloid newspaper, which still runs topless girls on Page 3 - not something I would ever agree to appear in now my political consciousness has grown!)

I've also had a few people ask to take my photograph by the stage door, in the days when I used to queue up in London for returned tickets. In the summer the lines could be 6 or 7 hours long, so you inevitably got talking to other people in the queue. Ahh, those were the days!