It was a brisk evening as everyone was donned with coats, gloves, and hats as a group of eight French Honor Society members, one parent, and club advisor Madame Youse, piled into a bus that would take them into Philadelphia to get the chance to experience Broadway’s longest running show, Phantom of the Opera at the Kimmel Center’s Academy of Music on November 12th.

  Phantom ran for a limited time at the Kimmel Center, with the French Honor Society getting the chance to catch the opera-esque musical on the last show of its 12-day engagement. With stunning new staging and production by Cameron Mackintosh, the show was highly anticipated, as evidenced by the packed theatre.

  Derrick Davis starred as the tortured and enigmatic titular character with Jordan Ensign as the young and gifted Soprano, Christine Daée, whom the Phantom falls madly and obsessively in love with. Both Davis and Ensign are seasoned actors, whose past credits include Mufasa in The Lion King and Nannetta in Falstaff, respectively.

 The Kimmel Center was an opulent and magnificent venue adorned with gold and red detailing, a place that could easily measure up to the grand scale of Phantom. The French Honor Society was seated on the second balcony level almost directly across the stage with a full view of the show’s iconic chandelier, which played a part of its own, what with its occasional sparks and spits of fire throughout.

 After the show ended, members were in consensus that the show was well worth the trip, and to fittingly accompany the supernatural tone of the musical, told ghost stories for the rest of the trip home.