If you ignore Love Never Dies (as everyone should), I don't think either Christine or Raoul are presented badly in POTO. Christine is not that ambitious. She doesn't volunteer to take Carlotta's place; she only agrees after Meg Giry brings up the possibility. Christine misses her father badly and looks at the Phantom as a father figure. She's also only 19 or 20, so she's a bit young and naive.
Nothing that Raoul does in POTO is bad. He hasn't seen Christine in years when he sees her on stage. He's not drawn to her fame, but to her talent. He's an wealthy aristocrat; he doesn't need anything from Christine.
POTO romanticizes The Phantom's actions. He does a lot of bad things, but because he allegedly does them because of his unrequited love of Christine, it's okay. It's kind of like Dear Evan Hansen in that a lot of the protagonist's questionable behavior is excused away. I think POTO should not have had The Phantom kill anyone. It is unnecessary, and it brands him as a villain. Otherwise, he's playing tricks on Carlotta, who is arrogant, and the owners, and none of them are very sympathetically portrayed. He's scaring people, but he's not hurting them. But then he kills an innocent stagehand, which the show kind of glosses over. |
