Quote Originally Posted by julietvalcouer
Psst...unless they revamped when it's set on stage since I saw it (ten years ago, Toronto cast, Colm Wilkinson as the Phantom), the movie is set about ten years BACK in time. The play is 1881, IIRC, while the movie was, in some leap of logic possible only to someone totally ignorant of European history, in 1870. At the time, France was involved in the Franco-Prussian war, Paris was under seige, people were eating rats, and I believe the Opera House wasn't even finished being built yet.
Not to contradict you, but I'm going to contradict you.

My mother has a masters degree in costume design and teaches fashion history. She is the one who dated the time period of the costumes for me. I will ask her again next time I talk to her, but I don't think she's wrong. Even if the producers were attempting to set it in that time, I don't think they were succesful. Where are you getting your dates from?