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Phantom of the Auditorium (1994) by R. L. Stine ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I read an ebook version of Phantom of the Auditorium for a book club. It is the 24th entry in the Goosebumps series.
Phantom of the Auditorium is about two friends – Brooke and Zeke – who love horror films and anything scary. When they try out for the school play, (named The Phantom) they are thrilled to find that they both landed the leads. According to legend, this play was originally supposed to be performed 72 years before when the school was brand new, but on opening day, the boy who was to play The Phantom disappeared and was never found. Now there is supposed to be a Phantom of the Auditorium who haunts the school. You’d think that, if there was a legend surrounding the school, all the kids would know about it, but this is the first time that anyone is ever hearing of it, and here we are.
Zeke is a well known prankster. For example, while the story of the Phantom is being told to the kids, Zeke sneaks out of the auditorium and gets a mask that keeps in his locker for emergencies and scares everyone in the room. My question was how did Brooke not notice he got up? He was sitting right next to her, supposedly. Oh, and someone threw an empty milk carton at him when they realize it’s just a prank. Why is there a milk carton in the auditorium? Ha-Ha!
Finally, Zeke gets kicked out of the play when he is accused of one last prank that we know he didn’t make. When he gets grounded, the original publication states “They even took away his VCR!” so that he couldn’t watch any scary movies. It’s unfortunate that the reprint has eliminated this line. My favorite part of reading these original versions is the nostalgia, and I love how there’s usually at least one thing to remind me that I am reading a book from the 90s.
Anyway, this leads the kids to go on a mission to find out who really did that last prank, and discover something they’d have never guessed.
I loved this book. It is my favorite Goosebumps book to date! I’d totally recommend reading this one, even if you don’t read any other Goosebumps books ever.
There were some parallels to 12 Screams of Christmas, such as the legend surrounding the play, and there is a hidden platform on the stage in both books.
Fun fact: There is actually a silent film that was released exactly 72 years before this book was published called Phantom, but it has nothing to do with the play mentioned in this book. It seems like this play is kind of a Phantom of the Opera type thing without the singing. It’s obvious that Phantom of the Opera was the R. L. Stine’s inspiration.
There’s a Goosebumps episode of Phantom of the Auditorium from the tv series. It is Season 1, Episode 7 of the series. Honestly, this was a terrible episode. It zips through and skims over things, totally changing the feel of the story. When the end comes, the viewer doesn’t even care about the solution. I think this would have really benefited from an hour long episode and much better actors. You may be thinking: It’s an episode of the Goosebumps tv series, how good were you expecting it to be? Well, Werewolf of Fever Swamp was fine. I was expecting it to at least be up to that standard!
There is also a successful stage musical that was first performed in 2016.
I can’t close out this post without mentioning this totally unrelated tidbit. Every time I hear the name Zeke, I think of this episode of Salute Your Shorts from 1991. In this scene, Michael gets a visit from Zeke the Plumber. This clip gave me such joy to watch again.
