I don't think you've got enough material -- or conflict -- for more than one act here; it would be a short epilogue to "Phantom", reaffirming the finale, rather than an entire show.
You're probably right. What do you suggest adding, then?
If I knew that, I'd have an entire plot waiting to be written! Something I can really do without right now -- I've already got the "Christine" Stephen King crossover idea plus the ghost of a "Sunset Boulevard idea" (and I'm not sure I can even remember the gist of that one, except that it was four(?) separate scenes, one for each character, with the canon ending averted and everybody thinks they're doing the right thing for everybody else, but it turns out Norma simply kills herself instead).
But you've probably heard me say already that 'it takes the intersection of two ideas to make a plot'; it's a favourite fiction-writing dictum of mine. One idea gives you no more than an opening scenario -- a mistake that all too many fic-fiction writers make -- but, generally speaking, it needs to interact with another piece of canon divergence/background lore/unexpected activity in order to produce a complete story. It's the spark between the two that generates the content. (I don't remember most of mine, but for "The Daaé Case" it was 'Why doesn't Hammerstein try to find his missing soloist?' plus 'If the detective encounters Raoul getting drunk in the bar, the whole bet won't happen', with the consequences arising from the *second* idea which wouldn't have existed without the first.)
In this case, I think the putative story needs a B-plot of some kind. My immediate instinct would be to give the protegée some backstory, because that's the way I work -- some kind of existing connection or goal of her own, so that she doesn't just exist as a cipher on which the Phantom can play out his desires, but has her own goal or concerns which can conflict with his. Maybe she has a brother who needs her to do something her master wouldn't like (shades of Marguerite and Armand St-Just). Maybe she had an ambition to do something else with her life before her new mentor discovered her singing talent, and something happens to remind her of that. Maybe a possibility that she gave up on years ago reopens by chance when she runs across somebody she used to know who has gone up in the world (the starving seamstress who used to live upstairs in the tenement and take care of her when her mother was out at work turns out to have found success and become Madame Arbuti, a famous Fifth Avenue designer -- and she still remembers the little girl whose dream was to make beautiful creations out of jewel-bright fabrics).
Or maybe your B-plot comes from giving greater depth to Christine and Raoul, instead of just having them turn up all shiny and happy and successful. Nobody's life is ever as perfect and trouble-free as it seems to the envious outsider. They have children -- maybe one of them is crippled, or epileptic, or suffering from one of those convenient Victorian terminal ailments that cause the sufferer to decline beautifully, and the secret reason why they have come to New York, not of course made known to the public, is because Christine is desperate to see if an American specialist can help where the doctors at home have all failed? Maybe they have problems back home that the Phantom knows nothing about (a misunderstanding that has laid the family open to blackmail? Raoul is worried about Christine becoming tired and irritable from trying to take on too many roles in one season, and she sees this as him being 'over-protective' and/or resenting her success? Arguing over an offer for a resident season abroad that will involve Christine leaving her family behind, as Raoul doesn't want to abandon his home?) Maybe they are facing an issue that the Phantom could actually potentially do something about (possibly by less-than-legal means) if he knew, and one or other of them doesn't want to tell him, either because Christine doesn't want to tempt him back into underhand ways or because Raoul doesn't want her indebted to him for anything of the sort?
So the Phantom is busy looking at their lives and thinking how perfect they are, and meanwhile they are worrying about trying to solve a completely different set of problems that have nothing to do with whether he might still be in love with Christine or not....
no subject
If I knew that, I'd have an entire plot waiting to be written! Something I can really do without right now -- I've already got the "Christine" Stephen King crossover idea plus the ghost of a "Sunset Boulevard idea" (and I'm not sure I can even remember the gist of that one, except that it was four(?) separate scenes, one for each character, with the canon ending averted and everybody thinks they're doing the right thing for everybody else, but it turns out Norma simply kills herself instead).
But you've probably heard me say already that 'it takes the intersection of two ideas to make a plot'; it's a favourite fiction-writing dictum of mine. One idea gives you no more than an opening scenario -- a mistake that all too many fic-fiction writers make -- but, generally speaking, it needs to interact with another piece of canon divergence/background lore/unexpected activity in order to produce a complete story. It's the spark between the two that generates the content. (I don't remember most of mine, but for "The Daaé Case" it was 'Why doesn't Hammerstein try to find his missing soloist?' plus 'If the detective encounters Raoul getting drunk in the bar, the whole bet won't happen', with the consequences arising from the *second* idea which wouldn't have existed without the first.)
In this case, I think the putative story needs a B-plot of some kind. My immediate instinct would be to give the protegée some backstory, because that's the way I work -- some kind of existing connection or goal of her own, so that she doesn't just exist as a cipher on which the Phantom can play out his desires, but has her own goal or concerns which can conflict with his. Maybe she has a brother who needs her to do something her master wouldn't like (shades of Marguerite and Armand St-Just). Maybe she had an ambition to do something else with her life before her new mentor discovered her singing talent, and something happens to remind her of that. Maybe a possibility that she gave up on years ago reopens by chance when she runs across somebody she used to know who has gone up in the world (the starving seamstress who used to live upstairs in the tenement and take care of her when her mother was out at work turns out to have found success and become Madame Arbuti, a famous Fifth Avenue designer -- and she still remembers the little girl whose dream was to make beautiful creations out of jewel-bright fabrics).
Or maybe your B-plot comes from giving greater depth to Christine and Raoul, instead of just having them turn up all shiny and happy and successful. Nobody's life is ever as perfect and trouble-free as it seems to the envious outsider. They have children -- maybe one of them is crippled, or epileptic, or suffering from one of those convenient Victorian terminal ailments that cause the sufferer to decline beautifully, and the secret reason why they have come to New York, not of course made known to the public, is because Christine is desperate to see if an American specialist can help where the doctors at home have all failed?
Maybe they have problems back home that the Phantom knows nothing about (a misunderstanding that has laid the family open to blackmail? Raoul is worried about Christine becoming tired and irritable from trying to take on too many roles in one season, and she sees this as him being 'over-protective' and/or resenting her success? Arguing over an offer for a resident season abroad that will involve Christine leaving her family behind, as Raoul doesn't want to abandon his home?) Maybe they are facing an issue that the Phantom could actually potentially do something about (possibly by less-than-legal means) if he knew, and one or other of them doesn't want to tell him, either because Christine doesn't want to tempt him back into underhand ways or because Raoul doesn't want her indebted to him for anything of the sort?
So the Phantom is busy looking at their lives and thinking how perfect they are, and meanwhile they are worrying about trying to solve a completely different set of problems that have nothing to do with whether he might still be in love with Christine or not....