One of the most inexplicable details of the film version of The Phantom of the Opera is that Christine confesses to her friend Meg that when she and Raoul were children, he nicknamed her Little Lotte. Lotte was a common diminutive nickname for Charlotte, not Christine. It seems that the dialogue was added simply to explain to the audience why they later sing a duet about Little Lotte.
So why does Andrew Lloyd Webber have a duet about Little Lotte in his musical? Simple. It’s in the original Gaston Leroux story.
Now we get to the heart of the problem. In the 1980s, when Phantom first debuted, no one knew who Little Lotte was. The casual reference in the lyrics didn’t make sense to most theatergoers. But by the time Leroux was writing his book, readers would have known exactly what he was referring to.
Little Lotte is a parlor game, similar to Twenty Questions, where one person knows the answer and other people try to guess it. But in this case, the person lists three items, and the others must guess which of the three Little Lotte prefers. The secret is hinted at by the name of the game: Little Lotte prefers elements with double consonants in their names.
So now we have the lyrics: Little Lotte thought: Do I like dolls, elves, or shoes?
The correct answer should be dolls because it has the double L. Since they both know the answer, they don’t bother to answer, they just pose the next set.
Or riddles or dresses? Or of chocolates?
Again, Lotte would prefer riddles, due to the double D.
You can see why the game quickly fell out of favor. Once you know the secret, there is no challenge. And that’s why modern theatergoers needed an explanation of who Little Lotte was.
