The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway Tickets

By: Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lyrics by Charles Hart & Richard Stilgoe, with a Book by Richard Stilgoe & Andrew Lloyd Webber
Director: Harold Prince
Producer: Cameron Mackintosh & The Really Useful Theatre Company, Inc
Cast list: Ben Crawford (as The Phantom), Emilie Kouatchou (as Christine Daaé), Julia Udine (as Christine alternate), John Riddle (as Raoul), Nehal Joshi (as Monsieur André), Craig Bennett (as Monsieur Firmin), Raquel Suarez Groen (as Carlotta Giudicelli), Maree Johnson (as Madame Giry), Carlton Moe (as Ubaldo Piangi), Sara Esty (as Meg Giry)
Design: Maria Bjornson
Lighting: Andrew Bridge
Costume: Maria Bjornson
Choreography: Gillian Lynne
Sound: Mick Potter, based on original sound design by Martin Levan

The Phantom of the Opera features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, and a book by Webber and Stilgoe. Songs like the title track and “Masquerade” are now theatrical staples: Just try not to leave the theatre singing “Beware, the Phantom of the Opera” or “Think of me, think of me fondly.” Surprisingly, though, Phantom did not win the Best Book of a Musical or Best Original Score Tonys — they lost both to another musical theatre giant: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods.

The history of The Phantom of the Opera technically stretches back to 1910, when French author Gaston Leroux published the horror novel the musical is based on. That novel also received two film adaptations, in 1925 and 1943, which also inspired the Phantom musical. Webber conceived the stage show in 1985, and the production premiered in London’s West End in 1986 after an initial reading in Sydmonton, Webber’s English hometown, in 1985.

The Phantom of the Opera opened in New York in 1988 and became Broadway’s longest-running show on January 9, 2006. The musical is also the first Broadway show in history to play 8,000 performances, 9,000 performances, and so on through 13,000.

What to Watch For

• The character of Christine was originally named Kristin. Webber wrote the role for Sarah Brightman, his then-wife and the star of the original London and Broadway productions.
• The enormous replica of the Paris Opera House chandelier in The Phantom of the Opera has 6,000 beads and weighs one ton. Five people built the original version in four weeks.
• It takes two hours to apply the Phantom’s makeup (and 30 minutes to take it off). The prosthetics are covered by a mask, and each actor who plays the role has his own custom-molded mask.
• The Phantom of the Opera uses 400 pounds of dry ice each performance to create the Phantom’s underground lake. (And did you know that the real Palais Garnier, the opera house the Phantom one is based on, actually has an underground lake?)
• There are more than 150 trap doors in the production.
• Musicals don’t receive sequels often, but The Phantom of the Opera has one. It's called Love Never Dies and is set on Coney Island, where Christine and Raoul encounter the Phantom again 10 years later.
• Alan Jay Lerner, of Lerner and Loewe, was originally set to write the lyrics for Phantom, but he dropped out due to illness. Though uncredited now, he wrote much of the song “Masquerade.”