The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera, award-winning stage musical by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, adapted from Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel of the same name. A romantic melodrama, The Phantom of the Opera premiered in London’s West End on October 9, 1986, and began its Broadway run on January 26, 1988. The passionate audience reaction to the production, stemming from both stages, has been described as “Phantom-mania.” In 2006 The Phantom of the Opera earned the title of Broadway’s longest-running production. It celebrated its 35th anniversary on Broadway in 2023 and closed later that year.

The Phantom of the Opera follows a gifted and beautiful young singer at the Paris Opéra, Christine Daaé, who is both haunted and mentored by a secretive music teacher she calls her “Angel of Music.” In actuality, Christine’s tutor is the titular “Phantom,” who nurtures a dangerous obsession with his protégée. Hiding his facial scars with an iconic white mask, the brilliant and troubled Phantom skulks beneath the opera house, making his home in an underground cavern. As the musical progresses, the Phantom’s ominous behavior intensifies: he manipulates the business of the opera, sabotages Christine’s rivals, kills those who thwart him, and eventually threatens the life of Raoul, Christine’s childhood friend with whom she is falling in love. The end of Act I exemplifies the glamor and spectacle the production became known for: as Christine bows to her audience after promising to run away with Raoul, the Phantom triggers a massive chandelier’s crash to the floor. Inspired by an actual accident in which a tiered chandelier fell on the Paris Opéra stage in 1896, the Broadway replica used 6,000 beads and weighed one ton.

Starring Michael Crawford (Phantom), Sarah Brightman (Christine), and Steve Barton (Raoul), the West End production earned an Olivier Award for musical of the year in 1986. The subsequent Broadway production quickly attracted an audience of devoted fans, colloquially called “phans.” In 1987 nearly $12 million in advance tickets had been sold by November for the show opening in January the next year. Audience hopefuls even queued overnight at the box office that year for a chance to purchase tickets. In addition to achieving massive commercial success, the show met with glowing critical reviews. At the 1988 Tony Awards ceremony, The Phantom of the Opera won in seven categories, including best musical and best actor in a musical for Crawford. In 1989 Phantom launched its first national tour, putting on more than 3,000 performances; the musical did not leave the touring circuit until 2010.

A feature film adaptation, directed by Joel Schumacher, was released in 2004. Though the film retained most of the songs from the stage musical, it found its cast away from the Broadway stage: its stars—Gerald Butler (Phantom), Emmy Rossum (Christine), and Patrick Wilson (Raoul)—were primarily film and television actors. The adaptation received mixed reviews: indeed, The New York Times described a divide between fans of the musical who were “enthusiastic about the new-fangled Phantom” versus those “outraged that Michael Crawford, the star of the original Broadway production,…does not play the lead.”

Love Never Dies, Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, premiered in the West End in 2010. The musical, which meets Christine, Raoul, and the Phantom about 10 years after the events of the original, was divisive but generally poorly received. For instance, The Times of London snarked that “for some, Love Never Dies is ‘Paint Never Dries.’ ” A filmed version of the live show was released in 2012.