The phantom of the Opera musical

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.

The music is composed by Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Charles Hart. Additional lyrics are by Richard Stilgoe. The book was written by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. The central plot revolves around a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius.

The Phantom of the Opera opened in the West End in 1986, and on Broadway in 1988. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the 1986 Olivier and 1988 Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical. It is the longest-running Broadway show by a wide margin (celebrating its 10,000th performance on Broadway on February 11. 2012), the second longest-running West End musical, and the third longest-running West End show overall.

With total worldwide box office receipts of over $5.1 billion (£3.5 billion),[7] including a record-setting Broadway gross of US $845 million,[8] Phantom is the highest-grossing entertainment event of all time and the most financially successful theatrical show in history.[9][10] It had been seen by over 130 million people in 145 cities in 27 countries by 2011, the most successful entertainment project in history.[9]

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical version of The Phantom of the Opera is the most successful piece of entertainment of all time, produced in any media, and its success is continuing all over the world.

It is estimated that Phantom has been seen by more than 130 million people, and the total worldwide gross is now in excess of $5.6 billion.
The show has won over 50 major theatre awards including three Olivier Awards, the most recent being the 2002 Oliver Audience Award for Most Popular Show, an Evening Standard Award, seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, seven Drama Desk Awards and three Outer Critic Circle Awards.
The Phantom of the Opera opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London on 27th September 1986, so is now in its 26th year, and at the Majestic Theatre in New York on 9th January 1988.
The London production of The Phantom of the Opera celebrated its 25th Anniversary in October 2011 with a series of 3 performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The Phantom of the Opera became Broadway’s longest running show ever when it overtook the record set by Cats with its 7,486th performance on January 6th 2006. It is the only Broadway show ever to celebrate anniversaries through 18 to 25 years.
The West End production played its 10,000th performance on 23 October 2010.
The Broadway production played its 10,000th performance on 11th February 2012.
The box-office revenues are higher than any other film or stage play in history – including Titanic, ET and Star Wars.
The Phantom of the Opera has been produced in 145 cities, in 27 countries around the world, including UK, US, New Zealand, Japan, Austria, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, Korea, Denmark, Spain and Russia.
Playing worldwide it has been translated into no fewer than 15 languages.
The original cast album of The Phantom of the Opera was the first in British musical history to enter the music charts at number 1.
Album sales, including original cast recording, foreign language recordings, studio recordings and the film soundtrack now exceed 40 million.
The cast album has gone 6 times platinum in the US, twice platinum in the UK, 9 times platinum in German, 4 times platinum in the Netherlands, 11 times platinum in Korea and 31 times platinum in Taiwan.
Joel Schumacher directed a big screen version of the show which was released worldwide at the end of 2004. It starred Gerard Butler as The Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine, Patrick Wilson as Raoul and Minnie Driver as Carlotta.
‘Learn to Be Lonely’, a new song written for the movie, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2005 Oscars. Beyonce performed the song at the ceremony.
Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular opened in a purpose built theatre at the Venetian Resort Hotel on 24th June 2006. The production cost $75 million, making the new 95-minute version the most expensive musical extravaganza of all time.

In celebration of 25 glorious years, The Phantom of the Opera marked the occasion with 3 sell-out performances at the Royal Albert Hall.

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