pbs phantom of the opera 25th anniversary

Then with the Phantom, it was there!” Lyricists Later, in New York, Lloyd Webber found a second-hand copy of the original, long-out-of-print Leroux novel, which supplied the necessary inspiration to develop a musical: “I was actually writing something else at the time, and I realised that the reason I was hung up was because I was trying to write a major romantic story, and I had been trying to do that ever since I started my career. They screened both the 1925 Lon Chaney and the 1943 Claude Rains motion picture versions, but neither saw any effective way to make the leap from film to stage. He was aiming for a romantic piece, and suggested Gaston Leroux’s book The Phantom of the Opera as a basis. In 1984, Lloyd Webber contacted Cameron Mackintosh, the co-producer of Cats and Song and Dance, to propose a new musical. By 2011, it had been seen by over 130 million people in 145 cities across 27 countries, and continues to play in London and New York. With total estimated worldwide gross receipts of over $5.6 billion and total Broadway gross of $845 million, Phantom was the most financially successful entertainment event until The Lion King surpassed it in 2014.

It is the second longest-running West End musical, after Les Misérables, and the third longest-running West End show overall, after The Mousetrap. It is the longest running show in Broadway history by a wide margin, and celebrated its 10,000th Broadway performance on 11 February 2012, the first production ever to do so. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. The musical opened in London’s West End in 1986, and on Broadway in 1988. Based on the eponymous French novel by Gaston Leroux, its central plot revolves around a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.

Richard Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber wrote the musical’s book together. The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart.

Pbs phantom of the opera 25th anniversary