| The Phantom of the Opera | |
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| Music | Andrew Lloyd Webber |
| Lyrics | Charles Hart Richard Stilgoe (additional) |
| Book | Andrew Lloyd Webber Charles Hart Richard Stilgoe |
| Basis | 1910 book Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux |
| Productions | 1986 London 1988 Broadway, Vienna, Japan Tour #1 1989 Los Angeles, Stockholm, Toronto 1990 Melbourne, Chicago, Hamburg 1991 US Tour #1 1992 US Tour #2 1993 San Francisco, Sydney, Scheveningen, Manchester 1995 Edinburgh, Basel, Singapore, Hong Kong 1996 Australia/New Zealand Tour 1998 UK Tour Various international and sit down productions |
| Awards | Oliver Award for Best New Musical Tony Award for Best 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 was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator, but withdrew due to illness after some initial work on a single song, "Masquerade".[1][2] 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, celebrating its 25th anniversary in October 2011;[3] 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.[4] It is the longest-running Broadway show by a wide margin, the second longest-running West End musical, and the third longest-running West End show overall.[5][6]
With total worldwide box office receipts of over $5.1 billion (£3.5 billion),[7] including a Broadway gross of US $800 million, Phantom is the highest-grossing entertainment event of all time and the most financially successful theatrical show in history.[3][8] It had been seen by over 130 million people in 145 cities in 27 countries by 2011, the most successful entertainment project in history.[3]
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In 1984 Lloyd Webber contacted Cameron Mackintosh, the co-producer of Cats and Song and Dance, to propose a new musical. He was aiming for a romantic piece, and suggested Gaston Leroux's book The Phantom of the Opera as a basis. They screened both the 1925 Lon Chaney and the 1943 Claude Rains motion picture versions, but neither saw an effective way to make the leap from film to stage. 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:[9]
| “ | I was actually writing something else at the time, and I realized 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. Then with the Phantom, it was there!"[9] | ” |
Lloyd Webber first approached Jim Steinman to write the lyrics because of his "dark obsessive side", but he declined in order to fulfill his commitments on a Bonnie Tyler album.[10] Alan Jay Lerner was then recruited, but he became seriously ill after joining the project and was forced to withdraw; none of his contributions (mostly involving the song "Masquerade") are credited in the show. Richard Stilgoe, the lyricist for Starlight Express, wrote most of the original lyrics for the production. Charles Hart, a young and then-relatively unknown lyricist, later rewrote many of the lyrics, along with original lyrics for "Think of Me". Some of Stilgoe's original contributions are still present in the final version, however.[11]
Inspired in part by an earlier musical version of the same story by Ken Hill,[12] Lloyd Webber's score is sometimes operatic in style but maintains the form and structure of a musical throughout. The full-fledged operatic passages are reserved principally for subsidiary characters such as Andre and Firmin, Carlotta, and Piangi. They are also used to provide the content of the fictional "operas" that are taking place within the show itself, viz., Hannibal, Il Muto, and the Phantom's masterwork, Don Juan Triumphant. Here, Lloyd Webber pastiched various styles from the grand operas of Meyerbeer through to Mozart and even Gilbert and Sullivan (Coveney, 1999). These pieces are often presented as musical fragments, interrupted by dialogue or action sequences in order to clearly define the musical's "show within a show" format. The musical extracts from the Phantom's opera, "Don Juan Triumphant", during the latter stages of the show, are dissonant and modern—suggesting, perhaps, that the Phantom is ahead of his time artistically (Snelson, 2004).
Maria Björnson designed the sets and over 200 costumes, including the elaborate gowns in the "Masquerade" sequence. Her set designs, including such indelible elements as the chandelier, subterranean gondola, and the sweeping staircase, set a standard for stage spectacle seldom equalled, and earned her multiple awards.[13][14] Hal Prince, director of Cabaret, Candide, Follies, and Webber's Evita directed the production, while Gillian Lynne, associate director and choreographer of Cats provided the integral musical staging and choreography.
A preview of the first act was staged at Sydmonton (Lloyd Webber's home) in 1985, starring Colm Wilkinson (later the star of the Toronto production) as the Phantom, Sarah Brightman as Kristin (later Christine) and Clive Carter (later a member of the London cast) as Raoul. This very preliminary production used Richard Stilgoe's original unaltered lyrics, and many songs sported names that were later changed, such as "What Has Time Done to Me" ("Think of Me"), and "Papers" ("Notes"). The Phantom's original mask covered the entire face and remained in place throughout the performance, obscuring the actor's vision and muffling his voice. Björnson designed the now-iconic half-mask to replace it, and the unmasking sequence was added.[11] Clips of this preview performance were included on the DVD of the 2004 film production.[15]
Phantom began previews at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End on September 27, 1986 under the direction of Hal Prince, then opened on October 9. It was choreographed by Gillian Lynne and the sets were designed by Maria Björnson, with lighting by Andrew Bridge.[16] Michael Crawford starred in the title role with Sarah Brightman as Christine and Steve Barton as Raoul. It is the second longest-running musical in West End (and world) history behind Les Miserables, and third overall behind The Mousetrap and Les Miz.[17][18]
The production, still playing at Her Majesty's, celebrated its 10,000th performance at the matinée on 23 October 2010, with Lloyd Webber and the original Phantom, Michael Crawford, in attendance. A 25th-anniversary stage performance was held in London on 1 and 2 October 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall, with Lloyd Webber and several original cast members, including Crawford and Brightman, in attendance.[19]
Phantom began Broadway previews at the Majestic Theatre on January 9, 1988 and opened on January 26.[8][20] Crawford, Brightman, and Barton reprised their respective roles from the West End. The Broadway production continues to play at the Majestic, where it surpassed 9,500 performances in November 2010 and marked its 23rd anniversary in January 2011. It is, by over 2,000 performances, the longest-running show in Broadway history.[16]
The original casts of the major productions of The Phantom of the Opera:[21] :</ref>[2]
| Character | Original West End Cast | Original Broadway Cast | Original Canadian Cast | Original Las Vegas Cast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erik (The Phantom of the Opera) | Michael Crawford | Colm Wilkinson | Brent Barrett/Anthony Crivello‡ | |
| Christine Daaé | Sarah Brightman/Claire Moore† | Sarah Brightman/Patti Cohenour† | Rebecca Caine/Susan Cuthbert | Sierra Boggess/Elizabeth Loyacano‡ |
| Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny | Steve Barton | Byron Nease | Tim Martin Gleason | |
| Carlotta Giudicelli | Rosemary Ashe | Judy Kaye | Lyse Guerin | Elena Jeanne Batman/Geena Jeffries Mattox‡ |
| Madame Giry | Mary Millar | Leila Martin | Kristina Marie Guiguet | Rebecca Spencer |
| Meg Giry | Janet Devenish | Elisa Heinsohn | Donna Rubin | Brianne Kelly Morgan |
| Monsieur Richard Firmin | John Savident | Nicholas Wyman | Gregory Cross | Lawson Skala |
| Monsieur Gilles André | David Firth | Cris Groenendaal | Paul Massell | John Leslie Wolfe |
| Ubaldo Piangi | John Aron | David Romano | Peter Cormican | Larry Wayne Morbitt |
† The role of Christine Daaé is double-cast in most professional productions. The secondary actress performs the role twice a week (on Broadway, Thursday evening and Saturday matinée).[22]
‡ Three roles (The Phantom, Christine, and Carlotta) were double-cast in the original Las Vegas production, with the two actors in each pair singing alternate performances.[23] Las Vegas casting is now identical to that in the Broadway production, with single casting for all characters except Christine.[24]
At the Paris Opéra in 1911,[25] an auction of old props is underway. Lot 665, purchased by the elderly Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, is a music box in the shape of a monkey; he eyes it fondly, noting that its details appear "exactly as she said." Lot 666 is a shattered chandelier that, the auctioneer says, has a connection to "the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera…a mystery never fully explained." As the chandelier illuminates, reassembles itself, and slowly rises over the audience to its old position in the rafters, the years roll back and the Paris Opéra returns to its 1880s grandeur. ("Overture")
It is now 1881.[26] As Carlotta, the Opéra's resident soprano prima donna, rehearses for that evening's performance, a backdrop collapses without warning. "The Phantom! He's here!" the anxious cast members whisper. The Opera's new owners, Firmin and André, try to downplay the incident, but Carlotta refuses to continue and storms offstage. Madame Giry, the Opéra's ballet mistress, tells Firmin and André that Christine Daaé, a Swedish chorus girl and orphaned daughter of a prominent violinist, has been "well taught", and could sing Carlotta's role. With cancellation of the performance their only alternative, the owners reluctantly audition Christine, and to their surprise she is equal to the challenge. ("Think of Me")
Backstage after her triumphant début, Christine confesses to her best friend Meg (Madame Giry's daughter) that she knows her mysterious teacher only as an invisible "Angel of Music" ("Angel of Music"). The new patron, Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny, finds Christine, his old childhood playmate, in her dressing room. ("Little Lotte") Christine reminds Raoul about the "Angel of Music" stories that her late father used to tell them, and confides that the Angel has visited her, and taught her to sing. Raoul laughs at her "fantasies", and invites her to dinner. He exits, and a jealous Phantom appears in Christine's mirror in the guise of The Angel of Music. ("Angel of Music/The Mirror") Christine begs him to reveal himself. The Phantom obliges, then guides her into a ghostly underground realm. ("The Phantom of the Opera") They cross a subterranean lake to his secret lair beneath the opéra house, an eerie place containing a pipe organ, a throne, and a life-sized doll resembling Christine and clad in a wedding gown. The Phantom explains that he has chosen Christine to sing his music. ("The Music of the Night") She faints when the doll suddenly moves, and the Phantom puts her to bed, accompanied by further expressions of his love for her.
As the Phantom composes music at his organ ("I Remember…"), Christine awakens to the sound of the monkey music box. She slips up behind the Phantom, lifts his mask, and beholds his face. The Phantom rails at her curiosity, then ruefully expresses his longing to look normal—and to be loved by her. ("Stranger Than You Dreamt It")
Meanwhile, inside the opéra house, Joseph Buquet, the Opéra's chief stagehand who, like Madame Giry, inexplicably knows much about the Phantom, regales everyone with tales of the "Opéra Ghost" and his terrible Punjab lasso ("Magical Lasso"). Madame Giry warns Buquet to exercise restraint. In the managers’ office, Madame Giry delivers a note from the Phantom: he demands that Christine replace Carlotta in the new opera, Il Muto. ("Notes…") Firmin and André assure the enraged Carlotta that she will remain the star, ("Prima Donna") but during her performance, disaster strikes. ("Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh") The Phantom reduces Carlotta's voice to a frog-like croak. A backdrop lifts to reveal the corpse of Buquet, hanging from the rafters by the Punjab lasso.
In the ensuing mêlée, Christine escapes with Raoul to the roof, where she tells him about her subterranean rendezvous with the Phantom. Raoul is skeptical ("Why Have You Brought Me Here?/Raoul, I've Been There"), but swears to love and to protect her always. ("All I Ask of You") The Phantom, who has overheard their conversation, is heartbroken. He angrily vows revenge against Raoul ("All I Ask of You (Reprise)"), and the Opéra's mighty chandelier crashes to the floor as the curtain falls.
Six months later, in the midst of the gala masquerade ball the Phantom makes his first appearance since the chandelier disaster. ("Masquerade/Why So Silent?") He announces that he has written an opera entitled Don Juan Triumphant. He demands that it be produced immediately, with Christine, who is now engaged to Raoul, in the lead role. He then seizes Christine's engagement ring and vanishes. Raoul demands that Madame Giry tell him about the Phantom. She reluctantly replies that he is a brilliant musician and magician, born with a terrifyingly deformed face, who escaped from captivity in a traveling freak show and disappeared.
Raoul hatches a plan to use Don Juan Triumphant as a trap to capture the Phantom. ("Notes/Twisted Every Way") Christine, torn between her love for Raoul and her reluctance to see the Phantom imprisoned again, visits her father's grave. ("Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again") The Phantom appears, ("Wandering Child") but Raoul arrives to protect her. ("Bravo, Monsieur!") The Phantom declares war upon them both.
Don Juan Triumphant débuts, with Christine and Ubaldo Piangi, the Opéra's leading tenor, singing the lead roles. ("The Point of No Return") During their duet, Christine suddenly realises that she is singing not with Piangi, but with the Phantom himself. Christine tears off his mask to expose his hideous face to the audience, as Piangi is found strangled backstage. Seizing Christine, the Phantom flees the theatre, pursued by an angry mob led by Meg. Madame Giry tells Raoul about the Phantom's subterranean lair—and reminds him to beware the Punjab lasso.
In the lair, Christine is compelled to don the doll's wedding dress. ("Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer") Raoul finds the lair, but the Phantom captures him with his Punjab Lasso. He tells Christine that he will free Raoul if she agrees to stay with him forever; if she refuses, Raoul will die. ("Final Lair") Christine tells the Phantom that he is not unloved and alone, and kisses him. The Phantom, having experienced kindness and compassion for the first time, sets them both free. Christine returns the ring that he gave her,and the phantom tells her he loves her. She cries and forces herself to turn away and exits with Raoul. The Phantom, weeping, sings a brief reprise of "The Music of the Night" before sitting on his throne and covering himself with his cape. The mob storms the lair and Meg pulls away the cape—but the Phantom has vanished; only his mask remains.[27]
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The 27-piece orchestra is substantially larger than those used in most modern musicals:
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A pre-recorded track (organ, synthesisers, synthesised drums, electric guitars, and bass guitar) supplements the live orchestra during the overture and title song to prevent the noisy motorized props operating in the Journey to the Lair sequence from being amplified by the actors' microphones. The conductor and drummer listen to a click track on headphones to keep the live musicians synchronised with the track. Most of the Phantom's offstage voiceovers are pre-recorded, as is Christine's final note of the title song.
To reduce touring expenses, a downscaled orchestral arrangement was developed that included a third keyboard in lieu of the brass section, reduction of the woodwind section to three instruments, and a smaller string section. The smaller arrangement is also used in the Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular production.
Cast recordings have been made of the London,[28] German,[29] Canadian,[30] Austrian, Japanese, Mexican, Korean, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, and Hungarian productions.
The recording of the 1986 original London cast, released by Polydor Records in 1987, became the first album in British musical history to enter the UK albums chart at #1. It was released in both a single CD Highlights From The Phantom of the Opera and a two CD Phantom of the Opera, both of which have been certified 4× Platinum in the US.[31] Phantom was also certified 3× Platinum in the UK.[32] The Canadian cast recording went 2× Platinum in Canada.[33] In Switzerland, Phantom was certified 3× Platinum and Highlights was certified 2× Platinum.[34] Recordings of the Vienna cast and the Hamburg cast were certified Gold and triple Platinum, respectively, in Germany.[35]
A live recording of the October 2011 25th anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London is scheduled to be released,[36] along with Blu-Ray and DVD videos and a collectors' box set of the Royal Albert concert, the original cast recording, and the sequel, Love Never Dies.[36][37]
In 1987, the heirs of Giacomo Puccini charged in a lawsuit that the climactic phrase in "Music of the Night" closely resembled a similar phrase in the sequence "Quello che tacete" from Puccini's opera Girl of the Golden West.[38][39] The litigation was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.[40][41][42]
In 1990, a Baltimore songwriter named Ray Repp filed a lawsuit alleging that the title song from Phantom was based on a song that he wrote in 1978 called "Till You." After eight years of litigation — including an unsuccessful countersuit by Lloyd Webber claiming that "Till You" was itself a plagiarism of "Close Every Door" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat[43] — the jury found in Lloyd Webber's favor.[44]
Roger Waters has repeatedly claimed in interviews that the signature descending/ascending half-tone chord progression from Phantom's title song was plagiarised from the bass line of a track on the Pink Floyd album Meddle called "Echoes."[45] He has never taken any legal action ("Life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber"), but did add an insulting reference to Lloyd Webber in his song "It's a Miracle": "We cower in our shelters/With our hands over our ears/Lloyd Webber's awful stuff/Runs for years and years and years/An earthquake hits the theatre/But the operetta lingers/Then the piano lid comes down/And breaks his fucking fingers./It's a miracle!".[46]
Phantom has been translated into several languages and produced in over 25 countries on six continents. With only two exceptions (Hungary, Poland), these productions have all been “clones”, using the original staging, direction, sets and costume concepts.[47] International productions include the following:
An edited production renamed Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular opened 24 June 2006 at The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a theatre built specifically for the show to resemble the Opéra Garnier in Paris.[52] The production runs 95 minutes with no intermission, and was directed and choreographed by Harold Prince and Gillian Lynne, with scenic designs by David Rockwell. The show features updated technology and effects, including a re-engineered chandelier capable of reassembling in midair during the overture while the entire interior of the venue (not merely the stage) returns to its 1880s halcyon days.[23] Almost 45 minutes' worth of material was eliminated, such as the Don Juan Triumphant rehearsal. "Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh" and "The Point of No Return" were significantly shortened.[23] Other changes resembled those in the 2004 film, such as staging the chandelier crash at the plot's climax (during performance of "The Point of No Return") rather than mid-story.[24][53]
A film version, starring Gerard Butler as the Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine, Patrick Wilson as Raoul, and Minnie Driver as Carlotta, was released in December 2004.[54]
In September 2011, The Really Useful Group released the rights to The Phantom of the Opera, in celebration of its 25th anniversary. By agreement, any organisation, including schools and amateur dramatic groups, can now perform the musical. In December 2011, Stanwell School in Penarth, South Wales became the first school to perform Phantom under the new rights.[55]
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Laurence Olivier Award[56][57] | Best New Musical | Won | |
| Best Actor in a Musical | Michael Crawford | Won | ||
| Designer of the Year | Maria Björnson | Nominated | ||
| 2002 | Most Popular Show | Won | ||
A sequel, with a book by Lloyd Webber, Glenn Slater and Ben Elton, and lyrics by Slater, is called Love Never Dies.[59] It was loosely adapted from the 1999 novel The Phantom of Manhattan, written by Frederick Forsyth, who had collaborated with Lloyd Webber. Set in 1907 (a decade after the conclusion of Phantom according to the production's announcement,[60] but actually 26 years, since the original show was set in 1881),[26] Christine is invited to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction at Coney Island, by an anonymous impresario. With her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, she journeys to Brooklyn, New York, unaware that it is the Phantom who has arranged her appearance at the popular beach resort.[60][61]
The original production was directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell with set and costume designs by Bob Crowley,[59] Love Never Dies opened at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End on 9 March 2010, the first time a musical sequel had been staged in the West End,[62] and closed on 27 August 2011. The production received mixed reviews.[63][64][65] The musical was scheduled to open on Broadway in November 2010, but was postponed until Spring 2011[66] and later postponed indefinitely.[67] A revamped Australian production, starring Ben Lewis and Anna O'Byrne, opened 21 May 2011 at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne to more favorable reviews.[68][69][70][71] After the Melbourne run ends on 12 December 2011, the production is expected to move to the Capitol Theatre in Sydney in January 2012.[72]
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