Phantom of the Opera

Help me make the music of the night...

Happy birthday, Phantom! 2022 is the show's 35th anniversary

Way back in 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber's masterpiece, a wild and major romantic fantasy based on the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux, opened in the West End. Whilst Webber and his collaborators hid at a bar around the corner awaiting the reviews, audiences immediately took to the epic rock opera and the tale of the tortured Phantom, played by Michael Crawford, their ecstatic reaction cementing the musical in pop culture forever.

Over three decades later, Phantom is still running at Her Majesty's Theatre. An era-defining classic, with a beloved campy electric hair-metal synth vibe, it has evolved into one of the West End's (and the world's) most successful shows. Due to continually high production values supporting breath-taking theatrical effects, it has stayed the distance, enthralling an estimated 140 million visitors. That's nearly twice the size of the British population!

As well as picking up 11 Olivier Awards throughout the years, Phantom has also received international accolades including seven Tony Awards on Broadway, five Mo Awards in Australia, and even its own Hollywood adaptation. 

Whether you're a returning Phan already aware of the thrilling events to come, or a Phantom innocent like Christine, there is always something for everyone in the opera-meets-fairy tale-spectacular.

What is the story?

Hidden in tunnels deep below the Paris Opera, there lies a mysterious deformed musical genius who stalks the halls and terrorizes the company. Grotesquely deformed, his face half-covered by his famous mask, his only happiness comes from his obsessive nighttime tutoring of the beautiful, orphaned chorus girl Christine Daae. Unseen, he teaches the young soprano to sing 'The Music of the Night.' Under the tutelage of her invisible 'Angel of Music', Christine blossoms, and steps out of the chorus and into the spotlight.

When Christine becomes engaged to another man, the Phantom is driven mad with jealousy and will stop at nothing to possess her, even murder. And so begins a tantalizing tale of forbidden love and supernatural adventure that will keep you in its clutches long after the last bar.

Did you know?

Could the Phantom be more than just a myth? Gaston Leroux's book is based on popular theories about the eerie Palais Garnier (The Paris Opera), some of which include a fatal but unexplained accident with a lavish chandelier in 1896, and the story of a grand and well-stocked lake said to lie deep in its foundations...