About the work
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical in two acts, with lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe and a book by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe, was premiered on 9 October 1986 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. Based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, the work became the longest-running Broadway production in history before closing in 2023 after 35 years and 13,981 performances. The Hamburg German-language production at the Neue Flora opened in 1990.
Plot
At the Paris Opéra in the 1880s, a mysterious masked figure known as the Phantom haunts the theatre. He has fallen in love with the young chorus singer Christine Daaé and secretly trains her voice. When the new owners promote the diva Carlotta over Christine, the Phantom unleashes sabotage—including the famous chandelier crash. Christine recognises her mysterious Angel of Music as a disfigured genius living in the opera house cellars. Torn between pity for the Phantom and love for her childhood friend Raoul, Christine is abducted. In the final confrontation, Christine's compassion breaks the Phantom's rage; he releases her and vanishes, leaving only his mask.
Cultural significance
The Phantom of the Opera is the most commercially successful theatrical work in history, with worldwide box office exceeding six billion dollars—more than any film franchise. The title role is among the most vocally demanding in musical theatre, requiring a baritone with operatic range. Sarah Brightman, the work's original Christine and Lloyd Webber's wife at the time of composition, became the template for the role. Joel Schumacher's 2004 film adaptation reached audiences who had never encountered stage musicals. The work's fusion of pop-operatic scale with gothic romance defined the blockbuster musical aesthetic of the 1980s.