The Phantom of the Opera (1986 Musical)



The Phantom of the Opera is a musical/opera 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. Additional lyrics were written by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator, but he withdrew after completing work on a single song, Masquerade, and died shortly thereafter. 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 is the longest-running musical in Broadway history, the second-longest-running West End musical, and arguably the world's most financially successful single entertainment project to date. Phantom won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (as the phantom) won the 1986 Olivier and 1988 Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical. The show has been seen in 149 cities in 25 countries, and has played to over 100 million people. With total worldwide box office receipts of over £3.5bn ($5.1bn), Phantom is the highest-grossing entertainment event of all time. The New York production alone has grossed US $715 million, making it the most financially successful Broadway show in history.

West End
Inspired by an earlier musical version of the same story by Ken Hill, Phantom began previews at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End on 27 September, 1986 and opened on 9 October under the direction of Hal Prince. It was choreographed by Gillian Lynne and the sets were designed by Maria Björnson, with lighting by Andrew Bridge.[10]

Michael Crawford starred as the titular character, Sarah Brightman as Christine, and Steve Barton as Raoul. The show is still playing at Her Majesty's, celebrating its 24th anniversary in October 2010, and celebrated its 10,000th performance at the matinée on 23rd October, 2010; both Andrew Lloyd Webber and the original Phantom, Michael Crawford, were in attendance. It is the second longest-running West End musical in history behind Les Miserables.

Broadway
Phantom began Broadway previews at the Majestic Theatre on 9 January, 1988 and opened on 26 January. Crawford, Brightman and Barton reprised their respective roles from the London production. In 2009 the Broadway production marked its nine thousandth performance and is currently the longest-running musical in Broadway history celebrating 23 years in January of 2011.

Musical Idea
In the northern hemisphere winter of 1984, Cameron Mackintosh, the co-producer of Cats and Song and Dance received a phone call. Andrew Lloyd Webber was looking to create a new musical. He was aiming for a romantic piece, but having trouble reining in a worthwhile idea, and, hitting upon the idea of using Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera as a base, he pitched the idea. Mackintosh and Lloyd Webber screened both the 1925 Lon Chaney and the 1943 Claude Rains versions but neither were able to gain any material that might be useful in making the leap from book to stage. While in New York, Lloyd Webber tracked down a second hand copy of the long out-of-print original Leroux novel, from which his attitude to the material was transformed;


 * “ 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!" ”

From there, Lloyd Webber began work developing Phantom of the Opera to fit into musical form.

Lyricists and Lyrics
Lloyd Webber approached Jim Steinman to write the lyrics because of his "dark obsessive side", but the writer/producer declined in order to fulfil his commitments on a Bonnie Tyler album. The pair did eventually collaborate on Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of Whistle Down the Wind.

Alan Jay Lerner was then recruited, but died soon after beginning the project, and none of his contributions remained in the show. Richard Stilgoe, who also wrote the lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express, then wrote lyrics for the production, as well as devising most of the titles for the songs. However, the composer felt that Stilgoe's lyrics were too witty and clever, rather than romantic. Charles Hart, a young and relatively unknown lyricist was invited to rewrite the lyrics, even contributing almost solely to an unplaced tune by Lloyd Webber, which later became "Think of Me". Some of Stilgoe's original contributions are still present in the final version.

Musical Scoring
Lloyd Webber's score is sometimes operatic in style but he maintains the form and structure of a musical throughout. The fully-fledged operatic writing is reserved principally for the subsidiary characters such as the theatre managers, Andre and Firmin; their Prima Donna, Crlotta; and principal tenor, Piangi. Fittingly, it is 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 affectionately pastiches 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 we hear from the Phantom's opera, "Don Juan Triumphant", during the latter stages of the show, are much more dissonant and modern – suggesting, perhaps, that the phantom is ahead of his time artistically (Snelson, 2004). This is also displayed when The Phantom makes his entrance on the show's title song. Andrew had said himself that the title song was "Rock n' roll merely masquerading as opera". For the characters of Christine, the Phantom, and Raoul, the direct and "natural" style of modern song is used rather than the more decorative aspects of aria; their material provides the musical centre of the piece.

Costume Designs and Ideas
For the costume and set design of the show, Maria Björnson was recruited. She alone designed over 200 costumes, the most spectacular of all shown in the Masquerade sequence. Björnson went into meticulous detail with the sets, visiting the real Paris opera house in which the story is set to gain a feel for what the look of the show should be and grasp the feeling of 1880s theatre.

Direction of the Musical
Hal Prince, director of such theatrical classics as Cabaret, Candide, Follies, and Webber's Evita was chosen. He proved an excellent choice and worked closely with the crew and cast to get the best possible performances of everyone.

Preview at Sydmonton
The first act of The Phantom of the Opera was staged at Sydmonton (Andrew Lloyd Webber's home). It starred Colm Wilkinson as the Phantom (who would go on to play the Phantom in the Toronto production from 1989 until 1994), Sarah Brightman as Kristin (the name was eventually changed to Christine) and Clive Carter as Raoul (who would also go on to play Raoul in London in 1994). The lyrics were written by Richard Stilgoe. The preview was very different from the final version of the show. Most of the songs had different names. For example, "Think of Me" was originally "What Has Time Done to Me", and "Notes" was originally "Papers". In addition, the Phantom's mask was changed to a silver mask that covered the eyes and nose instead of the current half-mask, as it obstructed the actor playing the Phantom's vision and obscured his face too completely from the audience. The unmasking sequence was excluded. The preview received mixed reviews. Short clips of the preview performance are featured on disc 2 of the DVD of the 2004 film version.

Prolog
At the Paris Opéra in 1911, 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 which, 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 theatre returns to its 1880s grandeur. ("Overture")

Act I
It is now 1881. 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 excited 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. Rather than cancel the performance, the owners reluctantly audition Christine, and to their surprise, she is equal to the challenge. ("Think of Me")

Backstage after her triumphant debut, 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 childhood friend, 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 does not believe her, but invites her to dinner. After Raoul leaves, a very jealous Angel of Music's booming voice announces his displeasure at Raoul's presence. ("Angel of Music/The Mirror") Christine beseeches him to reveal himself, and the Phantom's image appears in her dressing room mirror. He guides Christine through the mirror into a ghostly underground realm. ("The Phantom of the Opera") They cross a subterranean lake to his secret lair deep beneath the Opera House, an eerie place containing a pipe organ and a throne. The Phantom explains that he has chosen Christine to sing his music. He urges her to forget the life she knew before. ("The Music of the Night"). He shows Christine a life-sized doll in her image, clothed in a wedding gown. She faints, and the Phantom puts her to bed, once again restating his feelings 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 against her curiosity, then ruefully expresses his longing to look normal and to be loved by Christine ("Stranger Than You Dreamt It").

In the Opera House, Joseph Buquet, the Opéra's chief stagehand, who (like Mme. Giry) inexplicably knows a lot about the Phantom, regales everyone with tales of the "Opera Ghost" and his terrible Punjab lasso ("Magical Lasso"). Mme. 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 Andre 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. The backdrop lifts to reveal the corpse of Buquet, hanging from the rafters by the Punjab lasso.

In the ensuing melee, 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 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 Opera's mighty chandelier crashes to the floor as the curtain falls.

Act II
Six months later, in the midst of the gala masquerade ball ("Masquerade"), the Phantom makes his first appearance since the chandelier disaster. He announces that he has written an opera entitled Don Juan Triumphant. He demands that it be produced immediately ("Why So Silent?"), 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 replies that he is a brilliant musician and magician, born with a terrifyingly deformed face, who she helped escape from captivity in a traveling freak show by hiding him in the opera theater.

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 debuts, with Christine and Ubaldo Piangi, the Opéra's leading tenor, singing the lead roles. ("The Point of No Return") During their duet, Christine suddenly realizes she is singing not with Piangi, but the Phantom himself. Christine tears off his mask to expose his hideous face to the audience, as Piangi is found strangled backstage. The Phantom seizes Christine and flees the theatre. A mob is soon in hot pursuit. Madame Giry tells Raoul about the Phantom's subterranean lair, reminding 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 he will free Raoul if she agrees to stay with him forever; if she refuses, Raoul will die. ("Final Lair") Christine tells the Phantom it is his soul, not his face, that is distorted, and kisses him. The Phantom, having experienced kindness and compassion for the first time, sets them both free. Christine returns the ring he gave her, and listens in pity as he tells her he loves her. She then forces herself to turn away, and leaves 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.

Act I

 * 1) "Prologue"
 * 2) "Overture"
 * 3) "Hannibal" – Carlotta, Piangi, Chorus and Ballet Girls
 * 4) "Think of Me" (Part 1) – Carlotta, Ballet Girls, André and Buquet
 * 5) "Think of Me" (Part 2) – Christine and Raoul
 * 6) "Angel of Music" – Meg and Christine
 * 7) "Little Lotte/The Mirror (Angel of Music)" – Christine, Raoul and Phantom
 * 8) "The Phantom of the Opera" – Phantom and Christine
 * 9) "The Music of the Night" – Phantom
 * 10) "I Remember/Stranger than You Dreamt It" – Christine and Phantom
 * 11) "Magical Lasso" – Buquet, Meg, Madame Giry, and Ballet Girls
 * 12) "Notes/Prima Donna" – Firmin, André, Raoul, Carlotta, Madame Giry, Meg, Piangi, and Phantom
 * 13) "Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh (Il Muto)" – Carlotta, Piangi and Company
 * 14) "Why Have You Brought Me Here?/Raoul, I've Been There" – Raoul and Christine
 * 15) "All I Ask of You" – Raoul and Christine
 * 16) "All I Ask of You (Reprise)/Chandelier Crash" – Phantom, Raoul, and Christine

Act II

 * 1) "Entr'acte"
 * 2) "Masquerade/Why So Silent" – Firmin, André, Raoul, Carlotta, Madame Giry, Meg, Piangi and Chorus/Phantom
 * 3) "Notes II" – Firmin, André, Carlotta, Piangi, Raoul, Christine, Madame Giry, and Phantom
 * 4) "Twisted Every Way" – Christine and Raoul
 * 5) "A Rehearsal for Don Juan Triumphant" – Carlotta, Piangi, Christine and Chorus
 * 6) "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" – Christine
 * 7) "Wandering Child/Bravo, Monsieur!" – Phantom, Christine, and Raoul
 * 8) "The Point of No Return" – Phantom and Christine
 * 9) "Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer" – Phantom, Christine, Raoul, and Company
 * 10) "Final Lair" – Phantom, Christine, and Raoul

Instrumentation
The 27-piece orchestra is substantially larger than those used in most modern musicals: A pre-recorded track, employing organ, synthesizers, synthesized drums, electric guitars, and bass guitar, supplements the live orchestra during the Overture, and during the 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 synchronized with the track. Most of the Phantom's off-stage voiceovers are prerecorded, as is Christine's final note of the title song.
 * 1) Reed I: Flute/Piccolo
 * 2) Reed II: Flute/Clarinet
 * 3) Reed III: Oboe/Cor anglais
 * 4) Reed IV: Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/E-flat clarinet
 * 5) Reed V: Bassoon
 * 6) Horns I-III
 * 7) Trumpets I-II
 * 8) Trombone
 * 9) Percussion
 * 10) Keyboards I-II: Piano, Synthesizer
 * 11) Violins I-VII
 * 12) Violas I-II
 * 13) Cellos I-II
 * 14) Double Bass
 * 15) Harp

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.

Recordings
Cast recordings have been made of the London, German, Austrian, Japanese, Mexican, Korean, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, Hungarian and Canadian productions.

When the Original London Cast Album was released in CD format in 1987, it became the first album in British musical history to enter the UK albums chart at #1. It has since gone both gold and platinum in Britain and the U.S., selling over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling cast album of all time. The cast recording/soundtrack of the film adaptation was released in 2004.

While never released to the general public, there is a video recording of an early performance of the musical with Michael Crawford, which is only available to certain people involved with the show. Whether or not it will ever be released is unknown.

Sequel
Andrew Lloyd Webber has created a sequel, with a book by Lloyd Webber, Glenn Slater, and Ben Elton, and lyrics by Slater. It is titled Love Never Dies and is loosely adapted from the novel The Phantom of Manhattan, published in 1999 and written by Frederick Forsyth, who had collaborated with Lloyd Webber on the sequel years before. Directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell with set and costume designs by Bob Crowley, Love Never Dies opened at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End on 9 March 2010 with previews from 22 February 2010. It is the first time a musical sequel has been staged in the West End. The opening was delayed from its original date of 26 October 2009. The first act was staged in 2008 at the Sydmonton Festival at Andrew Lloyd Webber's Hampshire country home. Love Never Dies was originally scheduled to open on Broadway on 11 November 2010 but Lloyd Webber has had some post operative problems from prostate cancer and has been unable to do any long-haul flight, so the show has been postponed until Spring 2011.[26] In October 2010 the Broadway production was postponed indefinitely. The Australian production will still open as scheduled in 2011.

The musical is set in 1907,[28] a decade after the end of Phantom. (Note: According to the official announcement, the events occur approximately a decade after the events of The Phantom of the Opera. In reality, however, Lloyd Webber's original show was set in 1881, meaning that the time period between the two stories amounts to 26 years.) Christine is invited to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction in Coney Island, by an anonymous impresario and, with her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, journeys to Brooklyn, unaware that it is the Phantom who has arranged her appearance in the popular beach resort. The musical received mixed reviews.

Plagiarism
In 1987 the heirs of Giacomo Puccini claimed in a lawsuit that the climactic phrase in Phantom's "Music of the Night" closely resembled a similar phrase in the sequence "Quello che tacete" from Puccini's opera Girl of the Golden West. The litigation was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

In 1990 a Baltimore songwriter named Ray Repp filed a lawsuit alleging that the title song from Phantom was based on a song he wrote in 1978 called "Till You." After eight years of litigation - which included 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 - the jury found in Lloyd Webber's favor.

Roger Waters has repeatedly claimed in interviews that the signature descending chord progression from Phantom's title song was plagiarized from a track on the Pink Floyd album Meddle called "Echoes." He has never taken any legal action, 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!".

Other Productions
Phantom has been translated into several languages and produced in over twenty 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. A U.S. touring company commenced in 1991 in Los Angeles, and closed on October 31, 2010 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California. The closing-night performance was attended by many former cast- and crew-members, including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sarah Brightman.
 * Argentina: The Argentine production premiered in March 2009 at Buenos Aires' Teatro Ópera and closed November 29, 2009 after 194 performances.
 * Australia: 1990 – 1998: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth; 2007 – 2009: Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland, Perth and Adelaide, both starring Anthony Warlow. Marina Prior starred as Christine in the original production. In the original Australian production, Rob Guest later took over the title role. The final leg of the more recent tour was staged in Adelaide in an arena format featuring giant screens on either side of the stage that presented footage shot simultaneously with the performance.
 * Austria: The German language production premiered at the Theater an der Wien in December 1988.
 * Belgium: The Dutch production toured to Belgium.
 * Brazil: São Paulo, premiered at Teatro Abril in April 2005.
 * Canada: The Toronto production of Phantom ran for just over ten years. The Music Box Tour (3rd U.S. National Tour) played dates across Canada in 2006 – 2007 including Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Saskatoon and Ottawa.
 * Canadian International Touring Company: 11 March 1991 – October 1995 toured Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, Hong Kong and Singapore
 * China: The Shanghai production played 97 performances at the Shanghai Grand Theatre
 * Denmark: Det Ny Theater, Copenhagen (2000–2001, 2003–2004, 2009)
 * Germany: There have been three German productions: Hamburg, Stuttgart and Essen.
 * Hong Kong: First tour – at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre June to October 1995; Second tour – July 2006 to August 2006 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre.
 * Hungary: Madách Theatre, Budapest. This production, which began in 2003, featured original sets, costumes and direction, the first Phantom that changed the original staging.[40] The 500th Phantom, held on 20 September 2007 featured 4 successive sets of casts. After the final curtain 3 Christines and 4 Phantoms performed the title song once again.
 * Japan: Shiki Productions produced the show in 1988, the first production performed in a language other than English. It was still running at the Shiki Theater (四季劇場 Shiki-Gekijō?) in Nagoya as of January 2010.
 * Korea: Opened in 2009 at Charlotte Theater in Seoul.
 * Mexico: Mexico City, premiered at Centro Cultural Telmex in December 1999, starring Juan Navarro as the Phantom.
 * Netherlands: At the Circus Theatre in Scheveningen. More than 1,000 performances (1993–1996) with Henk Poort as the Phantom.
 * New Zealand: Auckland
 * Poland: Warsaw, premiere took place in March 2008 at Teatr Muzyczny Roma. It features original sets, costumes, and direction. Closed June 2010.
 * Singapore: 1st tour at the Kallang Theatre from 26 February 1995 to 20 May 1995, 2nd tour at the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay from 23 March 2007 to 20 May 2007.[43]
 * South Africa: 2004, Cape Town, The South African State Theatre, Pretoria.
 * Spain: Madrid, premiered at Teatro Lope de Vega on 4 September 2002.
 * Sweden: 1989 – 1995, Oscarsteatern, Stockholm. More than 1,000 performances. Starring Mikael Samuelson as the Phantom.
 * Switzerland: Performed in both English and German at the Musical Theatre Messe Basel in Switzerland for over a year in 1996 – 1997.
 * Taiwan: began on 18 January 2006 at National Theater and Concert Hall (Taiwan) and July 2009 at Taipei Arena, with Brad Little as the Phantom.
 * United States: Los Angeles (1989–1993), San Francisco (1993–1999)

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.

The amateur stage rights are currently available to high schools and colleges.

Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular
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.The production runs 95 minutes, with no intermission, and was created by the original director and choreographer, Harold Prince and Gillian Lynne, with scenic designs by David Rockwell. The show features updated technology and effects, including advanced pyrotechnics and strobe lighting, and a much-heralded, re-engineered chandelier capable of reassembling in mid-air during the overture while the entire interior of the venue (not merely the stage) magically returns to its 1880s heyday.

In addition to the intermission, almost 45 minutes' worth of material was eliminated, including most of the spoken lines within the libretto, dance sequences, and scenes (such as the Don Juan Triumphant rehearsal) which enhance the Phantom's back story but are not crucial to the overall plot. While most of the musical numbers were left intact, "Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh" and "The Point of No Return" were significantly shortened, engendering some criticism. Other changes resembled many of the alterations made 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 (reprise of "All I Ask of You"). To assure continuity during a six-day-per-week performance schedule, the roles of The Phantom, Christine Daaé and Carlotta Guidicelli were double-cast.

Awards and Nomintations
1986 Olivier Awards: 1988 Tony Awards: 2002 Olivier Awards
 * Best Designer – Maria Björnson (Nomination)
 * Best Actor in a Musical – Michael Crawford (Winner)
 * Best New Musical (Winner)
 * Best Musical (Winner)
 * Best Leading Actor in a Musical—Michael Crawford (Winner)
 * Best Featured Actress in a Musical—Judy Kaye (Winner)
 * Best Direction of a Musical—Harold Prince (Winner)
 * Best Book of a Musical—Richard Stilgoe, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Nomination)
 * Best Original Score—Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe (Nomination)
 * Best Scenic Design—Maria Björnson (Winner)
 * Best Costume Design—Maria Björnson (Winner)
 * Best Lighting Design—Andrew Bridge (Winner)
 * Best Choreography—Gillian Lynne (Nomination)
 * Audience Award for Most Popular Show (Winner)