The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber's gothic melodrama, celebrates 40 years on the West End this month. Producer Cameron Mackintosh and cast members from across the show's history have spoken about what makes it so special, from its unforgettable score to the lingering spirits of its original creative team.
A Show Born from a Fun Project
When Mackintosh and Lloyd Webber first discussed Phantom in 1984, it was only meant to be a fun producing project. After enjoying Ken Hill's production at Stratford East theatre, they found a copy of Gaston Leroux's original novel in a charity shop. They discovered a strange tale about a disfigured musical genius lurking beneath a Parisian opera house, seducing soprano Christine Daaé with his music.
Their version was not to be a gothic horror story like Lon Chaney's silent movie, nor a Rocky Horror Show-style pastiche. Instead, this Phantom would be lighter, more beautiful, and more romantic. It also became clear that the show would feature Lloyd Webber's music, heavily inspired by Sarah Brightman.
“The score was very much inspired by Sarah Brightman,” explains Mackintosh. “Andrew obviously had a very deep relationship with her at the time [the two were married] and it triggered something really special in her. Lots of people have attempted to do Phantom but Andrew's music brought an emotional intensity to the show that had never been there before in any other version.”
Tweaks and Triumphs
The show only came together on the first night of previews. Mackintosh describes it as “a watch running really slowly” until that moment, when the audience was “completely swept into another world.” The production has been refined over the years, with early ideas like a white horse, glowing rats, and white doves all scrapped.
“It was a lovely idea,” says Mackintosh of the doves, “except all they did was fly up to a perch and shit all over the audience.” Despite patchy reviews at first, the show became a box-office phenomenon. “We never tried to put together the most successful musical,” reflects Mackintosh. “I think if we had tried to do that it wouldn't have succeeded. It was meant to happen the way it did.”
The Music and the Ghosts
Sierra Boggess, who plays Carlotta in the anniversary production, first played Christine 20 years ago. She speaks tearfully about the spirits of original director Hal Prince and choreographer Gillian Lynne. “There's no other score in the world like this. People have to hear this music. It's like it's changing something on a cellular level,” she says. “There's something dangerous about the music. The vocal demand is so great and there's a romance in that. People come back to hear the impossible.”
John Owen-Jones, who has played the Phantom nearly 2,000 times, notes that the show was originally meant for the Palace theatre but Les Misérables was refusing to close. So Phantom opened at Her Majesty's, which had “the only functioning Victorian understage in London.” Jordan Donica, the current Phantom, describes his first encounter with the show at age nine, hearing “Brava, brava, bravissima!” and feeling a synesthetic response. “The frequencies that Andrew uses in this show are what hit you to your core,” he says. “That's why it works.”
The Phantom of the Opera is at His Majesty's theatre, London, to 13 March 2027.
