Twelve actors have played the Phantom on Broadway: Michael Crawford, Timothy Nolen, Chris Groenendaal, Steve Barton, Kevin Gray, Mark Jacoby, Marcus Lovett, Davis Gaines, Thomas James O’Leary, Howard McGillin, John Cudia, Jeff Keller, Ted Keegan, Brad Little, Gary Mauer and Hugh Panaro.ġ4. Phantom became the longest-running show in Broadway history on January 6, 2006, overtaking the record set by Cats-it’s even in The Guinness Book of World Records!ġ3.
Phantom won seven 1988 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Crawford) and Best Featured Actress in a Musical ( Judy Kaye, now starring in Nice Work If You Can Get It).ġ2.
Producer Cameron Mackintosh had to bring him back to the theater for the curtain call.ġ1. Lloyd Webber was so nervous about Phantom’s premiere that he couldn’t attend the performance. The Broadway premiere of Phantom cost a then-record-setting $8 million to produce.ġ0. He spent a year studying Nelson Eddy’s performance in the 1943 film adaptation before he discovered that Steve Barton had already been cast in the role.ĩ. When Lloyd Webber approached him to audition for Phantom, Michael Crawford assumed he was auditioning for the part of Raoul.
Steve Harley was originally asked to play the Phantom in London (they even recorded a music video!), but the creative team ultimately decided to eliminate the Phantom’s rock edge and cast Michael Crawford instead.Ĩ. It took four weeks and five people to build the original chandelier.ħ. He went on to win a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical.Ħ. Director Hal Prince was briefly fired from the original London production, but was rehired again before rehearsals began. Early Phantom rehearsals in London included animatronic rats, a white horse and real doves flying through the theater-these ideas were scrapped before previews began.ĥ. Although the Phantom has no name in the musical, he’s called Erik in Gaston Leroux’s original novel.Ĥ. In early drafts of Phantom, the character of Christine was called “Kristin.”ģ. Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera was originally published as a poorly received serialized novel in 1909.Ģ. In honor of Phantom's Broadway birthday, here are 25 fascinating facts about the Tony-winning musical.ġ.
He was inspired to write a Broadway musical about the haunting love story…and the rest is history! On January 26, The Phantom of the Opera is celebrating its 25th anniversary on Broadway, and the longest-running musical in history continues to be one of the most sought-after tickets in town. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was browsing a used bookstore in 1984 when he discovered a worn copy of The Phantom of the Opera, an out-of-print book by Gaston Leroux.
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