The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. Based on the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux, it tells the tragic story of beautiful soprano Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House.
The musical opened in London's West End in 1986 and on Broadway in New York in 1988, in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring English classical soprano Sarah Brightman (Lloyd Webber's then-wife) as Christine Daaé, screen and stage star Michael Crawford as the Phantom, and international stage performer Steve Barton as Raoul. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, with Crawford winning the Olivier and Tony for Best Actor in a Musical. A film adaptation, directed by Joel Schumacher, was released in 2004.
The Phantom of the Opera is the longest running show in Broadway history, and celebrated its 10,000th performance on 11 February 2012, becoming the first Broadway production in history to do so. It is the second longest-running West End musical, after Les Misérables, and the third longest-running West End show overall, after The Mousetrap. With total estimated worldwide gross receipts of over $6 billion and total Broadway gross of over $1 billion, The Phantom of the Opera was the most financially successful entertainment event until The Lion King surpassed it in 2014. By 2019, it had been seen by over 140 million people in 183 cities across 41 countries.
The original West End production at His Majesty's Theatre, London, ended its run in March 2020 due to the shutdown of theatres resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. A scaled-down, revised staging opened in the same theatre in July 2021, with a "smaller orchestra and redesigned set". The original Broadway production played its final performance on 16 April 2023.
I'm not the greatest fan of musicals and there are just a few that have music good enough to stand out on it's own without the visuals and story. The Phantom Of The Opera is not one of these. The music (as the title explains) reminiscent of opera/operette, but in a very blunt and unsophisticated way. Apart from a few decent tracks it only contains over the top drama. Andrew Lloyd Webber has created good music, but this is not the quality of Cats and certainly not of Jesus Christ Superstar.
To me, this is not an album. It's an audio-only version of a musical. And it does not work for me. There's too much information lost without people playing it out in front of you. It's hard to distinguish characters. You don't see the emotions played out.
The Phantom of the Opera shouldn't be here, it's not an album, it's musical theatre. It's a default 1/5 though as commentary on the quality in general, it's a storied performance that has never really been among my favourites, I've seen it live and it's an impressive spectacle but I find that it doesn't have the same depth of quality throughout as Les Mis does by comparison (as the two behemots of Broadway/West End theatre); I'd say there are maybe four iconic songs from this vs at least twice as many from Les Mis. I don't begrudge the subjectivity in someone wanting this to be their representation of musical theatre excellence, it's just not close to being my favourite, and anyway, it's not an album, so 1/5 on principle.
I listened to a LOT of this cassette back in the late 80s even though at that time I'd never seen a proper Broadway show. It was great revisiting it as I think it has been many decades since I listened from beginning to end. It doesn't impress me today in the same way, but I'm giving it the highest rating regardless for all those years far from any Broadway stage when I dreamed of seeing this show live. An undeniable classic that has definitely left its mark.
A nostalgic record for me. Not that I ever had the record itself but it was the first big musical i saw with my class in probably grade 4 or 5. Back in the days when you still dressed up to go to a show.
My kid is at an arts school (not in MT themselves) and there is constant talk of the big hits. They are so different now than the Andrew Lloyd Weber years. It was nice
To hear this again.
The only Andrew Lloyd Webber work I'd heard in its entirety prior to this was Jesus Christ Superstar. This is pretty cheesy (that aspect peaking at the badly dated synth orchestration in the title song). Also a little heavy on that not--quite-music, half sung/half spoken exposition thing you get in musicals. Not really my thing, but it held together, I could understand the story pretty well from the songs alone (a basic familiarity with the story helped there), and I did listen through the whole thing.
It’s 2020. My youngest child has just started school and I’ve gone back to work, working from home of course. I need noise to work, but my husband is also working from home so I have to use headphones. Choosing music every day gets really tedious so I start doing the 1001 albums list, but this kills about an hour a day. I start wanting something more narrative but audiobooks aren’t conducive to good concentration. That’s where musicals come in.
Music ✅
Story ✅
I’m in.
I’ve always been a fan of musicals but only the ones I knew (Les Mis, Grease, Cabaret, Chicago etc). I start to expand my horizons and find a rich seam of wonderful options by a variety of artists.
And then there’s Andrew Lloyd Webber. Starlight Express was a masterpiece (don’t get me started on the latest version), Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar I won’t hear a word against.
And there’s Phantom, the musical that people rave about, so I jump in, excited at the prospect of a long album.
What a load of tosh. The story is intriguing but the music is jarring. Other musicals you can listen to and enjoy without the visuals, but I feel Phantom needs the action to make it make sense (see also Cats).
Not a great album to showcase musicals in my opinion.
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