Based on the classic novel Le Fantome de L'Opéra by Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera is widely considered to be one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most accomplished scores. Everything about the show is on a huge scale: the production costs, the set, the costumes, the make-up. In total the show has won more than 60 major theatre awards and the original cast recording is the biggest selling cast album of all time, with more than 40 million copies sold.
It's been seen in 145 cities in 27 countries by more than 130 million people worldwide in over 65,000 performances. It is the longest-running show on Broadway. The box office revenues are higher than any film of stage play in history. Phantom is currently showing in London (where it celebrated its 10,000th performance in October 2010), New York, Las Vegas, Budapest, Kyoto/Tokyo, and Cape Town/ Johannesburg.
'Phantom' has just been made available by Andrew Lloyd-Webber for educational and amateur markets worldwide; and young performers can now tackle the work for the first time. A touring version of Phantom will start a major UK tour at Plymouth in February 2012.
The 25th Anniversary Albert Hall Concerts in October 2011 are being broadcast live to cinemas in UK and America and given a later cinema release in Canada and Australia. They are also being released on Blu-Ray and DVD in mid-October.
