The Complete Phantom of the Opera

by Michael Heatley, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Foreword)

The Phantom of the Opera is an icon – one glimpse of the famous mask logo and you immediately think of the show. 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 were broadcast live to cinemas in UK and America and given a later cinema release in Canada and Australia. They were released on Blu-Ray and DVD in October 2011.

Genres: Classics, Musicals, Nonfiction, Theatre

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Michael Heatley is the author or editor of over thirty biographies, including Backstreet Boys: The Unofficial Book, Bon Jovi: In Their Own Words and Rolf Harris: The Most Talented Man In The World. In 1995, he wrote the liner notes to Rolf's best-selling album Rolf Rules OK!

Since 1977 he has written more than a hundred music, sport and TV books.

He has written for magazines including Privileged View (for viewers of UK Gold and UK Living), 442 and Fultime (Fulham FC), Music Week, Billboard, Goldmine (US record collecting magazine), Radio Times, Daily Record and the Mail on Sunday color supplement.

In addition, Michael runs a fanzine in honor of legendary Welsh psychedelic rock band Man called The Welsh Connection which is circulated to a small but fervent fanbase on a bi-monthly basis.

Reviews

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

good pictures, good history, I do like the phantom

[Carmen Gatti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything that a fan needs to know, great to read before seeing the stage production