The Phantom of the Opera is a romantic musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart (with additions from Richard Stilgoe). And although there may not be much depth to the musical’s story (by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe) or lyrics (mostly by Charles Hart), the production-directed by the legendary Hal Prince-has been carefully maintained and refurbished over the years, and remains a marvel of sumptuous surfaces. Who doesn’t love a bad boy?) While the epic synth-rock chords of the title song may ground Phantom in the 1980s, the show’s Puccini-inflected airs are far grander than most of what one hears elsewhere on Broadway. (Although the Phantom is serial killer, extortionist, kidnapper and probable rapist, Christine and audiences are mysteriously drawn to him. It still draws folks who judge it one of the best Broadway shows, clamoring for cheap Broadway tickets. Back in 1988, it cleaned up at the Tony Awards with eight wins. The plot, borrowed from a 1910 potboiler by Gaston Leroux, tells of Christine Daaé, a naïve young soprano whose secretive voice teacher turns out to be a deformed musical genius who inhabits a candlelit lair beneath the Paris Opera House. The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway's most reliable tourist magnet for nearly 35 years, began haunting the New York City stage way back in 1988.
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