Jonathan Reinis (who later produced Ken Hill’s The Invisible Man in London) formed Phantom Touring Company Inc. Louis and San Francisco were so successful that Hill was asked to mount a national tour of the United States. The productions of Phantom of the Opera in St. A second US production was mounted in 1988 in San Francisco at the Theatre in the Square, produced by Jonathan Reinis. This production starred Sal Mistretta as The Phantom - his performance won him the St. Phantom of the Opera then emerged on the other side of the Atlantic in 1987 for its American premiere in St. But in the end, Lloyd Webber chose to pursue the musical without Hill. Lloyd Webber and his producer, Cameron Mackintosh, had been highly enthusiastic when they broached Hill about his Phantom of the Opera. In fact, Hill and Lloyd Webber had worked together earlier on a revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Winchester Theatre. Prompted by the good reviews, they approached Hill about the possibility of their collaborating on developing a grand scale version of his Phantom in the West End, and offered to produce it. When the show got the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Sarah Brightman, who created the role of Christine in the Lloyd Webber version, was famously asked to perform the role of Christine in the 1984 cast but she turned it down, leaving the role for the opera singer Christina Collier.Īndrew Lloyd Webber, who at the time was married to Brightman, and Cameron Mackintosh attended a performance of Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. In between, the show had two very brief runs at the New Tyne Theatre in Newcastle and the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton - neither of those productions did very well. This updated version of The Phantom of the Opera was produced in a joint production by the Newcastle Playhouse and the Theatre Royal Stratford East, and premiered at the Newcastle Playhouse on 3 April 1984, before shortly moving to the Theatre Royal Stratford East. By placing them to opera arias by Gounod, Offenbach, Verdi, Weber, Mozart, Donizetti, and Boito, he created a musical that reflected the era in which the original novel was written. Consequently, he discarded the modern score by Ian Armit and wrote original English lyrics that told Gaston Leroux’s tale.
This time though, he wanted to add the kind of music that would have been heard at the Opéra Garnier in the late 19th century. In 1984, Hill revived his musical version of The Phantom of the Opera. It differed from the later version of Ken Hill’s musical, in having a modern musical score by Ian Armit (who also worked with Hill on his production of The Curse of the Werewolf) in addition to excerpts from the opera Faust by Charles Gounod.
It was directed by John Blackmore, designed by Clare Lyth, with musical direction by Gary Yershon. This first production was produced at The Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster on 26 July 1976, where it proved to be a hit.
The show started off as a production at Morecambe Pier as the first staged musical version, but was also first staged when Hill was working as Director of Productions for the Newcastle Playhouse. Hill's musical inspired the award-winning Andrew Lloyd Webber musical version of the story, although he never received any formal royalty for it.Īs Ken Hill rummaged through a used bookstore, he picked up a copy of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera novel and eventually produced it as a stage musical. Hill’s Phantom of the Opera was the first musical version of the story by Gaston Leroux and has enjoyed financial success.
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