10 Fun Facts about The Phantom of the Opera

When talking about musicals, The Phantom of the Opera is probably the first one to pop in your head whether you are familiar with musicals or not. As one of the many famous and successful musicals, The Phantom of the Opera has played to over 140 million people in 33 countries in 166 cities around the world with an estimated gross net of $6 billion, playing for almost 40 years and over 12,000 performances at Her Majesty’s Theatre (now His Majesty’s Theatre), London.

 There are so many fun facts about this fabulous musical during its West End and Broadway run, and here are 10 facts to know more about it!

1.       Each actor playing the Phantom has a mask custom-made from a mold of his face and over 400 Phantom masks have been made and used during the 40-year Broadway run.

2.       The show uses 400 lbs of dry ice to create the underground lake grotto per performance, totaling at 4,993,600 lbs of dry ice (2,497 tons) in 30 years!

3.       The Phantom has been performed in 18 languages: English, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Danish, Polish, Swedish, Castilian, Hungarian, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Estonian, Romanian, Norwegian and Russian.

4.       The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway was closed for 11 months due to Covid-19. Despite its re-opening in 2021, Broadway performed its final show on the evening of 16 April 2023, after which Phantom was permanently discontinued on Broadway. (Luckily, you can still enjoy this classic musical in the West End of London!)

5.       The boat that the Phantom takes Christine across the lake on is remote-controlled. However, it sometimes malfunctions like almost everything in a Broadway production. The boat has accidentally stopped before, in the middle of the Phantom and Christine's journey. Colm Wilkinson once lifted the boat himself and pushed it, but actors are usually informed to simply guide Christine out of the boat and walk through the fog (The show must go on!).

6.       The box office revenue of The Phantom is higher than any other film or stage show, including blockbuster films such as Titanic.

7.       The Phantom of the Opera is the second longest-running musical in the West End, playing from 1986 (first place going to Les Misérables which is from 1985). But it is the longest-running Broadway show of all time!

8.       The Phantom of the Opera is based on the novel by French author Gaston Leroux and Erik is the Phantom’s real name (but no one calls the Phantom by name in the musical).

9.       “The Music of the Night” is one of the iconic show tunes in The Phantom of the Opera. But this classic number nearly got cut before its Broadway debut in 1988. Fortunately, his ensemble convinced him to keep it in production.

10.    There's a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera called Love Never Dies.

If these facts intrigue you, then click the button below to buy a ticket and enjoy your musical trip with the Phantom!

Written by Shurui Guo