The Stage

Exclusive: Albert Hall will host Phantom’s 25th birthday

Published Thursday 26 May 2011 at 13:40 by Matthew Hemley

London’s Royal Albert Hall is to host celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera this October, with Gillian Lynne - the musical’s original choreographer - on board to stage the special performance, which will be produced by Cameron Mackintosh Ltd and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group.

Full details of the event, which marks 25 years since Lloyd Webber’s musical first opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, have yet to be announced, but sources claim it will be a “completely new production”, which will run over multiple performances.

Ramin Karimloo has confirmed that he is lined up to play the Phantom, and it is also understood that Sierra Boggess is set to reprise the role of Christine Daae. Boggess played Christine in the Las Vegas production in 2006, and in the show’s sequel, Love Never Dies, in which she starred alongside Karimloo until March this year.

Karimloo has played the Phantom in Love Never Dies since it opened in 2010, and also performed the part in the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Karimloo said the anniversary performances would be “celebratory” and “spectacular”. He told The Stage: “It’s going to be great and I will treat it like the Les Mis anniversary concerts, which I recently appeared in and where, because it was performing a part I had played before, I could tap into the work I had done prior. But I will also use it as a chance to try something new. More importantly, though, it’s a celebratory performance. We’re there not for us, but to celebrate the product and why we all love it.”

While Lynne, who also choreographed Cats, is set to stage the RAH shows, the lighting will be designed by Patrick Woodroffe, who recently worked on the Les Mis 02 concerts.

He told The Stage: “Our version will be a take on the old one, but designed specifically for the Albert Hall and created very much with that space in mind. There has been such a welcome from the Phantom camp, particularly from the original lighting designer, Andy Bridge, with whom I am collaborating on this project, that we all feel up to the huge challenge of putting on what is in effect a completely new production of this great musical with only three days’ fit up in the Albert Hall.”

Nicholas Allott, managing director of Cameron Mackintosh Ltd, said full details would be announced “within the next three weeks”. “In the meantime, nothing has been confirmed and any casting and creative team speculation is just that - speculation. We will shortly be able to present you with a comprehensive package for what promises to be a very exciting event,” he said.