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Thursday, 5 February, 2004, 11:08 GMT

Phantom scores Broadway record

The Phantom of the Opera Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera has become the second longest-running musical on Broadway.

The show completed its 6,681th performance at the Majestic Theatre on Wednesday night, knocking Les Miserables into third place.

The number one spot is held by Cats, another Lloyd Webber hit, which notched up 7,485 shows in 18 years.

Since its 1988 US opening, The Phantom of the Opera has been seen by 10 million people and won many awards.

It won seven Tony Awards the year it opened, including the prize for best musical.

The current show stars Hugh Panaro as the ghost who haunts the Paris Opera House.

The musical is based on the book by French author Gaston Leroux, which was first published in 1911.

Popular

It received poor reviews and only became popular when it was picked up as a serial in American newspapers and subsequently made into the original film in 1925.

Phantom of the Opera is also still running in Madrid, Budapest, Stuttgart, Japan and London, where it had it's world première in September 1986.

John Owen-Jones currently plays the Phantom in the UK show at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End.

It celebrated its 7,000th West End performance last August.

A new big screen version, directed by Phone Booth's Joel Schumacher, is expected to be released sometime this year.

A relative unknown, Scottish actor Gerard Butler, will play the Phantom.

Singer Charlotte Church said she was offered a role - but refused the part after being told to lose weight.



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Related to this story:
Lloyd Webber: King of the stage (07 Jan 04  |  Entertainment )
West End crisis 'near' (28 Feb 01  |  Entertainment )
Phantom hits performance milestone (13 Aug 03  |  Entertainment )
Weight loses Church movie role (07 May 03  |  Entertainment )

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Official London Theatre Guide
The Phantom of the Opera
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