Although it has never appeared on Broadway and has been overshadowed by the success of the 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Yeston and Kopit's Phantom has received over 1,000 productions.

The real threat emerged when Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera became a smash hit in London in 1986.

[1] When Kopit saw the Lloyd Webber version of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, he realized that the approach he and Yeston had taken was fundamentally different and that it could still work on the musical stage.

[4] Its story offers a deeper exploration of the phantom's past and his relationship with Gérard Carrière, the head of the Opera House.

In Chicago, Bill Pullinsi, Artistic Director of the Candlelight Playhouse staged the production, receiving rave reviews in publications including Variety and the Wall Street Journal.

[10] In October and November 2007, the show played at the Westchester Broadway Theater, in Elmsford, New York,[11] and continued from December 2007 to February 2008, featuring Robert Cuccioli reprising the title role.

The cast starred Sanna Saarijärvi as Christine, Oskari Katajisto as the Phantom, Kristiina Elstelä and Rea Mauranen alternately as Carlotta and Esko Nikkari as Gerard.

[20] A UK production of Phantom was staged at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre Pub, Walthamstow, in 2013.

[20][21][22] The musical was staged in South Korea in Korean in 2015 at Chungmu Art Hall in Seoul, directed by Robert Johanson.

Complications arise when Gérard Carrière, the company manager, loses his position as head of the Opera house and therefore cannot protect Erik any longer.

Reluctantly, he removes his mask (although the audience never sees his face), but Christine doesn't have the same fortitude and recoils in horror, causing Erik to go on a destructive rampage.

The New York Times review opined: "Mr. Kopit's Phantom … is no less bravura than Lord Lloyd Webber's, but he is far more affecting.

Mr. Yeston's sophisticated score is the model of how a loving assortment of classical forms can make popular theater music bloom.

Mr. Yeston's music charms and effervesces, valuing melodiousness and variety more than the extended leitmotif and endless bloated reprises.

"[26] The Los Angeles Times reviewer wrote: "There is a lot more understanding of Erik than of Lloyd Webber's more furtive phantom, but also less mystique.

"[27] Peter Scott-Pressland felt, in reviewing the London production, that "as a piece of writing, Yeston's Phantom is altogether more engaging than ALW's.

While it doesn’t produce the kind of melodic sweep and glamour of ALW, it rises … in the second act to genuine emotional fervour.