[1] Hill wrote the original lyrics to the music of Giuseppe Verdi, Charles Gounod, Jacques Offenbach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber, Gaetano Donizetti, and Arrigo Boito.
[2][3] It premiered in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, in 1976, and had a West End production in 1991,[4][5][6] and further international productions The story begins ("Introduction") with Richard, new manager of the Paris Opera House (previously president of Northern Railways and a member of the Stock Exchange Choir), greeted by the artists and staff ("Welcome Sir, I'm So Delighted").
These requests are defied by the adamant and foolish Richard, little knowing the mayhem that will take place if he refuses to accept the Ghost's demands.
After the performance, Richard's handsome (if somewhat dim) son Raoul, who is madly in love with the chorus girl Christine Daae, goes to her dressing room, only to hear her speak with another man.
The show quickly adjourns and the rest of the cast search high and low for her all over the Opera House, taking their lanterns into the audience ("No Sign!
Meanwhile, the search party above ground migrates to the boiler room and the Persian reveals his true identity, and fills us in on the Phantom's history ("Born With A Monstrous Countenance").
The final scene takes place in the Phantom's Chapel, with his organ and its unkempt riot of sheet music as a center-piece.
His sobs fade and he turns back, with a determined and violent look in his eyes, and produces a priest and chorus girl to bear witness to the forced marriage between him and Christine.
"All of My Dreams Faded Suddenly", sung by the character Christine, was added to the show in 1992 for the first Japanese tour, based upon an aria by Antonín Dvořák.
[citation needed] As Ken Hill rummaged through a used bookstore, he picked up a copy of The Phantom of the Opera and eventually produced it as a stage musical.
Consequently, he discarded Armit's score and wrote original English lyrics, that told Leroux’s tale, set to opera arias by Verdi, Gounod, Offenbach, Mozart, Weber, Donizetti,[2][11] and Boito.
[citation needed] Andrew Lloyd Webber, who at the time was married to Brightman, and Cameron Mackintosh attended a performance of Hill’s Phantom at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
[12][7] Prompted by the good reviews, they approached Hill about the possibility of their collaborating on developing a grand scale version of his adaptation in the West End and offered to produce it.
Hill and Lloyd Webber had worked together earlier on a revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Winchester Theatre.
[citation needed] In 1991, Phantom of the Opera returned to the United Kingdom, where it embarked on a national tour produced by Stewart Macpherson and then transferred to London’s West End.
It opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 18 December 1991 with a similar cast to the 1984 production: Peter Straker was The Phantom, with Christina Collier as Christine.
But despite positive reviews, the West End production did poorly at the box office at the time of IRA bombings, and closed earlier than expected on 11 April 1992.
[citation needed] Another Tokyo production is set for January 2024, starring Ben Forster as The Phantom and Paul Potts as Faust.