To mark the milestone of 25 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh planned a special 3-day production to take place at London's Royal Albert Hall in October 2011.
In order to enable more people to see the production, the final performance was relayed live to cinemas around the world via Fathom Events.
In 1905 Paris, at an auction hosted by the defunct Opéra Populaire, the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny purchases a music box that an unknown woman told him about, noting it appears as she described it.
When a falling backdrop barely misses resident soprano Carlotta Giudicelli, everyone blames "The Phantom of the Opera," who has troubled them for the past three years.
He flies into a rage, declaring she will be his prisoner, but then expresses his yearning to live an ordinary life and experience love ("Stranger Than You Dreamt It").
In the managers' office, Raoul interrupts André and Firmin as they compare dispatches from the Phantom, asking them if they sent him a message warning him not to see Christine again.
Finally, Madame Giry arrives with another dispatch from the Phantom: unless Christine plays the lead in the new production of Il Muto, a disaster "beyond imagination" will occur ("Notes").
Further mayhem ensues, however, when Buquet's corpse suddenly drops from the rafters, hanging from the Punjab lasso ("Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh").
Six months later, during a New Year's Eve masked ball, the Phantom appears in costume as the Red Death and announces he has written an opera entitled Don Juan Triumphant.
He demands that the company produce it with Christine, now secretly engaged to Raoul, as the leading female role, warning that dire consequences will occur if anyone fails to obey his instructions.
When she finishes reading it, Raoul, knowing of the Phantom's obsession with his fiancée, decides to use the premiere to capture him and bring an end to his reign of terror.
Following a disastrous rehearsal session, Christine visits her father's grave, where she expresses her longing for his guidance and her understanding she must move on from his death ("Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again").
The Phantom appears under the guise of the Angel of Music and attempts to cause the weary Christine to succumb to his influence as Raoul arrives to rescue her ("Wandering Child").
While an angry mob forms and vows vengeance, Madame Giry tells Raoul how to find the Phantom's lair ("Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer").
In the lair, after finding herself forced into a wedding dress, Christine tells the Phantom she is afraid not of his physical appearance but of his bestial inner nature.
In the DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital download release of the concert, a footage of Boggess as Christine singing the song on the walkway was shot on one rehearsal and added in the film's final cut.
The production was also aired as free viewing for all during the COVID-19 pandemic on 18–19 April 2020 via The Shows Must Go On channel on YouTube as part of a series of weekly musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber.