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THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, book by Richard Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber, and lyrics by Charles Hart (additional lyrics by Stilgoe). Directed by Harold Prince. Musical staging by Gillian Lynne. Starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, with Steve Barton, Cris Groenendaal, Elisa Heinsohn, Nicholas Wyman, Judy Kaye, Leila Martin and others. Majestic Theater on Broadway.
`THE PHANTOM of the Opera" is sold out so far into the future that people may one day be declaring their all-but-unobtainable tickets in wills and divorce settlements. So it's largely to comfort those who have already purchased their tickets rather than to discomfort those who delayed that I report that the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is every bit as stunning on Broadway as in London.
Why this show makes so overwhelming an impact takes a little explaining. The story, after all, is drawn from a novel by a minor French novelist that's been around, largely unread, since 1911. And while Lloyd Webber's music has a lush, romantic sweep, so does that of many operas that don't compel such astonishing attention.
The triumph of "The Phantom of the Opera" lies in the amalgam of virtually all its elements into as gloriously theatrical a show as...