Opening of The Phantom of the Opera

Date: October 9, 1986 • Location: Paris, France

The Phantom of the Opera, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and currently the longest-running Broadway show in history, opened in London's West End.

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, and additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, with a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe, inspired by the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux, it tells the tragic story of beautiful soprano Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House.