The Phantom of the Opera - His Majesty's Theatre

I was really disappointed when I saw the show in London - the seat was not cheap but the sight lines were dreadful and I don't recall being particularly excited by the production.

I loved it on tour though, could see everything even from the cheap seats and was fully absorbed from the start.

I would much rather the entire show closed and was revived with a brand new first-rate production than destroying a superb production by watering it down and cheapening it, which sounds like Mackintosh’s intention here (and would not be unprecedented given what he did to Les Mis over the years, savagely cutting and reducing and cheapening Nunn and Caird’s superb original and then replacing it with a second-rate substitute to save him some £)..

Brexit-voting Cameron Mackintosh seems to have proved he’s no better than Bill Kenwright these days...the time of knowing seeing one of his shows meant high quality and no shortcuts are sadly gone. Hal Prince has not even been gone a year and yet Mackintosh is taking an axe to his legacy. Prince, incidentally would rightly have been horrified by this idea and wouldn’t have stood for it.

I also must say that some of the comments in this thread are unfair — I too have seen dud performances over the years but they do not invalidate what is surely one of the classiest and spectacular productions ever. A few dud performances can be tweaked; that doesn’t mean the set should be cheapened and half the orchestra (some of whom have been with the show since opening night) fired.

I hope ALW has the sense and artistic integrity to save this flagship production, but maybe saying “artistic integrity” in the same sentence as ALW is asking too much.

It would be a tragedy if the final performance of this icon has already played, and we have no professionally shot commercially releasable capture of it.

Amazing news. The show (and the theatre) desperately needed a breath of fresh air and hopefully that will be it. It's obviously sad for the people involved not getting a proper goodbye and for those who wanted to see that production one last time not to have the chance, but it's a great timing otherwise.

Now let the Regent's Park Open Air Team team have fun with it and keep ALW socially distant.

Since everyone here seems to know something about something- any clue if the resident/associate director will stay? To me that will mean if some semblance of the original show might be reworked into whatever's new, or a complete swapping out of anything that used to be.

A pity, especially for the orchestra. I think it's the only West End show with a harp in the pit, I'd hate to see it go.

I understand refurbishing old sets, stage machinery etc. The stage floor definitely needs to be replaced, it's looking rather worn. But how can you replace the set design of phantom Of The Opera, theres literally no "improvements" you could make to the original. It's absolutely ingenious how the set compliments the plot and the house it's self such as the fake opera boxes lining up with the real boxes of Her Majesty's. The curtains move up to reveal sets like Christine's dressing room and the masquerade stairs almost like turning the chapter of a book. The set should never be touched, leave it as it is. Btw I'm not arguing with you! Just adding to your conversation.

There is a petition as a collective voice for our concern, if anyone here cares to sign: www.change.org/p/cameron-mackintosh-save-the-brilliant-original-phantom-of-the-opera

Looks like ALW heard us! Here’s hoping he can persudae Cameron

I think you're all misunderstanding what is going to be happening.

They're not redesigning the show in the sense it's going to be a different set, they're updating it.

The candelabras which rise from the stage? Currently on hand winches. Very heavy, clunky. Difficult to use. Wobble and get stuck often. Requires several people to operate. In fact, the majority of the set is hand winches or pushed on which makes it quite dangerous.

Rebuilding the stage to include modern automation is better all round. Yes, you drop crew members but did you know the first time round Miss Saigon had a stage crew of 30? The modern production had about 5.

Lighting. The rig is generic, it's old and rarely maintained (once a year because refocusing a genetic rig can take days so you want to limit the amount of touching you do). Moving to a modern rig gives much great flexibility, maintenance becomes weekly and the quality of the lighting overall improves. This also requires new dimmers, which is an essential improvement.

They've completely rebuilt the set and lighting systems for the international tour, it looks amazing.

Did you know that just prior to lockdown the chandelier was condemned? The mechanics are damaged, old and it was very dangerous.

Introducing improved lighting, new sets which importantly are safe and adding modern video elements is a very good thing.

sorry have to disgaree. How on earth is adding modern video elements a 'very good thing'? I want to see a proper set. The curtains, the angel and the chandelier are intrinsic parts of the set and should not be replaced

I have no idea if they are adding video elements, it was an example of things they could be doing.

Video doesn't have to replace set, I'm taking about effects not projection (eg the video effect with the time turner in Harry Potter). Personally, I loved what they did in the 25th anniversary production with the chandelier.

Of course ALW had to say something because everyone is panicking about the show being replaced when the reality is they're updating. If Phantom were to reopen in it's current state tomorrow, there would be no chandelier.

This makes good sense and is consistent with how I was imagining the situation.
Thanks for posting!