Tim McFarlane – Managing Director, The Really Useful Company Asia Pacific Pty Limited said, "After more than 25 years on stage, there are generations of people around the world who have been enamoured with, swept away by, and who are in awe of The Phantom of the Opera. A stagehand named Joseph Buquet is found hanged and the noose around his neck goes missing. The following night, the enraged and jealous Erik abducts Christine during a production of Faust and tries to force her to marry him. [10] Ribière makes note that Leroux was once a theatre critic and his brother was a musician, so he was knowledgeable about music and how to use it as a framing device. New Zealand will be the first country in the world to have amateur productions of the show. People are frightened by him because of his deformities and the acts of violence he commits. Erik eventually releases Raoul and the Persian from his torture chamber. Later it was expanded to be a full length stage show but I still get a kick out of seeing it performed in the way it began over forty years ago.”. Because of his fascination with both Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he wrote a detective mystery entitled The Mystery of the Yellow Room in 1907, and four years later he published Le Fantôme de l’Opéra. Original Phantom Michael Crawford's advice for aspiring Phantoms. Leroux's novel was more than just a mystery and had romance and other genres that would appeal to more audiences. He allows the Persian and Raoul to escape, though not before making Christine promise that she will visit him on his death day, and return the gold ring he gave her. The details about the Palais Garnier, and rumours surrounding it, are closely linked in Leroux's writing. The setting of The Phantom of the Opera came from an actual Paris opera house that Leroux had heard the rumours about from the time the opera house was finished. Erik reveals that he has never kissed anyone, including his own mother, who would run away if he tried to kiss her -- nor has anyone ever kissed him. On January 9, 2006, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA became the longest-running show in Broadway history, surpassing CATS record-holding run of 7,485 performances. In the prologue, he tells the reader about the Phantom and the research that he did to prove the truth of the ghost. [15], There have been many literary and other dramatic works based on Leroux's novel, ranging from stage musicals to films to children's books. His take on the novel and making it a dark romantic movie with comedy was not popular with audiences. [3] Finally, the film was reworked one last time by Maurice Pivar and Louis Weber. Complete an online application form here: http://www.origintheatrical.com.au/ApplicationForm/tabid/60/Default.aspx. The World Amateur Premiere will be staged by CLOC Music Theatre at the National Theatre, St Kilda, Melbourne from May 10 - 25, 2013, with other Victoria productions following at Windmill Theatre Company in Melbourne in June and the Ballarat Lyric Theatre Company and Warragul Theatre Company in 2014. The musical has received more than fifty awards and is seen by many as being the most popular musical on Broadway. ORiGiN Theatrical will then contact you with more information via email. Due to the expected overwhelming response to this release, ORiGiN ask that you wait for them to receive all applications from Australia and New Zealand. To find out if you may be eligible to stage your own production of Phantom, please check out our specialist licensing website. Savoyards will stage the Queensland Amateur Premiere in May / June 2013, with productions by Spotlight Theatre on the Gold Coast in October / November and Redcliffe Musical Theatre in December 2013 to follow.