THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA National Tour to Play Ohio Theatre, 3/5-16; Tickets Now on Sale

Tickets are now on sale for Cameron Mackintosh's spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, which makes its premiere in Columbus as part of a new North American tour. With reinvented staging and scenic design, this new version of PHANTOM, the longest running show in Broadway history, will be performed by a cast and orchestra of 52, making this one of the largest productions on tour in North America.

Tickets begin at $38 and are available at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. Orders for groups of 20 or more may be placed by calling (614) 719-6900. Performance schedule, prices, and cast are subject to change without notice.

Andrew Lloyd Webber said, "It's wonderful to have a new production of PHANTOM touring America now that the show has celebrated over 25 years on Broadway. Director Laurence Connor has done an amazing job and this production has received huge critical acclaim in the UK."

Cameron Mackintosh said, ''After a glorious celebration of 25 phenomenal years on Broadway with no end in sight, I'm delighted to be able to bring this dazzling new production of PHANTOM -- which has been phenomenally well-received by both audiences and critics in the U.K this past year -- to North America. With an exciting new design and staging, retaining Maria Björnson's amazing costumes, I am confident North American audiences will fall in love with the PHANTOM in his new guise -- for the first time or all over again."

This new production of The Phantom of the Opera is directed by Laurence Connor (the 25th anniversary LES MISERABLES now on tour and headed for Broadway, Jesus Christ Superstar) with choreography by Scott Ambler, set design by Paul Brown, Tony Award-winning original costume design by Maria Björnson, lighting design by Paule Constable, sound design by Mick Potter, and musical supervision by John Rigby. The production is overseen by Matthew Bourne and Cameron Mackintosh. The Phantom of the Opera has music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart (with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe), and the book is by Richard Stilgoe and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Orchestrations are by David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

There are currently six productions of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA around the world: the flagship London production (27 Years and counting), New York (approaching 26 years), Budapest (Hungary), Hamburg (Germany), the Asian Pacific Tour and the all-new North American Tour.

The musical's international success - equally staggering - is represented by total worldwide grosses estimated at more than $5.6 billion. This colossal figure makes Phantom the most successful entertainment venture of all time, with revenues higher than any film or stage play in history, including Titanic, Star Wars, and far surpassing the world's highest-grossing film, Avatar (at $2.8 billion). Worldwide, more than 65,000 performances have been seen by 130 million people in 28 countries and 148 cities in 13 languages.

The flagship London production of The Phantom of the Opera, which opened in 1986 at Her Majesty's Theatre, celebrated 25 years in October 2011. That milestone was celebrated with a special production at London's Royal Albert Hall directed by Laurence Connor.

The show has won more than 70 major theater awards, including seven 1988 Tony Awards (including Best Musical) and three Olivier Awards in the West End. The original cast recording, with more than 40 million copies sold worldwide, is the best-selling cast recording of all time. In September 2010, student productions of Phantom began being licensed through R&H Theatricals, and so far, have been performed at hundreds of high schools and colleges across the US and Canada.

The new touring production of The Phantom of the Opera will be the first to tour the US in three years. There have been three previous US national tours that grossed more than $1.5 billion in combined box office sales, playing 216 engagements in 77 cities for an unprecedented total of 36 years and more than 14,500 performances to 31 million people.

Based on the classic novel Le Fantôme de L'Opéra by Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a masked figure who lurks beneath the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit it. He falls madly in love with innocent, young soprano Christine, and devotes himself to creating a new star by nurturing her extraordinary talents and by employing all of the devious methods at his command.

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

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