March 28, 2024

‘Phantom of the Opera’ showing at Civic Center through Sunday

Tickets are still available for Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group’s spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” at the Des Moines Civic Center.

With newly reinvented staging and scenic design, this new version of “Phantom,” the most successful musical of all-time, will be performed by a cast and orchestra of 52, making this one of the largest productions on tour in North America.

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

Performances at slated for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. To purchase tickets, visit the Civic Center Ticket Office, all Ticketmaster locations, charge-by-phone at 1-800-745-3000 and online at www.desmoinesperformingarts.org. Groups of 15 or more should call (515) 246-2340.

“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,” Mackintosh said. “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.”

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.

Since its debut, “The Phantom of the Opera” has grossed over $5.6 billion worldwide, with over 65,000 performances that have been seen by 130 million people in 29 countries and 150 cities in 13 languages. The show has won more than 70 major theater awards.

There have been three previous U.S. National Tours of “The Phantom of the Opera” that grossed over $1.5 billion in combined box office sales and played 216 engagements in 77 cities for an unprecedented total of 36 years and over 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 an 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.