Reviews are in for the re-opening of The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.
Phantom is back! After the Covid shutdown, the return of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic gothic masterpiece to Her Majesty’s Theatre feels like an important step.
You aren’t forced to close a show after 35 years without it meaning something pretty special when it finally reopens.
And the critics seem to agree, with the reopening a great excuse to reappraise the show and see it for what it is: a great, big, spectacular, sweeping, epic musical. And a timeless at one at that.
Book tickets toThe Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre
The Phantom of the Opera reviews
"The music of the night is back"
"A new cast refreshes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, its pop melodies, maximalist designs and unconventional romantic lead standing the test of time."
"The show has a dedication to analogue theatrical effects, from trapdoors and smoke to a skull-topped cane shooting fireballs, and, sure, there’s something hokey about the Phantom playing gondolier in the boat to his subterranean lair. But the late Maria Björnson’s maximalist designs, from vivid masquerade ball to Degas-style ballet dancers, set the tone for old-school fantasy. Go big or go home, as they say."
"Let the spectacle astound you"
"Andrew Lloyd-Webber's classic musical is back in a sensationally polished production that rings out with the Music of the Night. That famous falling chandelier isn't the only thrill in a triumphantly staged theatrical tour-de-force."
"Much has been made of the casting of Lucy St Louis, the first black leading lady to play Christine in the West End. All I saw was a powerful actress who brings strength and shading to a tricky role that can easily become a fluttering victim, and a stirring soprano to the big money notes scattered lavishly throughout that sumptuous score. She's matched by the dashing and dynamic Rhys Whitfield as her earnest suitor Raoul, his voice soaring alongside hers."
"Lloyd Webber's epic tearjerker is back in all its kitsch, gothic glory"
"The hit musical has returned to the place of its birth - Her Majesty's Theatre - with a mean and marvellous new Phantom - Killian Donnelly."
"I take it all back - this West End spectacular more than deserves its classic status"
"Phantom avoidant Katie Rosseinsky faces her fears - it turns out the most Andrew Lloyd Webber of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals is... scarily good"
"From the moment that the huge chandelier went careening from the stage up onto the ceiling as that organ riff played, I was hooked on the high-camp melodrama. This is a show that makes no apologies about being bombastic and revels in being extra, from the pyrotechnics to the eye-catching costumes to the jaw-dropping ensemble numbers."
"Andrew Lloyd Webber's gothic spectacular is totally '80s in the best possible way"
