The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The musical opened in London's West End in 1986, and on Broadway in 1988. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. It is the longest running show in Broadway history by a wide margin, and celebrated its 10,000th Broadway performance on 11 February 2012, the first production ever to do so. It is the second longest-running West End musical, after "Les Misérables", and the third longest-running West End show overall, after "The Mousetrap".
The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)
TV Guide gave the film 4/5 stars, stating, "One of the most famous horror movies of all time, "The Phantom of the Opera" still manages to frighten after more than 60 years."
On Rotten Tomatoes, "The Phantom of the Opera" holds an approval rating of 91% based on , with a weighted average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, " Decades later, it still retains its ability to scare -- and Lon Chaney's performance remains one of the benchmarks of the horror genre."
After the successful introduction of sound pictures during the 1928–29 movie season, Universal announced that they had secured the rights to a sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera" from the Gaston Leroux estate. Entitled "The Return of the Phantom", the picture would have sound and be in color. Universal could not use Chaney in the film as he was now under contract at MGM.