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
Fascinated by myths and legends (such as King Arthur and El Cid) and the modern fictional characters Zorro, Tarzan and "The Jungle Book" Mowgli, Falk envisioned the character as wealthy playboy Jimmy Wells by day and the crime-fighting Phantom by night. During his first story, "The Singh Brotherhood", before disclosing that Wells was the Phantom Falk changed the setting to a jungle and made the Phantom an apparently immortal, mythic figure. Thinking that there were already too many characters called "the Phantom" (including The Phantom Detective and The Phantom of the Opera), Falk considered calling his hero "The Gray Ghost" (later the name of a "Batman" character, mentioned in the first episode of "Phantom 2040"). However, he could not find a name he liked better and decided to stay with the Phantom.