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".
Simon Bowman
As part of the 25th Anniversary of "The Phantom of the Opera", Simon performed the title song at The Royal Variety Performance - held in The Lowry, Manchester - on Monday 5 December 2011. Performing alongside Nicole Scherzinger, Simon was joined by three other former Phantoms (Ramin Karimloo, Earl Carpenter and John Owen-Jones). The performance was aired on ITV1 on Wednesday 14 December 2011.