Phantom 'will not return in original form', investors told in November 2020

The Phantom of the Opera will not return in "its original form" when performances start again in the West End, according to a letter to its investors seen by The Stage.

This is despite previous assurances from the Really Useful Group that the returning show would be the "original Phantom". Lead producer Cameron Mackintosh Ltd again insists that nothing has changed and that the new production will "still be based on the original" but argues that the musical is a "living, breathing thing" and "not a museum piece".

The letter, which was sent by the Really Useful Group to the musical’s original investors in November 2020, claims it is too financially challenging to reinstate the original production that ran from the show’s inception more than 30 years ago until its closure at the start of the pandemic last March.

The letter’s emergence comes days after The Stage revealed that the show’s orchestra will be cut from 27 musicians to 14 following the 16-month hiatus. It is scheduled to reopen on July 21.

The letter, signed by Really Useful Group chief operating officer Joanne Quillan on November 27, said that after "much discussion and analysis" between RUG, CML and Her Majesty’s Theatre owner LW Theatres, the company had "been forced to the conclusion that there is no economically viable way of reinstating the production in its original form".

The contracts of the cast, crew and orchestra working on the West End production were terminated last year during the pandemic, when it was announced that RUG and LW Theatres would use the closure period to carry out necessary work on the physical production and the building.

November’s letter, which was seen by The Stage this week, says the investigations into this process "make for upsetting reading".

It reveals significant underlying damage to the building’s proscenium, warns that the show’s set is "largely unsalvageable", having been removed from the theatre, and says that much of the old automation now cannot be replaced.

As a result, the production must be "recapitalised from scratch", a process costing five times more than the show’s reserves, the letter says. Cameron Mackintosh Ltd told The Stage that mounting the new production would cost more than £6 million, describing the venture as "extremely high risk for a show of this scale in a modestly sized theatre".

The letter acts as a formal closing notice on the 1986 production and informs investors that final distribution of payments will soon take place. It estimates that original investors will have received a 1,260% return as a result of the show’s 35-year run.

The investors will not be asked to contribute to the new production, the letter reveals.

"The only way to create a Phantom with any hope of a weekly break-even, let alone recoupment, is for the producers to contribute pre-existing physical assets to a new set and, in so doing, to take the hit in other productions of Phantom due to make use of those assets around the world," it says.

RUG’s notice to investors came four months after the company’s president Jessica Koravos told The Stage that the "original Phantom" would return to the West End after the pandemic.

Speaking in July, Koravos acknowledged then that the "production entity" was being closed down, but that the returning production would enhance the original rather than replace it.

"We are in the process of designing and costing it now, but all the modern technology that exists now and didn’t 35 years ago will be incorporated. It will be Maria Björnson’s design, it will be the original version. It is not a new version of the show," she said.

Responding to questions over the letter to investors, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd insisted that "nothing has changed since last July".

"The original production vehicle has indeed been closed down and funds returned to its investors (who have made more than 1,000% return on their investments). In creative terms, the imminent new Cameron Mackintosh and Really Useful Group’s Phantom will still be based on the ’original’ - Hal Prince’s direction, Maria Björnson’s design, Gillian Lynne’s choreography - though, of course, all three of those contributors are sadly no longer with us, so their original work is being reimagined by a new team, who have had long associations with the original creators over the last 35 years. The credits will reflect that situation," it said.

CML said the new team began its work with the touring production of Phantom that opened at Curve last February, but added: "Their work has been further developed to fully embrace the renovated auditorium of Her Majesty’s theatre and spectacularly blurs the lines between theatre and production."

"Phantom isn’t, and never has been, fixed in aspic. A production is a living, breathing thing and, 35 years on from its opening, Cameron and Andrew [Lloyd Webber] want to treat Phantom as a contemporary piece of musical theatre and not a museum piece," the statement added.