Andrew Lloyd Webber has gone back to the 1986 master tapes of the Original London Cast Recording of The Phantom of the Opera and remixed them for the first time, with the new album arriving on the musical's 40th anniversary at His Majesty's Theatre.
Forty years after The Phantom of the Opera opened at what was then Her Majesty's Theatre, Andrew Lloyd Webber has returned to the analogue masters of its Original London Cast Recording and made the first new mix of the score since the album was cut. The result, The Phantom of the Opera (The Andrew Lloyd Webber 2026 Mix), is presented as the most complete recording of the score yet released, and its timing is not accidental: the full album lands on the anniversary itself.
The release comes in four stages. The title song, sung by Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford, goes out as a digital single at midnight on Friday 18 September. The complete digital album follows on Friday 9 October, the night the production marks its 40th birthday with a gala at His Majesty's Theatre, still the only London address the show has had. A 3LP vinyl set and a 2CD edition are due on Friday 6 November, and a limited 6LP box set on Friday 20 November.
The sessions took place at Abbey Road Studios in September and October 1986, capturing Crawford, Brightman and Steve Barton in their original West End performances, with Mike Reed conducting. Of the eleven two-inch reels recorded then, eight have survived; those have been remixed without any enhancement, so the voices and the orchestra are heard as they were caught at the time. The music on the three missing reels has been rebuilt from an unplayed vinyl copy of the 1986 album. That album has sold more than 40 million copies across its formats, and was the first cast recording to enter the UK chart at number one.
"One of the most poignant moments was hearing the late Steve Barton as Raoul," Lloyd Webber said. "As the memories of the making of this album flooded back, I was struck by how brilliant and precise Hal Prince's casting was. Every performance has such character. Michael Crawford's Phantom is a masterclass in musical theatre acting through song." He added that Reed "interpreted my score with an unerring understanding of tempi and with a rare combination of bravura and sensitivity."
Spreading the score over three discs instead of two has allowed passages cut from the original release for running time to be put back. Three recordings from Lloyd Webber's own archive are also heard for the first time: a cassette demo of the title song from the days when it was planned as a stand-alone single; Box Five, the first draft of the Opera Managers' Notes scene, which became Prima Donna after director Hal Prince rejected the original outright; and an early demo of Masquerade with Richard Stilgoe's first lyrics, recorded before the rewrite used in the show today. The 29 tracks include The Music Of The Night, Think Of Me and All I Ask Of You.
The 3LP edition (£69.99) is on black vinyl and comes with a full libretto, a personal letter from Lloyd Webber and previously unseen photographs; the 2CD set (£14.99) includes the letter and the photographs. The 6LP box, Phantom of the Opera - A Collector's Piece Indeed (£229.99), adds The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on 2LP champagne vinyl and Masquerade: The Orchestral Score on 1LP glass clear vinyl, a record that until now could only be bought at Masquerade, the immersive reimagining of the show in New York. Also inside are a Robert Heindel art print, hand-numbered in an edition of 2,026, replicas of annotated early scripts and sheet music from Lloyd Webber's archive, and a fold-out copy of the original Broadway poster signed by its cast. Pre-orders are open on the album's pre-order page.
Since Cameron Mackintosh's original staging opened in 1986, productions of the musical have played to 160 million people in 217 cities, across 52 territories and in 23 languages. In London, The Phantom of the Opera is booking now at His Majesty's Theatre.
