Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s Masquerade, the immersive spin-off of The Phantom of the Opera, will begin previews on Thursday, July 31 at a renovated 218 W. 57tht St venue (formerly Lee’s Art Shop). The main cast includes former Broadway Phantoms Hugh Panaro and Jeremy Stolle. The show is a musical event based on Phantom with music by Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe and book by Richard Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber.
Stolle has been identified by fans as the Phantom that visited the Tony Awards ceremony earlier this month, but given the multi-room aspect of the immersive production the show might well require more than one Phantom. Another cast member, Kaley Ann Voorhees, portrayed Phantom‘s Christine for several stints on Broadway from 2014 to 2019.
The production, modeled after the immersive Shakespeare production Sleep No More, which ran for 14 years at NYC’s McKittrick Hotel, seeks to immerse audiences by planting them right into the plot of the show. Once you have entered the Opera House, you will join in on the “ghost hunt,” tracing the steps of the infamous Opera Ghost, who has been terrorizing the theatre’s performers and management. As the story unfolds, you learn of the Opera Ghost’s mentorship over Christine Daae—a young soprano who has become the object of his obsession.
Tickets for the upcoming run went on sale June 30, selling out within three hours due to overwhelming response. The production has added additional performances, tickets to which will go on sale beginning July 9 with sign-up at MasqueradeNYC.com.
