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Vote for Ken Hill's Phantom in Dress Circle's Greatest Musical Awards
The Dress Circle Musical Theatre shop in London are celebrating their 30th anniversary. As part of their celebrations, they've just launched a nationwide poll to find the UK's "Greatest Musical" of the last 30 years, of which Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera is one of.
Anyone has the chance to vote online for their favourite before the closing date of 31 December 2008.
Dress Circle is one of the best shops and on-line stores in the world for Stage Musicals, Soundtracks, Cabaret, Nostalgia, Karaoke, Comedy, and Big Bands CDs, DVDs, Merchandise, Printed Music, Books, Collectables, Gifts, Gift Tokens. Not forgetting our famous star-studded signing events and Dress Circle Theatre Evenings.
To cast your vote for Ken Hill's Phantom, please visit Dress Circle.
Previous News
Video footage from the 1991 West End production of Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera was included in the recent "Behind the Mask" documentary on Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, which was aired on BBC2 on 26th December 2006. Not to be confused with the documentary of the same name included on the Andrew Lloyd Webber Phantom movie DVD.
The few seconds of video footage, courtesy of The Ken Hill Estate, features Peter Straker as The Phantom and Christina Collier as Christine in The Phantom's underground lair, complete with lake, boat and organ. It was available to view online at YouTube.com but was subsequently removed for copyright reasons.
View screenshots in the West End section of our Image Gallery.
It must be the season! Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera is up for another community theatre production, but in the UK this time, which will run from 31st October - 4th November 2006, produced by TTC and directed by Caroline Elliott at Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. To view details of this new production, please click here.
Update: This production was postponed until November 2007, then cancelled.
Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera is making a return to the US this year in Goodlettsville, TN, US. It will run from 13th - 28th October 2006 and be produced and directed by Ron Cushman of The New Day Theatre Company at The New Day Theatre. Now that performance rights have been successfully secured by another community theatre company in the US, it could lead to more productions around the country. To view details of this new production, please click here.
Update: This production was previously announced as the US amateur premiere. After receiving new information, we can confirm that it is not.
Several Phantom props from the "bus-and-truck" part of the National US Tour of Ken Hill's Phantom, have gone up for auction on eBay.com. There are a total of three items, each one being auctioned seperately; The Phantom's mask, made of leather/composite/cloth (with ribbon attached), The Phantom's dagger, made of metal (ornamented) and wood, and The Phantom's gloves, made of soft, white leather (with a button fastening at the wrist). All items were worn or used by Todd Alan Johnson, US Tour Phantom.
A late piece of news ... Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera was recently featured as part of a Phantom of the Opera documentary called: "Behind The Mask", on the new release of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera on DVD. Only a short mention was given, but they also showed the poster for the 1991 Shafesbury Theatre production and Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber spoke about their visit to see the show in 1984 (at the Theatre Royal, Sratford East) and their involvement with Ken Hill. Unfortunately there was no video footage or images included. The documentry is good though and worth buying the DVD for if you like Phantom of the Opera. To buy the DVD from Amazon.co.uk, please click here.
The official CD for Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera featuring the entire 1991 Shaftesbury Theatre cast (Peter Straker as The Phantom, Christina Collier as Christine and Steven Pacey as Raoul) has finally been made available again for commercial sale by The Dress Circle "showbiz" store in London. Online ordering for the CD is available through their website and they can deliver internationally. The CD is individually priced at 19.49 GBP (around $37.00 USD and 28.57 EUR) plus £1.40 for UK delivery, and slightly higher postage rates for the rest of the world. To buy the CD, please click here. In addition to this, SoundofMusic.de has brought down their price of the CD dramatically to 28.95 EUR - click here to buy from them.
Sarah Ryan, who played Christine on the 2000/2001 UK Tour of Ken Hill's Phantom has released a CD entitled "Showtime" featuring songs from the musicals and more. The CD is especially interesting, since the tracklist features a song from Phantom itself: "Somewhere Above The Sun Shines Bright", sung beautifully by Sarah. You can listen to a version of this particular song by visiting Sarah's official website here. Sarah also sings the song "Think Of Me", from the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of the same story, in which she again played Christine. The CD is very reasonably priced at £10 (including postage and packing), and is available direct from Sarah via her official website. Online ordering is also available via Paypal.co.uk. For more information on the CD, please click here.
This website has conducted several interviews with various actors, musicians and people involved in the many major productions of Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera. The first two of these are now online! The first person interviewed is Barry Koron, a musical director for the first US Tour, European Tour and 1988 San Francisco Production, and the man who helped to set up the New Zealand tour as well! Also we have Todd Alan Johnson, US Tour Phantom and the FINAL Phantom from the First US Tour. Both interviews are incredibly interesting and give a useful insight into how the early days of the show in the US went. To read both interviews, please click here. More interviews coming soon ... hopefully.
A CD entitled "Broadway's Fabulous Phantoms", featuring ex-Ken Hill Phantom Kevin Gray singing "It’s My Time To Shine", will be released on 26 April 2005 by Rhino Records in association with Warner Strategic Markets. Kevin played The Phantom in the 1988 San Francisco, Theater on the Square production of Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera (you can see a grainy image of him as The Phantom in our image gallery), and has also extensively portrayed the same character in the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of the same story, on Broadway and US Tour. The CD itself consists of 11 tracks from artists who have appeared as The Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of The Phantom of the Opera.
The West End cast recording of Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera, featuring the entire 1991 Shaftesbury Theatre cast (Peter Straker as The Phantom, Christina Collier as Christine and Steven Pacey as Raoul), has been made available for sale by The Stetson Group. The company is also known as Stetson Productions, who have produced many international tours of Phantom (most notably in Japan, Australia and New Zealand). The site contains an order form (the order is NOT completed on the website - you have to send a bank cheque to them after they contact you about your order) and the CD is priced at 30.00 NZD (around $21.50 USD and £11.30 GBP). To purchase the CD, please click here.
We have just found out that a major new production of Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera is currently in progress in Tokyo, Japan starring the original Phantom, Peter Straker, in the title role. The production began on 10 November 2004 and runs until the 28 November 2004. It's being produced by one of the West End producers, Stewart Macpherson. Tickets are, of course, already on sale - please click here for more details. After this current run closes, the show is expected to tour throughout Japan. Visit the official website at Phantom-Japan.com
Update: The plans for the fourth Japanese tour of Phantom have been dropped. Unfortunately, there will now be no tour.
Former touring cast member, Adele Anderson, who played Madam Giry on the 2000/2001 UK tour, has been the focus of an interview on the internet radio series ‘Tim McArthur Interviews...' produced by TheatreRadio. The interview has already been recorded and in it, Adele talks about her whole career as well as her time with the UK tour production of Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera.
"...I toured in Phantom of the Opera. Not the one by Lord Lloyd Webber, but the vastly superior version by Ken Hill..."
The interview will be aired on TheatreRadio from Sunday 28 November 2004 at 5pm GMT. The interview will then be repeated later on during the week. As a special treat for visitors to this site, we have an exclusive 3 minute preview of the interview, kindly provided with permission by TheatreRadio. To listen to the preview, please click here.
The cast recording of Ken Hill's Phantom is now being sold by SoundOfMusic.de. This is currently the only online store which offers the recording for sale, and since it's rare - it's priced at the high price of 49.95 EUR (around $64.80 USD and £34.90 GBP). To purchase your copy, please click here. Please remember that copies of the recording also turn up on eBay now and again.
The Ken Hill version of Phantom is to be featured in a Phantom of the Opera documentary, made by the film company Really Useful Films (a company of the Really Useful Group). Really Useful Films made the upcoming Andrew Lloyd Webber Phantom of the Opera musical movie (released December 2004) and are making the documentary to be aired on television, coinciding with the release of the movie. The documentary may also feature on the special bonus features on the DVD.
A selection of tracks from the cast recording are now being featured in the playlists for the new popular online radio station for musical theatre, TheatreRadio. Click here to listen. Tracks covered in the playlists of TheatreRadio include: "Ne'er Forsake Me Here Remain", "What An Awful Way To Perish", "While Floating High Above (Epilogue)", "To Pain My Heart Selfishly Dooms Me", "How Dare She", "She Says She's Got The Nodules" and "Welcome Sir I'm So Delighted".
With a range of theatre classics and more contemporary tracks, TheatreRadio provides a unique blend of music and is accessible to everyone wanting to listen to musical theatre. As well as providing great music, the website has loads of information on musicals playing in London’s West End as well as those on tour across the UK. You can even buy tickets, CD’s and other items for musicals whose tracks you will undoubtedly hear on TheatreRadio!
The US Tour Souvenir Brochure (featuring Todd Alan Johnson as The Phantom and Lise Brown as Christine) is now available to buy for a price of £7.00 from the Dress Circle store. Click here to purchase your copy.
The Dress Circle is the World's best online (and offline!) store for Show CDs, Videos, DVDs, Merchandise, Sheet Music, Books and Gifts. If they can't get it - no one can!
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