add the kind of music that would have been heard at the Opéra Garnier in the late 19th century. Consequently, he discarded the modern score by Ian Armit and wrote original English lyrics that told Leroux’s tale. By placing them to opera arias by Verdi, Gounod, Offenbach, Mozart, Weber, Donizetti, and Boito, he created a musical that reflected the era in which the original novel was written. This updated version of The Phantom of the Opera was produced in a joint production by the Newcastle Playhouse and the Theatre Royal Stratford East, and premiered at the Newcastle Playhouse on 3 April 1984, before shortly moving to the Theatre Royal Stratford East. In between, the show had two very brief runs at the New Tyne Theatre in Newcastle and the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton - neither of those productions did very well. When the show got the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Sarah Brightman—who created the role of Christine in the Lloyd Webber version—was famously asked to perform the role of Christine in the 1984 cast but she turned it down, leaving the role for the opera singer Christina Collier. Andrew Lloyd Webber, who at the time was married to Brightman, and Cameron Mackintosh attended a performance of Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Prompted by the good reviews, they approached Hill about the possibility of their collaborating on developing a grand scale version of his adaptation in the West End, and offered to produce it. In fact, Hill and Lloyd Webber had worked together earlier on a revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Winchester Theatre. Lloyd Webber and Mackintosh had been highly enthusiastic when they broached Hill about his Phantom of the Opera. But in the end, Lloyd Webber chose to pursue the musical without Hill, and developed The Phantom of the Opera. Phantom of the Opera then emerged on the other side of the Atlantic in 1987 for its American premiere in St. Louis at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. This production starred Sal Mistretta as The Phantom; his performance won him the St. Louis Theatre Critics Award. A second US production was mounted in 1988 in San Francisco at the Theatre in the Square, produced by Jonathan Reinis. The productions of Phantom of the Opera in St. Louis and San Francisco were so successful that Hill was asked