Film Phantom Arrives on Video May 3 with Special Features

A Special Edition DVD will also go on sale, with countless behind-the-scenes features on the making of both the stage and screen versions of The Phantom of the Opera. Behind the Mask, a 45-minute look at the creation of the stage production features interviews with Lloyd Webber, director Hal Prince, producer Cameron Mackintosh, choreographer Gillian Lynne and lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe and rare video clips, including glimpses of early stagings of the show at Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival in the mid-80s and Phantom of the Opera music videos. There are also three extensive featurettes on the casting, filming and recording of the soundtrack as well as a deleted scene showing the Phantom singing “No One Would Listen,” a never-before-heard earlier version of the new Lloyd Webber song “Learn To Be Lonely,” which was nominated for an Academy Award earlier this year.

Directed by Joel Schumacher, The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a disfigured musical genius who haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera House, waging a reign of terror over its occupants. When he falls fatally in love with the lovely young soprano Christine, the Phantom devotes himself to creating a new star for the Opera. But she has another admirer, her childhood sweetheart Raoul, the dashing young Vicompte de Chagny. The Phantom's fury at her betrayal becomes murderous. He hatches a plot to win her back and in a dramatic and tense climax Christine is forced to choose between Raoul and the Phantom-her Angel of Music.

The Phantom of the Opera stars Gerard Butler in the title role, Emmy Rossum winner of the National Board of Review's Breakthrough Performance Award as Christine and two-time Tony Award nominee Patrick Wilson as Raoul. Completing the cast are past Academy Award nominees Minnie Driver as opera diva Carlotta and Miranda Richardson as the mysterious Madame Giry.

The Phantom of the Opera was released in theaters on December 22, 2004 and was subsequently nominated for three Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. In reviewing the, Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek called it “a dark beauty, faithful to its stage counterpart and yet expanded in all the right ways.”

Now in its 18th year, the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera continues to play at the Majestic Theatre. The current cast includes Hugh Panaro as the Phantom, Sandra Joseph as Christine and John Cudia as Raoul.