Stranger Than You Dreamt It: 5 Reasons to Experience Masquerade, the Immersive Phantom of the Opera Production

When The Phantom of the Opera took its final bow in 2023, it left behind a staggering legacy. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s baroque musical romance still holds the record of being the longest running show in Broadway history, having entranced audiences for 35 years. Now, Phantom has been reimagined as Masquerade, an immersive experience off-Broadway where audiences don masks and are ushered into a labyrinth of intrigue. Read on for five reasons why you should venture into the underground and experience the “Music of the Night” yourself.

1. It's Phantom As You’ve Never Experienced It

Think you know Phantom? Think again. This one-of-a-kind theatrical event flips the script on the larger-than-life stagecraft associated with the original production, offering a more intimate but no less intricate maze of decadence and desire. Within the venue itself is original artwork by luminaries like Marina Abramović, Kenny Scharf and Bob Dylan. Staged in multiple rooms, Masquerade breathes new life into Phantom’s world of shadows.

2. An Immersive Outing

Masquerade is the world’s first fully immersive musical. Upon entering, audiences receive their own masks (if they haven’t already brought their own), moving through a rendering of the Paris Opera House and its underground corridors. Those who attend are not merely passive viewers but active participants in the high drama proceedings.

3. A Visionary Director

Tony-winning director Diane Paulus helms this daring new production. Paulus is known for reinventing beloved works with both reverence and subversion. Her sparse Broadway staging of Porgy and Bess carried historical heft while also being strikingly modern. In 2013, she turned Pippin into a full-blown circus spectacular, for which she received a Tony. Masquerade is just as imaginative and surprising as theatergoers would expect from an auteur like Paulus.

4. Six Different Phantoms, Six Different Christines

In the world of Masquerade, nothing is quite what it seems. One of the boldest aspects is its use of a revolving cast. Throughout the course of a performance, six different actors take on the role of the Phantom. In turn, six different Christines alternate between scenes. This striking choice plays with the nature of perspective and offers a dizzying kaleidoscope of talent.

5. The Music You Know and Love

Though Masquerade is radically different then Phantom’s previous iterations, it still features the show’s sumptuous songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Audiences now have a chance to hear songs like “Angel of Music,” “Think of Me” and banger of all bangers “The Phantom of the Opera” up close and personal.

Get tickets to Masquerade!