Today's Musical of the day is Phantom of the Opera. Despite the fact that it probably caused Andrew Lloyd Webber to become a popular figure of disdain, this is a fantastic (phantastic) work. It's quite often the case the works of power and detail become hated if they are also liked by the masses. There's no doubt that this musical, with plenty of memorable tunes and even its slightly cheesy opening overture, which was always being overplayed around the time the show was lauched, is a popular masterpiece and it deserves to be loved.

I've seen Phantom a couple of times. It has a good pedigree. Lyrics by the then unknown Charles Hart, who seems to be using a number of Sondheim-isms in his writing (as does ALW in some of the dialogue scenes IMHO), and direction by Hal Prince, who is behind a lot of famous musicals (including Evita and quite a lot of Sondheim works). The stage machinery alone is worthy of note, but the sheer drama of the piece is just magical. You have everything from pathos to blood-curdling screams and murder... with the obligatory love story. I've read a piece saying that it is cheesy to try to get the audience to sympathise with the villain, but what the hell - everything's possible in showbusiness!