Andrew Lloyd Webber to make first official visit to Korea, join ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ 40th-anniversary celebrations

[Financial News] The musical ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ composer Andrew Lloyd Webber will make his first official visit to Korea this month. Ahead of the opening of a special season marking the 40th anniversary of the work’s global premiere and the 25th anniversary of its Korean-language premiere, he will meet Korean cast members and production staff.

According to organizer Clip Service on the 11th, Webber will visit the rehearsal venue for ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ during his stay in Korea and meet with Korean media on the 19th. He is expected to discuss the work’s 40-year journey and his musical world.
Webber is a legendary composer and producer behind ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ ‘Evita,’ ‘Cats,’ ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ among others. He has won all four major awards—the Emmy, Grammy, Academy and Tony Awards—and is currently preparing a new work, ‘The Illusionist.’
First staged in London’s West End in 1986, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ has been performed in 23 languages in 229 cities across 54 countries. Its cumulative audience has exceeded 160 million. In Korea, the Korean-language premiere drew 240,000 people in 2001, and the cumulative audience has since surpassed 1.5 million across six productions.

Choi Jae-rim, Jeon Dong-seok and Park Kang-hyun will play the Phantom in this special season. Choi and Jeon, who appeared in the 2023 Korean-language production, are returning, while Park is joining the cast for the first time. Lee Hae-won and Choi Seon-ho will play Christine, and Song Won-geun and Kim Seong-sik will play Raoul.
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ tells the story of a genius musician who conceals his face behind a mask, Christine, who grows through his tutelage, and Raoul, who loves her. The musical is renowned for songs including ‘The Phantom of the Opera,’ ‘The Music of the Night’ and ‘All I Ask of You,’ as well as its chandelier and masquerade-ball scenes.
The production will run at Woori Bank Hall at Blue Square in Seoul from December 22 through February 28 next year.


A 40th-anniversary album was released earlier. Titled ‘The Phantom of the Opera - The Andrew Lloyd Webber 2026 Mix,’ it features recordings by members of the original London cast, including Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman and Steve Barton, which Webber personally remixed and mastered. The album was made using analog master tapes recorded at Abbey Road Studios during the original production, and the physical release came out on the 6th.
A limited edition comprising six LPs, ‘A Collector’s Piece Indeed,’ will be released on the 20th. It includes the newly reworked original cast album, the film soundtrack and music from ‘Masquerade,’ the immersive production in New York, among other material.
Meanwhile, events have been arranged to let people experience the work ahead of the Korean production. The ‘Opera House Cafe’ has been open since the 9th on the first floor of Maxim Plant in Hannam-dong, Seoul. Inspired by 19th-century Parisian cafes, it features chandeliers, roses and masks, and offers a free ‘Opera House Mystery Newspaper’ presenting incidents from the musical in newspaper-article form. It will run through the 29th.

[email protected] Shin Jin-a Reporter