‘You get into his mind’: Andrew Lloyd Webber discusses the immersive Phantom of the Opera

Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed more plans for the much-anticipated immersive take on The Phantom of the Opera. 

It seems that Phantom, which closed on Broadway last spring, won’t be out of New York for long. Though its return may be slightly different to previous iterations, Lloyd Webber teases.

Speaking to Dermot O’Leary on BBC Radio 2, Lloyd Webber said that the success of Starlight Express in the UK (where audiences are seated in a bespoke auditorium and the action exists around them) cemented the need for less conventional staging arrangements.

He said: “There’s a huge demand for immersive theatre – so we’re going to open an immersive version of Phantom in New York.” Given the love for the brand and the ambition behind the project, the Cats and Starlight Express composer teased that it could be “the biggest car crash in history or it could be sensational.”

As to how the show would work for audiences, it sounds as though the experience will be rather mobile, and offer an insight into the Phantom’s world not seen on a more traditional stage configuration: “You walk through and get into his mind and what he’s up to.”