“The Phantom of the Opera” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Stephen Barlow, is the latest premiere of the National Theatre of Operetta and Musical “Ion Dacian”, which will enter its repertoire starting with January 2015.

“The Phantom of the Opera” is one of the most successful music productions of all times, whose success continues today more than 25 years after its premiere. With a total number of over 130 million viewers and revenues of over 5.6 billion dollars (even bigger than the famous Hollywood movies “Titanic”, “ET” and “Star Wars”), “The Phantom de la Opera” is the longest-running production on Broadway, surpassing the record of 7486 performances set by the musical “Cats”.

“The Phantom of the Opera” has so far won 70 major awards, including 3 Olivier Awards, most recently the Olivier Award for Most Popular Show in 2002, an Evening Standard Award, 7 Tony Awards (including Best Musical), 7 Drama Desk Awards and 3 Outer Critic Circle Awards. The show was produced in 151 cities and 30 countries around the world including: England, Australia, Austria, South Africa, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United States, Hungary, Taiwan and Thailand.

Stephen Barlow is one of the most appreciated contemporary directors, with a career held in the most important music institutions in the world (Metropolitan Opera House – New York, Covent Garden – London, San Francisco Opera, Opera Monte Carlo, Royal National Theater, Mariinsky Theater – St. Petersburg etc.). Among his latest shows include: “Rigoletto” (Bucharest National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago), “Tosca” (Santa Fe), “Carmen” (Opera Theater Saint Louis), “La Traviata” (Singapore Lyric Opera House), “Le Cour de Celimene” (Wexford, nominated for the award for best performance in the Irish Times Theater Awards, zz in 2011), “Cavaleria rustica” and “Paiațe”, “Don Pasquale”, “Don Giovanni” and the European premiere of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (all at Holland Park Opera, London), La Bohème (British Youth Opera), “The Magic Flute” (Royal Academy of Music), “Trial by Jury” (Covent Garden Festival) and others. Stephen Barlow was also co-directed the latest West End musical, Boublil / Schönberg / Legrand – “Marguerite” and the resident director for the UK tour of the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”.