Post-Phantom, Brightman enjoyed huge success to become the world’s richest female classical performer, with an estimated fortune of £36m. Sarah Brightman is currently completing a world tour which will end in Mexico.

The second actress generally plays two shows per week. The role of Christine Daaé is generally cast with two lead actresses sharing the role.

Sarah Brightman training for Outer Space in 2015 The role of Phantom is currently played by Ben Forster, who rose to fame in ITV’s Superstar. Dehydration and exhaustion developed into the post-viral condition myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and it took Crawford six years to fully recover. Michael is now starring in The Go Between at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. The fat suit caused him to sweat so profusely that he had to withdraw from the show. In 2004 he was cast as the obese Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White. In 1995, Crawford was seriously injured in an accident during a performance of the $70m EFX show in Las Vegas – a show which saw him slide from a wire at the back of the 1,700-seat MGM Grand Theatre and drop 12 feet onto the stage. Phantom of the Opera Michael Crawford: What terrible fates have befallen The Original Phantom? As the show turns 30, it seems the current stars would do well to heed the Phantom’s instructions that Box Five is to be kept empty… Mystery and intrigue is not limited to the Phantom of the Opera’s lair – as we discovered when we began to investigate the whereabouts of Phantom’s Original Cast of 1986.

2016 phantom of the opera cast