This article was originally published in 2019 and updated in 2026 by Dick Moore.

Octogenerian Dick Moore has seen 200+ performances of Webber’s masterpiece over 38 years

Dick  Moore with a piece of ‘Phantom’ stained-glass memorabilia. Courtesy Dick Moore.

Denver does not have an official The Phantom of the Opera fan club. But it does have perhaps the ultimate “Phantom Phan”: Dick Moore, an 88-year-old from Wheat Ridge who, by the time the latest national touring production leaves Denver on April 5, 2026, will have seen 202 live performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s tragic love story over the past 38 years — 122 of them in Denver.

“And if I lived in New York, I’m sure it would be a thousand,” Moore told the DCPA NewsCenter. “Every time I see the show, it’s like seeing it for the first time, and I never get tired of it.” Coincidentally, he adds, “I saw the 200th performance in New York on November 11, 2021, which was 33 years to the exact date” from the first time he saw Webber’s masterpiece in London.

They say life begins at 50. That’s certainly when Moore’s life began with Christine, Raoul, Carlotta and poor, tormented, chandelier-dropping Erik. At his 50th birthday party in 1988, Moore’s friends presented him with George Perry’s “The Complete Phantom of the Opera,” a book covering the pop-culture history of The Phantom from Gaston Leroux’s 1911 novel through the stage adaptation that opened in New York that very same year (1988). It is now the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Moore was intrigued by the book, “so I thought, ‘I am going to find out all about this’ – and boy, did I,” he said. Moore decided on a whim to fly to London to see the original show. “It was nothing like I had ever seen before,” he said. “The music and the staging were overwhelming. It just grabbed me, and I was hooked.”

Three years later (1991), it was announced that the new Buell Theatre would be christened with none other than the first North American tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Moore, who had moved to Colorado in 1974 for the weather, would have to travel only 5 miles to see the show here.

By then, he had seen the show just five times. But he took in 26 performances of that inaugural Buell Theatre run, which sold more than 224,000 tickets. Before the 11-week engagement ended, Moore was given a private meeting with star Kevin Gray, a signed poster and a tour jacket – still his most cherished piece of Phantom memorabilia.

“So then I followed them to Philadelphia, and during the curtain call, Kevin turned and acknowledged me in the second row,” Moore said. “When he did that, I thought, ‘OK, now this is where this is going. I am not going to stop this.’ ”

Photo by John Moore

In 2004, Warner Brothers had heard of his dedication and invited Moore to attend a special preview of the Joel Schumacher film adaptation of Phantom at the Denver Pavilions. Before the movie actually opened, they sent him a Swarovski crystal from the chandelier, a music box, and a large movie poster.

By 2005, Moore had flown to London 10 times to see Phantom.

Moore had a huge mask decal covering the hood of his Miata with the vanity license plate OPRGOST – for “opera ghost.” In 2005, when the Phantom tour returned to Denver for the fifth time, Moore bought balcony tickets for 31 of the 41 performances, all on his own dime (adding up to $1,420). For that first evening performance, Moore arrived by limousine wearing full Phantom regalia and a few years later, again in costume, by horse and carriage.

Dick Moore backstage with ‘Phantom’ actor Hugh Panaro. Courtesy Dick Moore.

Not all of Moore’s friends understand his infatuation with the gothic tale of the villainous young composer shamed by his disfigured appearance into a shadowy existence beneath the majestic Paris Opera house – or his lethal infatuation with the beautiful opera singer Christine. But like art, “The Phantom’s beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” Moore said.

“He’s just a poor unfortunate person who had something bad happen to him,” Moore said. “He was just trying to be wanted. He’s the underdog, and sometimes I feel I’m an underdog, too. He has pulled me through a lot hard times in my own life.”

Friends have teasingly called him “The Phantom Phreak,” but he says he’s exactly like any Colorado Rockies season-ticket-holder who attends 81 baseball games every year.

“Sure, people say I’m crazy,” he said, “but this is all pretty serious for me. I mean, I don’t do drugs, and I don’t hurt anybody by doing this.”

Cameron Mackintosh on the bathtub birth of The Phantom of the Opera

And just as Christine is the only woman for Erik, Phantom is (pretty much) the only show for Moore. He was raised to enjoy all kinds of musical theatre by his parents in St. Louis, but he said he has felt no similar infatuation for any other musical. “There is no show I’d rather see than The Phantom of the Opera,” he said flatly. “Like The Phantom, I am basically possessed.” And happily so. For the tour’s current visit to Denver, Moore is ticketed to see two performances in celebration of his 88th birthday. “And I am looking forward to both of them with bated breath,” he said.

Dick Moore displays his tickets for the 2005 run of ‘Phantom’ in Denver. Courtesy Dick Moore.

By 1991, Moore figured he had spent precisely $66,639 to feed his habit: $49,886 on tickets and travel expenses, $12,216 on memorabilia and $4,537 on his Phantom Miata. But Moore is not some independently wealthy eccentric. He’s a now-retired former working stiff who in younger days spent 17 years as a production artist for Hirschfeld Press, and later spent three years working security at DIA before moving on to man the counter for a DIA shuttle service. Now at 88, he keeps busy with a full plate of volunteer work and is not looking for a new job.

For all who will be seeing Phantom for the first time in Denver, Moore is confident: “You’re in for a wonderful night of beautiful music and wonderful theater,” he said.

And to those who have still not yet seen the show, he laments: “You should. It will change your life. It did mine.”

Dick Moore with his ‘Phantom’ license plates at Renaissance Denver Downtown before he ate dinner at Range on opening night 2019. Courtesy of Renaissance Denver Downtown.

The Phantom Phan: By the numbers

• 

  Dick Moore in full ‘Phantom’ regalia at Denver’s Adam’s Mark Hotel. Courtesy Dick Moore.

  First viewing in London: November 11, 1988

• Films seen: 10 different adaptations. Favorite Phantom: Lon Chaney, 1925. Least favorite: Robert Englund, 1989. “Englund is playing Freddie from Elm Street in this stupid and gory version,” he said.
• Books read about “The Phantom”: 35 in his library
• Memorabilia: He keeps over 500 pieces in this apartment, along with framed Playbills from every production he’s ever attended.
• Number of casts seen: 40 in 37 U.S. cities, as well as England and Canada
• Favorite Phantom: Michael Crawford. “I saw him in Los Angeles, and that was the only time I got to see him.” Second favorite: “Kevin Gray, who opened at the Buell in 1991.”
• Favorite Christine: Too many to name just one
• Favorite Raoul: Nat Chandler
• Favorite Carlotta: Patricia Hurd
• Greatest regret: Never having seen the original Christine, Sarah Brightman, former wife of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Wish list: To meet Webber. That would be like meeting the King of England to me.”
• Favorite quote: from Phantom Kevin Gray, “Believe in the magic.”
• Phantoms he has met: Kevin Gray, Rick Hilsabeck, Lawrence (Larry) Anderson, Ted Keegan, Hugh Panaro, Gary Mauer, John Cudia

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter