Isaiah Bailey and Jordan Lee Gilbert in The Phantom of the Opera 2026. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

25 Years After Opening Denver’s Buell Theatre, The Phantom of the Opera Returns in an All-New Production

Maybe you saw the original performance on Broadway. Maybe you heard the music on a cassette or CD or through streaming — ripped a track to a mixtape or playlist to sing along to in your car. Or maybe a friend or sibling is a fan, wouldn’t stop talking about the chandelier, and brought you to the show. Whatever it may be, you’re swept up in the phenomenon that is The Phantom of the Opera returning to Denver’s Buell Theatre March 18-April 5, 2026.

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“Phantom has become cultural as opposed to just some theatrical musical event,” muses director Seth Sklar-Heyn, whose first experience with the show was as the youngest volunteer usher at his local theatre before eventually assistant stage managing it on Broadway (still as a teenager). “It’s beyond the stage. It’s incredibly special.”

IMPACT OF THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Since the debut of Cameron Mackintosh’s lavish production in 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s haunting story of the enigmatic musical genius and his obsession with a talented young soprano has exhilarated and electrified audiences worldwide. In 2012, the musical celebrated its 10,000^th performance and is the longest running show in Broadway history, and the second longest-running West End musical. Forty years later, a new cast balances the tension of honoring the original while simultaneously refreshing the experience for today’s spectators.

“There’s an incredible power that comes from nostalgia. It doesn’t need to mean dusty or tired — there is something vital about it. And for me, the nostalgia that audiences have for the show increases their own investment of the show. They have their own memory, and it’s incredibly strong. They’re introducing it to new generations and other people in their lives who didn’t see it, and that’s what keeps it alive.” — Seth Sklar-Heyn, Director

Done right, nostalgia has the opposite effect of making something feel outdated or mimicked. “It gives a reason for the performance to feel renewed because people want to see it,” observes Sklar-Heyn. “They want to relive an experience, and hopefully an experience that is enhanced in some way, that makes it even better than they remember it the first time.”

As someone who’s been involved with The Phantom of the Opera from so many different angles and perspectives over the years, Sklar-Heyn’s relationship to the show emanates tenderness, trust, and care for the musical, its casts and audiences, and its history and longevity. “Phantom has been a vocation in a way, more than a job — ‘I do Phantom!’” he laughs. “In many ways, I want to protect it, and I think what’s changed over the years is that it’s not about keeping it the same. It’s about knowing what I know, how it works, and what the creative expectations are. The way I can ‘protect it’ is by keeping it alive, and I have to bend and allow performers to bend, so that it continues to work.”

STAGING THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

The challenge of staging Phantom today comes from respecting audience memories, while also rejuvenating the experience — all while sparking and tending to the fiery feelings that may arise from watching the show.

“People will always have criticisms about how the show is about a man dragging a girl to the basement,” Sklar-Heyn relates. “But I can tell you that we talk about why and how we frame these relationships without changing the story. And people have noticed it, such as Christine having more agency, autonomy, and presence of mind as opposed to just being a victim who’s seduced.”

Jordan Lee Gilbert in The Phantom of the Opera 2026. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The role of Christine Daaé is typically shared by two actresses (a principal and alternate) across different performances due to its vocal demands. In this tour, Jordan Lee Gilbert and Alexa Xioufaridou Moster inhabit the gifted ingénue in their own way. In addition to their scintillating voices, each of them brings their own version of warmth, strength, and groundedness to a character who might otherwise be dismissed as dreamy, naïve, or a victim. And as strength comes in many forms, so does obsession. Isaiah Bailey’s plaintive portrayal of the Phantom’s dangerous longing overflows not with bravado, but with grief. Through Bailey’s burnished voice, the Phantom’s tortured intensity becomes elegiac.

The emotional shifts are a potent approach to revitalizing the musical. In addition to the cast’s nuanced choices, part of crafting a refreshed experience while maintaining the show’s legacy is through making small, incremental changes that all add up to a different kind of elegance than the original. Little costume changes that feel familiar but new. Hand gestures or postures that emanate differently from an actor’s body. Back stories and names — that the audience might never learn — make the performers more than extras or ensemble dancers at a masquerade. Like Christine and her childhood sweetheart Raoul, they are also shocked Opera house guests and witnesses of the Phantom’s grandiose demands and desires.

Sklar-Heyn tells a story about one ensemble actor who suggested maintaining identities between his created characters and their clothes during a scene transition, and how as a result, “He’s creating more story — which for an audience, you’re not just seeing people put on costumes and letting the costumes be the show. You’re seeing people be these characters and bring this to life.” Of this process, he adds, “From day one, we say: Create. Invent.”

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