A person in eerie face paint and dark clothing leans forward in low light. Above them, text reads: “Why wait? We could leave right now?” The background is black, creating a dramatic, unsettling mood.

Prep School: Phantom of the Opera

First a novel, then several silent films, then a contentiously adapted and enormously successful musical – odds are, you’ve encountered a version of Phantom of the Opera in the 100+ years since its first rendition. Now, Theater in Quarantine is bringing it to audiences from their signature, concise stage, aka founder Joshua William Gelb‘s closet. Learn more about Theater in Quarantine.

RELATED EVENTS
  • Thu Oct 23 – Mon Nov 3, 2025

Theater In Quarantine: Phantom of the Opera

  • Theater
  • Commission
Learn More
  • Tue Nov 11, 2025

Skirball Salon: Staging Horror

Learn More
INDEFINITE ARTICLE

Howard McGillin on Phantom of the Opera

“I played the title role in “The Phantom of the Opera” in the long-running Broadway production for a record number of 2,544 performances, something I find even more staggering to contemplate with the passage of time.”

READ MORE(opens in a new tab)
A person in formal attire wears a white half-face mask, covering the right side of their face. They have a visible microphone and hands clasped, looking upward, possibly performing on stage.

OFFICE HOURS

Joshua William Gelb and Normandy Sherwood, co-creators of “Phantom of the Opera” from Theater in Quarantine, in conversation with J de Leon on horror, magic, liveness, and the ways their work blurs the line between distinctions of onstage and backstage – plus, a whole new meaning to the term “artist in residence.”

GET INTO IT

Theater in Quarantine is a born-digital company so there is a wealth of art to experience in their archives. Take a tour through some behind-the-scenes videos & check out the rest of their work.

Get Thee to the LIbrary

Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.

  • Clive Bloom. Gothic Histories: The Taste for Terror, 1764 to the Present. Continuum, 2010. 
  • Freda Chapple & Chiel Kattenbelt. Intermediality in Theatre and Performance. Rodopi, 2006.
  • Abigail de Kosnik. Is Twitter a Stage?: Theories of Social Media Platforms as Performance Spaces. University of Michigan Press, 2019.
  • Gaston Leroux. Le Fantôme de l’Opéra. Pierre Lafitte, 1910. 
  • Laurence Raw. Adapted from the Original: Essays on the Value and Values of Works Remade for a New Medium. Harvard University Press, 2018.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Theater in Quarantine was last at NYU Skirball in 2023, with a 3D take on Nosferatu. Take a look back at Joshua William Gelb in conversation with artistic collaborator and NYU professor Normandy Sherwood.