New life for the Phantom as the Opera will go on . . .

KILLIAN Donnelly (pictured) will be ‘inside your mind again’ when The Phantom Of The Opera returns to Her Majesty’s Theatre in June, subject to Government restrictions.

The star actor played the title role in what impresario Cameron Mackintosh called ‘a completely new version’ of the opulent original, which was ‘tried out’ at the Curve in Leicester back in February. Previews are planned for June 5.

‘How you create theatre, even though it might look the same, is very different from what it was 34 years ago,’ Mackintosh told me yesterday. ‘We’ve learned to do things in different ways.’

He said there were some ‘very spectacular sequences’ created by the late Maria Bjornson for the original Andrew Lloyd Webber Phantom that were never used, such as ‘a horse that she dreamt of’, which will now feature in the show. And there will be a brand new chandelier.

‘We’re still in the hands of the Government’s ever-changing rules and regulations,’ Mackintosh cautioned, ‘but the Phantom will be fully non-distanced. We’re doing all this, predicated on the fact that we are going to be playing to full capacity — otherwise we couldn’t possibly afford to do it.’

He added: ‘If we wait for clearance, we will wait for ever; and therefore we have to take the initiative.’

Donnelly will perform Music Of The Night on It Takes Two on BBC2 tonight.

LW Theatres have carried out extensive building work inside Her Majesty’s during the shutdown. There was underlying damage to the building’s proscenium, which had been concealed beneath Phantom’s fake stage. In addition, the production’s systems and automation were no longer fit for purpose.

Those who invested in Phantom back in 1986 have also been given closing notices. ‘That was the end of that era,’ Mackintosh told me, when I questioned him about it. ‘It’s starting afresh.’ Upon final payment it’s estimated that original investors will have received a whopping 1,260 per cent return on their money.

Tonight, Mackintosh’s other big show, the Les Miserables Concert, will hold a dress rehearsal at the Sondheim Theatre, with an invited audience, to test Covid protocols. The first official performance will be tomorrow.

‘It’s an extraordinary effort everybody has made to do this.’ Mackintosh said.