Phantom of the Opera is a big, bold and colourful show

The show is on until March 21 while sequel is due later this year

I WAS not that into the theatre and musicals when I was younger. In fact, they didn’t feature much in my life apart from The Sound of Music which we were forced to watch at Christmas.

The first stage show I remember being aware of was Phantom of the Opera and its driving force Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The show was first performed in 1986 and the music was soon played everywhere even if you didn’t want to hear it. Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford became household names overnight although I still think of the latter more as Frank Spencer.

It was not something that interested me at the time and I avoided it. It was a bit like ET in that everyone seemed to have seen it and I never got round to it.

Since then, my tastes have changed and trips to the theatre are more regular and musicals tend to night-out of wife and I.

However, we have still contrived for many years to avoid seeing the Phantom. These views were strengthened when we saw Cats...and hated it.

Easily the worst show we have been to. For me it was worse than watching a period drama with Keira Knightley in it.

That’s how bad. And don’t mention Emma which I endured last week - a film in which nothing happens for two hours.

Anyway, we were not sure what to make of it when Phantom of the Opera was booked in for the Curve - it is on until March 21 at the Leicester venue.

But the wife said we should go which meant I could blame her if I didn’t like it.

Well, what a show. Quite frankly, it is unlike anything top the list of choices for my we have ever seen and simply stunning.

Right from the first moment, to the very last, it was an amazing night of entertainment. The story and the music is probably known by everyone inside out. So there is little need to describe it.

Except to say it goes together so well it is easy to see why the show is still going strong today and has won so many awards.

The main thing for me though was the set which is the star of the show - which is saying something. It is lavish, opulent and incredible as it goes through many changes from the stage of a theatre to the rooftops of Paris and then down to underground rivers and a gondola being steered by the Phantom.

The cast of a thousand, well it seemed like that, were as good as it gets. Two of the leads, Rhys Whitfield as Raoul and Holly-Anne Hull as Christine it was

Daae, were on top of their game and have voices of angels. But the loudest applause went to the star of the show for which it takes its name and Killian Donnelly was a formidable Phantom. Menacing, touching, loving and funny - he had it all as well as an amazing voice.

It is a big, bold colourful and brassy musical which also has amazingly touching moments. For every explosion, there is a deft lifting of the eyebrow.

Looking at the notes for the show, each performance features 230 costumes and 135 wigs, there are 52 surround sound speakers, 110 cast, crew and orchestra members and the drapes are made from 2230 metres of fabric. And it really did feel like that.

This was a special night at the Curve.

If you can get a ticket, get yourself along before the show moves on.