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Hello, I'm Jeanette and this is my first attempt at building a site. I've named it for two of my favourite beings. Firstly, the Phantom of the Opera - the most fascinating and romantic character ever to grace the London stage, and secondly because I love cats. One particular feline friend is Benedict - known as Benny - and he has added a few comments of his own further down the page.

I've loved Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical interpretation of the Phantom of the Opera since I first saw it in 1987. Over the years I've seen it many times (291 and counting...) mostly in London but also several time abroad, including New York, Toronto, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stuttgart and Budapest, and will hopefully continue to support it in the years to come. During this time many actors have played the rôle of the disfigured genius who haunts the Paris Opera House, and I have taken home with me so many memories of the different portrayals. There have been one or two who brought no definition to the character - simply went through the motions - but the majority have ranged from good to excellent to almost ideal . However, it's only within the past few years that I've discovered an actor who interprets perfectly all I could ever imagine in bringing this mysterious, captivating, fabulous yet flawed character to life with a vibrant warmth and effortless elegance. His name is Richard Halton.

Richard was the Phantom understudy for four years at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, after playing a very debonair M. André for a couple of years preceding this. He has now finally left the cast (as of 4 October 2003) and will be much missed!

Richard is a talented actor and a wonderful singer, and being a baritone gave the Phantom a deeper, richer voice. He gained his B.A. (Hons) in Music and Drama at the University of Kent, and has since won an impressive array of singing awards and scholarships.

Note 2008: As this website has been in place since 2001, Richard's pages are now a little out-of-date but I'd like to leave them in place for a a while yet. To keep up to date with Richard, why not visit his own MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/richardhalton

And here is Benedict, who rules the household of my daughter. Benny is a handsome rogue, a daring rascal and yet a completely scatty idiot whose mischievous eyes gleam like a couple of headlamps. His wish is her command and he sends her out to buy his favourite goodies while he takes it very easy. Just like this...

Mrrow all! Here I am reclining on the bed of my Owner. Her name is Elizabeth but I call her Lizzibits and I know I am very precious to her. We love each other to bits, although sometimes she tells me quite sternly that I'm a twit. Moi - a twit?!! A pussycat of my calibre... never!

This website is the work of her Mum - Jeanette - who has invited me to say a few words.

I know Jeanette is a Phantom phan and loves theatre (must be quite interesting to be a theatre cat - until recently humans pretended to be cats every night for 21 years at the New London Theatre in a famous mewsical called... CATS! Would love to have seen the famous Mr Mistoffolees perform a bit of magic).

And now... in this merry month of May 2006, the wonderful CATS celebrates its 25th anniversary! Oh, well we never was there ever a show so clever as the magical, mystical CATS!

HAPPY 25th ANNIVERSARY TO MY FELLOW MOGGIES... the brilliant CATS!!

Now my Lizzibits knows just how to treat a supercat like me. You see me here getting myself ready for a night on the tiles with a good wash and brush-up. The tail looks pretty good, eh? Now, I'm just going downstairs to enjoy my delicious sardine supper and then I'm off to where the action is.

See you all later! Mrrow!

I've seen Phantom in other countries, and my first trips abroad to see the musical were to New York, U.S.A.; then Toronto, Canada and in Millenium Year 2000 it was off to Hamburg in Germany to see their 10th Birthday show and join in the celebrations.

I also love Paris and visit the city as often as I can, so perhaps you'd like to visit this link for an account and photographs of my visits from 2003 onwards.

And here are a few photos from my trip to Copenhagen in October 2003 to see the Danish production of The Phantom of the Opera. Unfortunately I didn't meet any of the cast so the photos consist mainly of the outside of the Det Ny Theatre and scenes taken from the Det Ny Theatre's official website.

Two months later I travelled to Stuttgart in Germany to see the production of Das Phantom der Oper at the Palladium Theatre in the SI Centrum.

In June 2004 I visited the Hungarian capital of Budapest to see the production of Az Operaház Fantomja at the Madách Színház. I returned to Budapest in September 2005 to see this wonderful non-replica version of ALW's Phantom again.

6 December 2004... and the long-awaited premiere of the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's world-renowned musical The Phantom Of The Opera. Phantom phans, including myself and three phriends ~ Lavinia, Lindsay and Becky ~ spent the day watching all the action develop. We saw the huge signs going up, the gas flares installed, people dashing to and fro, the famous red carpet laid and the press packs gathering. Excitement grew as the afternoon wore on, until eventually the first guests started to tread the red carpet. Noise levels grew as famous faces were spotted, and then came the best bit as the cast of the film began to arrive. Gerard Butler fans were present in huge numbers... and from our position opposite the entrance to the Odeon, we knew the moment Gerry had arrived by the cheers and shrieks that were heard further down the line! Becky had made a phantastic banner which we hung over our section of the barrier, where it caught the eye of no less than composer Andrew, who came over and said to us "... well, I couldn't ignore you girls, could I?"... as he signed autographs for us. Emmy Rossum, Minnie Driver, Joel Schumacher and Gerry Phantom Butler all made their way over to us and signed our books and CDs. What a phabulous evening! We were also interviewed by a team from Swiss TV. When at last all the guests had gone inside the cinema and the crowds began to disperse, everyone took home one of the huge banners which had been fixed all the way along the barriers. Mine now has pride of place in my bedroom.

The famous London department store Dickins in Jones, located in Regent Street, had a wonderful display of windows devoted to scenes from The Phantom of the Opera from November 2004 leading up to the premiere of the film. Phantom phans were thrilled to see the windows filled with Masquerade dancers, the elephant from Hannibal, the music box monkey, Carlotta in her magnificent Il Muto gown, then Christine, Raoul and the Phantom, the shattered Chandelier, and finally the Mask and Rose.

I took a number of photographs of the window display, and one from the Swarovski window display which featured Carlotta's gown and a huge poster of the beautiful Swarovski chandelier with the Phantom and Christine in one corner.

A few photos of our phantastic Phantom bus which operates on a Central London route number 94.

The Stage Door at Her Majesty's Theatre in London is very familiar to us Phantom phans! I have some photographs of both phans and performers here.

I have some phanphic and poetry which you will find at the following link and to which I shall be adding more as and when completed.

Thanks for dropping by! If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, contact me at my lair.

Disclaimer: This site is my own work, and several of the images are my own. The others are the copyright of the original owners, as are many of the reviews. It is purely for entertainment value and no money is being made off the site.