Phantom of the Opera Reviews: What the Critics Say
The Phantom of the Opera has been running at His Majesty's Theatre since 1986, so the interesting question is not what critics made of it forty years ago. It is what they made of it when it came back after the pandemic shutdown, playing to a new generation. The answer was unusually consistent.
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The Critics' Verdict
These notices are from the 2021 reopening. The cast has changed several times since, and a new anniversary company arrives through August and September 2026, so what follows is about the production, not the performers you will see.
When the production reopened in 2021, eight reviews gave it four stars, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, the Daily Express, Time Out, The Stage and WhatsOnStage. The Evening Standard did not carry a star rating but was, if anything, the most enthusiastic of the lot.
That level of agreement is rare, and it is more striking when you know how divided the papers were in 1986. That story is below.
What the Reviews Praised
The design. The Guardian singled out the late Maria Björnson's work, from the masquerade ball to the Degas-style ballet dancers, as setting "the tone for old-school fantasy" (4/5). The Stage called the show "an unparalleled spectacle", noting "there is nothing like Phantom's de trop grandeur, so many costumes, so many sets, in the West End" (4/5).
The staging, and the fact it is done for real. The Guardian noted the show's "dedication to analogue theatrical effects, from trapdoors and smoke to a skull-topped cane shooting fireballs" (4/5). Nothing here is done on a screen.
The score, still. The Guardian's summary was the shortest and the truest: "the music of the night is back" (4/5). The Telegraph found "Lloyd Webber's epic tearjerker back in all its kitsch, gothic glory" (4/5). The Daily Express praised the leads and told readers to "let the spectacle astound you" (4/5).
The most enjoyable notice came from the Evening Standard, whose critic had spent years avoiding the show and filed under the headline "I take it all back". She described being "hooked on the high-camp melodrama" from the moment the chandelier went up.
Where Reviews Were Mixed
Among today's critics, very little, which is itself the finding. The real split is between 1986 and now.
In 1986 it divided the papers down the middle. The tabloids loved it on the night: Jack Tinker in the Daily Mail called it "stars, spectacle, score and story", and the Daily Mirror's John Blake went with "fantastic, fabulous and phantasmagorical". The broadsheets were more careful. The Times ran the headline "God's gift to musical theatre" over a review calling the early reveal of the Phantom "the biggest miscalculation" in the book, The Independent thought Lloyd Webber and Prince had ignored the first rule of musical theatre, which is heart, and TIME reckoned the show's "most serious shortcoming is its scant supply of sentiment".
None of them carried star ratings, because British papers did not use them in 1986. What settled the argument was the audience: the show sold out into the following year within two days of opening and has not stopped since. By the time the critics came back to it in 2021 they had come round completely.
Today the one recurring note is not really a criticism. Time Out called it "totally '80s in the best possible way" (4/5), and several reviews made a version of the same point: this is a big, unironic, old-fashioned musical that commits completely to what it is doing. Critics who enjoy that enjoyed it. If you want something spare and modern, this is not that show, and it has never pretended to be.
Audiences are firmly on side. The show scores in the low nineties out of a hundred across several thousand public ratings, which is about what you would expect from forty years of word of mouth.
Is The Phantom of the Opera Right for You?
You will probably love it if you want a proper story and a score you already half know, this is your first West End show or someone else's, or you like a theatre that is an event in itself. His Majesty's opened in 1897 and is one of the most beautiful in London.
You might want something else if you do not enjoy musicals. Phantom is sung almost throughout and it will not convert anyone. It is also long and asks for concentration, which is why our own age steer is nearer 13 than the official 8.
Call us on 020 7193 9050 if you are unsure whether it is your kind of evening.
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Tickets start from £25, and our prices are all-in: the price you see on the seating map is the price you pay.
Full times, cast dates and seat advice are on our Phantom of the Opera tickets page.
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Sources
The Guardian · The Telegraph · Daily Express · Evening Standard · Time Out · The Stage · WhatsOnStage · Attitude · Sunday Express · The Times (1986) · TIME (1986) · Daily Mail (1986) · Daily Mirror (1986) · The Independent (1986)