Landmarks in London, Cologne, Shanghai and New York have been lit up to mark 40 years of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera.

Projections of the musical's famous mask appeared at sites across central London, including near St Paul's Cathedral, Oxford Street, the Shard and Hammersmith Bridge. The show opened at His Majesty's Theatre on 9 October 1986.

LW Entertainment and partners around the world organised this global takeover, which coincided with a 40th anniversary gala performance at His Majesty's on Friday night, which brought together the current cast and alumni performers at the show's original home. The gala has been filmed for a worldwide cinema release in 2027.

In Shanghai, a building beside Suzhou Creek hosted a light show in which a mask slowly emerged from behind a curtain as petals fell. In Cologne, which is set to become the musical's German home, the mask was projected onto the roof of the Musical Dome as a large-scale video installation across several nights. In New York, home of the immersive production Masquerade, Times Square and the Vessel joined the celebrations.

Since its premiere, Phantom of the Opera has been seen by 160 million people in 229 cities across 54 territories. It has been performed in 23 languages and has taken an estimated $7.5 billion at the global box office, making it one of the most successful entertainment properties of all time.

The original London production won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. The Broadway production won seven Tony Awards in 1988, including Best Musical, and remains Broadway's longest-running show, with 13,981 performances.

The anniversary is also being marked by a remixed and remastered version of the Original London Cast album, which includes previously unreleased material from Andrew Lloyd Webber's personal archive. A full-colour photographic book charting the show's 40-year history will be published at the end of October. Our Strange Duet, a young adult novel by Erin A. Craig that retells the story from Christine Daaé's perspective, became a No 1 New York Times bestseller after its release in September.

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