Erik (The Phantom of the Opera) took roughly four hours per performance to put the prosthetics on in the original London productions. On Broadway, it was cut to roughly three, and over the years has been reduced to 45 minutes. More than one Phantom has described make-up disasters onstage. Michael Crawford recounts a story where he pulled away from the kiss at the end only to see that "[his] lower lip was now hanging off Sarah [Brightman]'s face!". To cover the flub, he pulled her back for another kiss and "took back the lips" and kept that side of his head turned away from the audience.
The Phantom Express (1925) which may also have been influenced although uncredited by the original play. The Phantom Express The Phantom Express is a 1932 American mystery crime-thriller film directed by Emory Johnson. When a phantom train starts derailing rolling stock and threatens a railway company's value, the playboy son of the owner must find out what is happening before the company is sold. The main theme of the plot bears close similarity to "The Ghost Train (play)", a movie version of which was produced in England in the previous year, viz. "The Ghost Train", but that source is not acknowledged in the