Musical theatre responsible for "Les Misérables", which became the longest-running international musical hit in history. The team, in collaboration with Richard Maltby Jr., continued to produce hits, including "Miss Saigon", inspired by the Puccini opera "Madama Butterfly". The British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber saw similar success with "Evita", based on the life of Argentina's Eva Perón; "Cats", derived from the poems of T. S. Eliot (both of which musicals originally starred Elaine Paige); "Starlight Express", performed on roller skates; "The Phantom of the Opera", derived from the Gaston Leroux novel, "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra"; and "Sunset Boulevard" (from the classic film of
Asmara's Opera in a side building, the headquarters of the national telephone company Eritel. In the Asmara's Opera were performed many "Commedie" and opera works like those of Pirandello and music by Puccini and Verdi, with soprano from the best theaters in Italy: for example, in 1951 was performed "La Patente" of Pirandello and music of Chopin. After World War II and until the 1970s in the Asmara Opera performed even international companies with famous "artistic & musical tours", like those of Renato Rascel and Renato Carosone. The theater was still occasionally used in 2012. Asmara's Opera Asmara's Opera ("Teatro Asmara" in