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.
Phantom (musical) in the United States and Europe before the property became public domain there as well. Yeston had completed much of the score to "Phantom", and Yeston, Kopit and Holder were in the process of raising money for a Broadway production when the Lloyd Webber plans were announced. After "The Phantom of the Opera" became a smash hit in London in 1986, Lloyd Webber announced a Broadway production, and Yeston's Broadway investors backed out. Yeston, Kopit and Holder reluctantly shelved their plans for "Phantom" and went their separate ways for a time. When Kopit saw the Lloyd Webber version of "The