Erik (The Phantom of the Opera) In the 2004 film adaptation of the musical, Erik's makeup was made to look much less gruesome than previous adaptations of the story. Instead of a skull-like face, his disfigurement resembles that of a mildly malformed face, which he covers with the mask. Film critic Roger Ebert noted that Butler was more "conventionally handsome" than his predecessors "in a GQ kind of way". Onscreen, Erik has often been cast as a tragic hero but also a tragic villain, depending on the film's point of view. "See main list: The Phantom of the Opera" Erik (The Phantom of the Opera) Erik
Phantom of the Opera (1976 musical) developing a grand scale version of his Phantom in the West End, and offered to produce it. In fact, Hill and Lloyd Webber had worked together earlier on a revival of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at the Winchester Theatre. Lloyd Webber and his producer, Cameron Mackintosh, had been highly enthusiastic when they broached Hill about his Phantom of the Opera. But in the end, Lloyd Webber chose to pursue the musical without Hill. "Phantom of the Opera" then emerged on the other side of the Atlantic in 1987 for its American premiere in St. Louis at the Repertory