Robert Cuccioli, who will star on Broadway later this season in the title role of the musical Jekyll & Hyde, is warming up by playing the lead in another gothic musical, Phantom, at the Westchester Broadway Theatre in the New York City suburb of Elmsford, N.Y.

Since Sept. 12, 1996, the WBT has been running a revival of it's 1992 hit production, Maury Yeston's musical Phantom, closing Jan. 18. Cuccioli was the original Phantom in that WBT company.

Phantom was created by the same musical team who wrote the Tony Award-winning musical Nine, with Maury Yeston writing the words and music, and Arthur Kopit writing the book. Adapted from the same novel as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway hit Phantom of the Opera, the musical differs slightly from the Broadway production in storyline, and the score is not sung through like an opera.

The plot revolves around the mysterious and disfigured music teacher, the Phantom, who woos and falls in love with his young soprano student -- a romance ending in disaster.

Due to audience demand, the show returned to the WBT very swiftly, the earliest of any show in the theatre's 22-year history. The show originally ran from July 1992 to April 1993. RCA Victor made a cast album recording of Phantom, featuring several leading WBT cast members and ensemble (Cuccioli was not a part of that recording). For tickets to see Cuccioli in Phantom, or for more information, please refer to the Westchester Broadway Theatre regional listing on Playbill On-Line.