The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera will have its Belgian premiere at the Stadsschouwburg in Antwerpen, Belgium, on Sunday Oct. 24. The musical will be sung in Dutch, in a translation by Seth Gaaikema. The Phantom of the Opera opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in London on Oct. 9, 1986, with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in the leading roles. There have been 14 productions world-wide since then. The musical had its Dutch language premiere Aug. 15, 1993, at the VSB Circustheater in Scheveningen, The Netherlands. The musical played 1,094 performances until Aug. 1, 1996 and holds the record for the longest running theatre production in The Netherlands, as well as the best sold cast recording.

Belgian actor Hans Peter Janssens will play the role of Phantom. He played both the roles of the Phantom and Raoul in the Dutch version of The Phantom of the Opera. Other roles have included Jean Valjean in the Belgian Les Miserables and the title role in the European premiere of Jekyll & Hyde. American actress Susanne Duwe will play the female lead of Christine Daaé, while fellow American Michael Lewis will play the role of Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. Arthur Masella, following the original direction of Harold Prince directs the Belgian version of The Phantom of the Opera, which is produced by Music Hall.

The Phantom of the Opera is currently booking in Antwerpen until Jan. 10, 2000.