List of Actors who have played the Phantom

Including Understudies
Luis Armando (Madrid
Eiji Akutagwa
Garth Bardsley
Gary Barker
Brent Barett
Steve Barton (London, NY
Ron Bohmer (US
Ian Jon Bourg (Hamburg
Simon Bowman (London
Keith Butterbaugh (US
John Capes
Christopher Carl
Richard Carlsohn
Bill Carmichael
Earl Carpenter (UK
Anthony Cirvello (US
Ben Cramer
Peter Cousens (UK
Michael Crawford (UK, NY, LA
John Cudia (US
Thomas Cunningham
Franc D'Ambrosio (US
Scott Davies(UK
Joseph Dellger
Flemming Enevold
Ethan Freeman (UK, Vienna, Canada
Davis Gaines, (US
Davis Gashen (Basel
Alexander Goebel (Vienna
James Graeme (UK ?
Kevin Gray (US
Chris Groenendaal (NY, Toronto
Rob Guest (Austrailia
Robert Guillaume (LA
Richard Halton (UK
Schuler Hensley
Rick Hilsabeck (US
Peter Hoffman (Hamburg
David Hunerjaeger
Jeff Hyslop (Vancouver
Masachika Ichimura
Kiyotaka Imai
Mark Jocoby (US
Hans Peter Janssens
Pierre Yves Duchesne (Germany
Jerzy Jeske
Peter Jorde (Sweden
Peter Karrie (London, Toronto, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, UK Millennium Tour)
Ted Keegan (US
Randal Keith
Jeff Keller (US
Glen Kerslake (UK
Michael Lackey
Norman Large (LA
Brad Little (US, World Tour ?
Raymundo Lobo
Marcus Lovett
Laird mackintosh
Gary Mauer (US
Howard mcGillin, (US
Kevin McGuire
Marck MckKerracher (Manchester
Paul Monaghan
Toshihide Mura
Jaun Navarro
Micheal Nicholson
Timothey Nolen (NY
Grant Norman
Thomas James O'Leary
John Owen-Jones
Hugh Panaro
James Patterson
James Pebworth
Uffe Persson
Alfred Pfeifer (Vienna
Rob Pitcher
Peter Polycarpou (UK
Henk Poort
David Rogers
James Romick (US
Hartwig Rudolz (German
Mikael Samualson (Swedish
Carl Sanderson
Jun Sawaki (Tokyo
Florian Scneider
Craig Schulman
Thomas Schulz (Hamburg
Thomas Schumaker
Caira Sheehan (Canada
Rene Simard
Martin Smith (UK
Paul Stanley (Canada
Mike Sterling (UK
Ernst Deiter Suttheimer (Germany
Tim Tobin (Hamburg
Simon Tunken (Hamburg
Saulo Vasconcelos
Alan Vicary
Rob von Sukson
Anthoney Warlow
Colm Wilkinson (Canada
Dave Willets (UK
Yuichiro Yamaguchi (Tokyo

Tim Martin Gleason (US)

Richard Todd Adams
Jason Mills

There used to be a great website with all the people who have played the role (and various other roles), but I believe it's long since been abandoned. If you include understudies, we could go on for pages and pages and pages.

You've forgotten Ramin Karimloo and David Shannon, the two most recent London principals.

Some understudies:
Dallyn Vail Bayles
Rob Lorey
Greg Mills
Sal Sabella
Stephen Tewksbury
Stephen Buntrock
Andrew Varela
Peter Lockyer
Kip Wilborn
Tim Morgan
Mark Wynter
Rohan Tickell
Sam Hiller
Tomos Griffiths
Matt Cammelle
Brian Noonan
Steve Lucas
William R. Park
Lawrence Anderson
Tim Beveridge
Donald Cant
Jeremy Stolle
Martin Croft
Doug LaBrecque
David McMeeking
Blaine Parker
John Ruess
Ray Gabbard
Todd Noel
Christian Nova
Christian Muller
Paul Gatchell
Gale Oxley
Robert Pilon
Raymond Saar
Fernand Delosch
Roy Weissensteiner
Nic Greenshields
Stephen John Davis
Nigel Richards
Alexander Lewis

I can think of more. There are two World Tour understudies whose names escape me. I'll have to find some stuff and look them up.

I remember the Broadway FB page back in Dec 2010 listing their longest running Phantoms.

Is there an overall official record holder covering all productions as some performers have played the Phantom in may companies?

I see Rob Guest listed as 2,400
I've seen Franc D'Ambrosio listed as over 3,000 but then 2,100 total in another more recent article.
And then there's Howard McGillin on the Phantom FB page at 2,544. They state world record holder but is that Broadway alone or including performers who've been in multiple productions?

MasqPhan wrote:Is there an overall official record holder covering all productions as some performers have played the Phantom in may companies?

I see Rob Guest listed as 2,400
I've seen Franc D'Ambrosio listed as over 3,000 but then 2,100 total in another more recent article.
And then there's Howard McGillin on the Phantom FB page at 2,544. They state world record holder but is that Broadway alone or including performers who've been in multiple productions?

I don't think numbers have ever been published for international productions/those doing multiple productions. But I would think Brad Little, John Owen Jones and Peter Karrie would give McGillin some competition?

Other long-runners are Thomas Schulze, Mikael Samuelson, several of the Japanese Phantoms, Hugh Panaro, Peter Jorde and maybe even Michael Crawford. Anyone else?

operafantomet wrote:
I don't think numbers have ever been published for international productions/those doing multiple productions. But I would think Brad Little, John Owen Jones and Peter Karrie would give McGillin some competition?

Other long-runners are Thomas Schulze, Mikael Samuelson, several of the Japanese Phantoms, Hugh Panaro, Peter Jorde and maybe even Michael Crawford. Anyone else?

I didn't think numbers were published either for international etc productions. It would be nice if they were.

I'd love to know how many Brad and John Owen Jones have done. It's got to be quite a large number. I do know Peter Karrie's total is around 2750. Not that it makes one the best Phantom because they've done it the most but it's interesting to know the numbers. "Best Phantom" is always going to be a personal choice by each fan.

Franc D'Ambrosio has greatly exaggerated the number of times he's played the role, and in my opinion he has never actually held the title of World's Longest Running Phantom. Which is not even something that I would call a positive accomplishment anyway. As far as I know he has no actual record of how many times he's sung the part, and it bothers me he claimed that title for so many years without considering any production other than those in North America. He has an absolute maximum of 5 years in the part, and that is being generous. I would think that award would actually go to Brad Little, Peter Karrie, Mikael Samuelson, Howard McGillin or Rob Guest.

If D'Ambrosio performed all 8 shows for 5 years, he would have performed the role 2,080 times. Does your 5-year estimate include the time he spent opening the 3NT? Didn't he pretty much do the entire SF run from '93 or '94 to '99?

SenorSwanky wrote:If D'Ambrosio performed all 8 shows for 5 years, he would have performed the role 2,080 times. Does your 5-year estimate include the time he spent opening the 3NT? Didn't he pretty much do the entire SF run from '93 or '94 to '99?

As I recall, he joined the San Francisco production in April of '94. I always assumed he was some where in the 2,100s range. He's certainly young enough to come back and add more to that total.

I know that Brad performed the role for the 2,175th time in the summer of 2009. I think he's probably played the role on the US tour more than any other actor, but I'm not 100% certain.

This article from May of 2009 (when Cudia took over from McGillin) talked a bit about the long-runners:

At a record-breaking 2,450 performances and counting, McGillin has already played the title role more than any other performer on Broadway. His closest competition, as far as performance count, at just under 2,400 performances, is the late Rob Guest, who played the title role in Australia and New Zealand. Americans Franc D'Ambrosio — the longtime record-holder before Guest — and Brad Little follow with over 2,100 performances each.

Although those numbers are not exact- there you have it. Rob Guest was, for a long time, the World's Longest running Phantom. Not Franc D'Ambrosio.

Random additions;

Andrew Hambley-Smith (Vienna)
Nick Saverine (Vienna)
Shuler Hensley (Hamburg)
Raymond Sepe (Hamburg)
Dale Tracy (Hamburg)
Thomas Borchert (Essen)
Uwe Kröger (Essen)
Masayuki Sano (Tokyo)
Osamu Takai (Tokyo)
Zoltan Miller (Budapest)

ladygodiva wrote:
Peter Jorde (Sweden

Denmark. Along with Flemming Enevold, which you have listed, plus Preben Kristensen and Jørn Pedersen.

Also:
André Schwartz, Rory Rootenberg, Jonathan Roxmouth and Nicholas Nkuna (South Africa)

There's also Simon Shorten and Brian McCann (current and recent 2nd covers in London)
I wonder if there's many more phntoms to add to the lists?

London-Phan wrote:There's also Simon Shorten and Brian McCann (current and recent 2nd covers in London)
I wonder if there's many more phantoms to add to the lists?

Oh yes. We've probably only covered 1/5 of them, if understudies are accounted for of course.

It would be easier if we could do it country by country, though.

Maybe we should list by country to make it easier? I've looked through the list lots I'm trying to think of others but I'm sure there's lots of understudies from many productions that I've never heard of like there's a few names on these lists that I hadn't heard of before.

Here's a few more

James Skinner (Shanghai-World tour)
Jeffrey Reynolds (Hamburg)
Sasvari Sandor (Budapest)
Pawel Podgorski (Warsaw)
Damien Aleksander (Warsaw)
Tomasz Steciuk (Warsaw)
Juan Carlos Barona (Madrid)

London-Phan wrote:Maybe we should list by country to make it easier? I've looked through the list lots I'm trying to think of others but I'm sure there's lots of understudies from many productions that I've never heard of like there's a few names on these lists that I hadn't heard of before.

OK, doing an attempt on the productions I know best, fairly chronologic:

SWEDEN:
Mikael Samuelson
Jan Kyhle (u/s)
Bengt Nordfors (u/s)


DENMARK:
Flemming Enevold
Peter Jorde
Preben Kristensen
Jørn Pedersen (alt.)
Kristian Flor (u/s)
Tomas Ambt Kofod (u/s)
Mikkel Thorning (u/s)
Marc Clear (u/s)


ENGLAND:
Michael Crawford
Steve Barton
James Patterson (standby)
Dave Willetts
Martin Smith
Peter Karrie
Peter Polykarpou
James Graeme (standby)
Ethan Freeman
Mark Wynter (standby)
Grant Norman
Simon Bowman
Peter Cousens
Scott Davies
Glyn Kerslake
John Capes (standby?)
Mike Sterling
Garth Bardsley (standby)
Richard Halton (standby)
Alan Vicary (standby?)
Simon Tunkin (u/s)
John Owen Jones
Earl Carpenter
Rohan Tickell (u/s)
Tomos Griffiths u/s
Sam Hiller (u/s)
Tim Morgan (u/s)
Matthew Cammelle (standby)
Ramin Karimloo
Nic Greenshields (standby)
Ian Pirie (u/s)
David Shannon
Nigel Richards (standby)
Brian McCann (u/s)
Stephen John Davis (u/s)
Simon Short (u/s)
Paul Monaghan (u/s UK tour)
Mark McKerracher (UK tour)
Carl Sanderson (u/s UK tour)

(I know it lacks many standbys and understudies, plus some of the UK tour Phantoms)

GERMANY (if nothing else specified, in Hamburg):
Peter Hofman
Hartwig Rudolz
Tim Tobin
Simon Tunkin
David Gaschen
Thomas Schulze (Hamburg + Stuttgart)
Ian Jon Bourg (Hamburg, Stuttgart + Essen)
Michael Nicholson (alt.)
David Hunerjaeger (u/s)
Pierre Yves Duchesne (u/s)
Shuler Hensley (u/s)
Dale Tracy (u/s)
Jeffrey Renolds (u/s)
Raymond Sepe (u/s)
Roy Weissensteiner (u/s Essen + Stuttgart)
Steve Lucas (u/s Stuttgart)
Fernand Delosch (u/s Essen + Stuttgart)
Thomas Borchert (Essen)
Christian Müller (Essen)
Uwe Kröger (Essen)
Ethan Freeman (Essen)

Missing from the England list is

Simon Tunkin u/s
Carl Sanderson uk tour u/s
Tomos Griffiths u/s
Sam Hiller u/s
Brian McCann u/s
Tim Morgan u/s

Think thats it for London and possibly all the uk tour ones aswell.

London-Phan wrote:Missing from the England list is

Simon Tunkin u/s
Carl Sanderson uk tour u/s
Tomos Griffiths u/s
Sam Hiller u/s
Brian McCann u/s
Tim Morgan u/s

Adding them! But was Simon Tunkin really an u/s in England? I though his engagement was in Germany only.

Austria
Alexander Goebel
Ethan Freeman (alt.)
Ernst-Dieter Suttheimer
Nick Saverine
Alfred Pfeifer
Andrew Hambley-Smith (u/s)

Netherlands
Henk Poort
Ben Cramer (alt.)
Hans Peter Janssens (u/s)

Belgium
Hans Peter Janssens
Rob Pitcher (u/s)
Marc Meersman (u/s)


Switzerland
Florian Schneider
David Gaschen (alt.)
Robin Buck (u/s)

TheFinnishPhantom wrote:Switzerland
Florian Schneider
David Gaschen (alt.)

With Robin Buck as understudy.

operafantomet wrote:

London-Phan wrote:Missing from the England list is

Simon Tunkin u/s
Carl Sanderson uk tour u/s
Tomos Griffiths u/s
Sam Hiller u/s
Brian McCann u/s
Tim Morgan u/s

Adding them! But was Simon Tunkin really an u/s in England? I though his engagement was in Germany only.

Yeah he was in the cast in the late 80's and I think he was a cover for Raoul too.

operafantomet wrote:

TheFinnishPhantom wrote:Switzerland
Florian Schneider
David Gaschen (alt.)

With Robin Buck as understudy.

Thanks, forgot his name. Didn't he play Andre in this production?

And Nick Saverine played Phantom in Hamburg aswell.

I know this thread is quite old but i had some spare time on my hands so i have written down lists from each production around the world of all Phantom principals and standbys/understudies using the names that have been already listed here and by doing quite a bit of serching online. Well i don't think i'm far from having every actor who has played the role! At current count i'm at 219 actors. Now i'm definitely missing a few understudies from a few productions, i have 11 Japanese Phantoms on the list but i think they all principal ones so there will be some understudies missing there. Also i think there may be one or possibly more understudies missing from the Spanish, Brazilian, Argentinian and Mexican productions. Other than that i think i have everyone for all of the other productions but there could still be people i've missed. Can anyone help with the productions i've mentioned please?

London-Phan wrote:I know this thread is quite old but i had some spare time on my hands so i have written down lists from each production around the world of all Phantom principals and standbys/understudies using the names that have been already listed here and by doing quite a bit of serching online. Well i don't think i'm far from having every actor who has played the role! At current count i'm at 219 actors. Now i'm definitely missing a few understudies from a few productions, i have 11 Japanese Phantoms on the list but i think they all principal ones so there will be some understudies missing there. Also i think there may be one or possibly more understudies missing from the Spanish, Brazilian, Argentinian and Mexican productions. Other than that i think i have everyone for all of the other productions but there could still be people i've missed. Can anyone help with the productions i've mentioned please?

I have playbills from both Mexico and Brazil at home, I'll dig them out and give you names of the understudies in them.

I also have a quite extentive understudy/alternate list from Copenhagen, but you might have it already?

That would be great thank you. And I do have the Copenhagen ones but that is thanks to you anyway as I used the list that you posted in this thread