You just have to be prepared for anything and react quickly. One night, as Christine was handing me back my mask as I was crawling across the stage in the ‘Stranger than you dreamt it’ sequence, the mask twanged and pinged right out of my hand and into the pit! So I had to use my hand as a mask, grab her hand and say: ‘Come we must return’ as we ran off the stage. Occasionally you have to improvise if something doesn’t go to plan. He does manipulate Christine – think of those lines ‘Turn your face away/ From the garish light of day’ – he’s actually turning her head without touching her – she’s watching his movements and his hands and she’s magnetised by him.

At certain performances, the role of Christine will be played by Holly-Anne Hull. I wanted a kind of maturity about the Phantom as well as the period it’s set in. The cast also includes Saori Oda as Carlotta Giudicelli, Matt Harrop as Monsieur Firmin, Adam Linstead as Monsieur André, Greg Castiglioni as Ubaldo Piangi, Francesca Ellis as Madame Giry and Ellie Young as Meg Giry. I love telling a story with my hands and use them to express a lot of things, to make them kind of artistic and expressive so people focus on them. But because you’re masked you can’t convey things with facial expression, so body language is really important. In some ways it’s an easy role because you’re not actually on stage that much, although when you are there’s a huge impact.

Simon: Of course the Phantom is a very different role from Raoul and it was exciting to make that transition to my first mature lead.

The original phantom of the opera cast