With Boucicault and Agnes Robertson playing the lead roles, The Phantom opened at the National Theatre in Philadelphia on 12 May 1856 and later opened at Wallack’s Theatre in New York on 1 July 1856. Reviews were generally positive, with Putnam’s Monthly Magazine telling readers that the play “possesses a most ghastly fascination.” The Phantom played Wallack’s into the autumn of 1856, the run becoming its most successful in America. Samuel French published the play that same year.
Boucicault later staged The Phantom in London in 1862, but it was not a success, and was even hissed at times. A critic for the Wells Journal wrote, “if any of my readers, on coming up to London, feel inclined to go and see The Phantom, I can only say – don’t.”
The text of The Phantom included here alternates between Boucicault’s hand and an unknown copyist. This manuscript bears a watermark of 1852. It is heavily annotated with corrections and stage directions by Boucicault, and the first act is nearly identical to the version published by Samuel French in 1856. Boucicault made significant changes to Act II, however, which will be of interest to researchers with only the published copy to hand.
