The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

repeat business, a rarity on Broadway. The show
spawned three national tours and a long-running
Los Angeles production. Two of its ballads, “All I Ask
of You” and “Music of the Night,” became instant
standards, recorded by numerous artists. At the same
time, its title song, originally recorded as a heavy
metal single, became quite popular for rock groups
to cover. In the late 1980’s, even young people who
otherwise had no interest in musicals were excited
aboutThe Phantom of the Opera.Its ominous theme
was recognized all over the country.

Further Reading
Leroux, Gaston.The Phantom of the Opera: The Origi-
nal Novel.New York: HarperPerennial, 1988.
Perry, George.The Complete Phantom of the Opera.New
York: Owl Books, 1991.
John C. Hathaway

See also Broadway musicals;Cats; Heavy metal;

Music; Theater.

Photography

Definition Artistic production or reuse of photos

During the 1980’s, photography rivaled sculpture and

painting for prominence and critical importance in the art

world.

Heavily influenced by postmodernist and poststruc-

turalist theory, as well as by the pop aesthetic of

Andy Warhol, photography in the 1980’s focused on

themes of representation, gender, race, and con-

sumerism. Throughout the decade, photography

was often at the center of heated debates over free-

The Eighties in America Photography
757

Sarah Brightman, star ofThe Phantom of the Operaand wife of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, takes her curtain call after the musi-
cal’s Broadway premiere on January 26, 1988.(AP/Wide World Photos)