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Did you know that the 100th anniversary of Gaston Leroux's 'The Phantom of the Opera' is almost here?

23 September 2009 will mark the 100th anniversary of the appearance of the first installment of Gaston Leroux's 'Le Fantôme de l'Opéra' in Le Gaulois, the French paper in which the novel was initially serialised prior to publication in book format the following year in 1910. 

To celebrate this achievement, a brand new Phantom Twitter stream has been launched to spread the word of the centenary and the latest news and developments concerning the Opera Ghost. Eventually it is hoped the stream will be used to release exciting new ongoing research currently being undertaken into the novel and all its subsequent adaptations in areas never previously explored. 

Please follow by going to http://twitter.com/fantomedelopera

I love this play!  I can't believe it's been around for 100 years.  Will there be celebrations all over?  Is there a link besides through twitter where I can find out about related happenings?  I would love to take my children to see a version of this.

Well, it's a novel rather than a play.  The plays were all based off the novel by Gaston Leroux.

The Twitter feed linked to above plus PhantomsLair.com intend to detail any happenings around the world concerning the 100th anniversary.

It's interesting that more people know more of the Webber musical than the novels or the plays.  It might one of the few instances where Broadway has eclipsed the literature that gave rise to it.  Normally, the theatre is secondary to all else, but in this case I think that more immediate association is made to the musical than anything else.