According to Mike Tarjan, assistant principal of student activities, This year’s spring musical, “Phantom of the Opera,” was the first to sell out on all four nights since he has worked at Glenbrook North.

Tarjan said he made the budget for the musical based on an “educated guess” about how many tickets he expected to sell. After looking at past GBN productions, he has seen a positive trend in sales.

“Every year we keep getting a little bit of a bigger crowd coming in, and so I predict that we will sell more tickets for this show than we did ‘Rent,’” said Tarjan. “When we did ‘Rent’ it kind of took out a certain crowd, because of the theme.”

Tarjan said he expects “Phantom” will draw a “broad range” of people because it is a classical musical, whereas “Rent” contained controversial themes such as drug use and homosexuality.

Besides “Rent,” another production that Tarjan looked at when deciding on the budget for “Phantom” was this year’s Variety Show.

“We sold the most tickets we ever have since I’ve been here for Variety Show,” Tarjan said.

He predicted “Phantom” would attract a bigger audience because it is a classical musical, and he was right.

According to Tarjan, the budget for “Phantom” was slightly over $50,000. He said the money for the musical, with the exception of the staff’s salaries, is not taken from other departments within the school. All of the money for its production comes from ticket sales revenue.

“I set the budget, and then the production staff figures out how they are going to best utilize that budget,” Tarjan said.

Stage manager Andrew Kirby said some big pieces of the set included a chandelier, as well as a portcullis for the famous lair scene.

Tarjan said profit made from the musical is used as a buffer for future musicals, in the event that revenue is insufficient. It is also used for repairs and other improvements in the Sheely Center for Performing Arts.