IT WAS A HUMID March afternoon and Mumbai’s most eclectic crowd had gathered in the city’s newest cultural destination — the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) — to watch the 2 pm show of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical masterpiece, The Phantom of the Opera. As we sat in the theatre café and sinned on a giant chocolate muffin, waiting for the doors of The Grand Theatre to open, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on conversations of people about their The Phantom of the Opera experience at the West End in London or Broadway in New York.