Andrew Lloyd Webber's international award-winning musical, directed by Harold Prince, will begin its premiere four-week engagement at the Civic Center Music Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 22.

Hanson alternates in the leading role of Christine Daaé with Rebecca Pitcher.

Raised in Tulsa, where her family still lives, Hanson attended Jenks High School and later moved to Oklahoma City to major in vocal performance at the Margaret E. Petree School of Music and Performing Arts on the Oklahoma City University campus. Local audiences have already seen her as Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady," Barbarina in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and in Oklahoma City University's Chamber Choir under the direction of Stephen Coker.

Hanson's regional credits include two seasons with Music Theatre of Wichita ("Children of Eden," "Evita," "Rags," "The Pajama Game," "Singin' in the Rain") and as Tuptim in "The King and I" at Casa Ma-ana. Other favorites include Wendy in "Peter Pan" and Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd."

Based on the classic novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux, "The Phantom of the Opera" tells the story of a masked figure who lurks beneath the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit it. He falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine, and devotes himself to creating a new star by nurturing her extraordinary talents and by employing all of the devious methods at his command.