LOS ANGELES — Her name is Gillian, and like any true star, boy does she shine, twinkling as the light catches her 20,000 individual beads.

“There she is,” Jovon Shuck announced as he walked into the empty house at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, where Gillian was positioned low over the empty front row seats.

What You Need To Know

The most famous “Phantom of the Opera” set piece, the chandelier, is as wide a semi-truck and weighs over a ton, making the version currently at the Pantages larger than any that has toured the U.S. in the past

This chandelier is named Gillian after the show’s original choreographer, Dame Gillian Lynn

More than a light fixture, the set piece houses specialized motion elements, smoke effects and more than 40 pyrotechnics

“Phantom” runs at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through Aug. 9, and after that, Gillian will be hanging around the Segerstrom Center for the Arts from August 12-30

Shuck knows every nook and cranny of the instantly recognizable set piece, which is named after the original “Phantom of the Opera” choreographer, Dame Gillian Lynn. The impressive fixture is based on the original design by Maria Bjornson, who took inspiration from the chandelier at the Palais Garnier in Paris. As wide as a semi-truck, this particular chandelier is larger than any that has toured the US in the past.

“Gilly weighs more than one ton,” Shuck said. “I don’t think she would probably like it if I told everybody how much she weighs, but more than one ton.”

Not surprising since she also contains specialized motion elements, smoke effects, and more than 40 pyrotechnics that go off every night. The impact is undeniable.

“And when the chandelier falls at the end of Act One,” Shuck said. “If we nail that whole cue sequence, we know it because we hear the audience scream and applaud and laugh.”

Jordan Lee Gilbert hears it, too.

“I do have arguably the best seat in the house, being about 12ft from it on stage, watching it fall and watching it, you know, pop and spark,” she said. “It never gets old listening to the audience reaction with that final POW.”

Gilbert plays Christine with a crystalline voice that sparkles as brightly as her co-star. As huge and impressive as the chandelier is, she says so much of the magic of this production of “Phantom” — a recreation of the opulent original — can be found in the tiny details evident on any one of her 11 costumes.

“Every single layer is so intentional and intricate,” she said, ruffling through lacy cuffs and reveling in small satin rosettes.

(Spectrum News/Tara Lynn Wagner)

Gilbert’s heaviest costume, she thinks, is the gala skirt she dons in the middle of the song “Think of Me.”

“I think that weighs anywhere from 25 to 30 pounds once it goes on, and that happens in a quick change on stage,” she said. “Live theater. It’s incredible.”

Gilbert first fell in love with the musical by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber as a child, listening to the cast recording as she fell asleep. She saw it live in high school and was swept away by the romance. Now, roughly forty years after the musical first opened, she hopes audiences will be as stirred by it as she was and still is.

“I hope that other people come and see it and become completely inspired,” Gilbert said. “Whether it be ‘Phantom’ or any other musical or play or outlet for your art, I hope you’re just completely inspired and you keep doing what you love.”

Shuck has been doing what he loves for 18 years, touring with nine different Broadway shows over that time. Despite his traveling lifestyle, he and his wife are currently building a house, but sadly, when this tour ends, he says, Gillian will not be moving in.

“She looked at this chandelier and it was like, no Jovon no,” he recalled his wife saying. “That’s not going above our dining room table.”