They Want Their Phantom : Michael Crawford fans are waging a determined campaign to see him in the film version of the musical.

It is an emotional journey that has now lasted nearly a decade, a journey born in a darkened theater when the Phantom vanishes from his lair leaving behind only a mask for his pursuers to ponder.

As the houselights went up, Diane Flogerzi was so overwhelmed by Michael Crawford’s performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical “The Phantom of the Opera” that all she wished for was to get back in line at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and--like a child who can’t get enough of the rides at Disneyland--immediately experience it all over again.

“I didn’t want to leave,” she recalled all these years later. “It was the best theater experience I’ve ever had.”

Today, Flogerzi, a Federal Aviation Administration program analyst, stands center stage in another unfolding drama, her destiny as entwined with the mysterious Phantom as the heroine Christine in Lloyd Webber’s stage production. She and thousands of other Crawford fans from many lands remain so entranced by his long-ago stage performances as the horribly scarred, love-obsessed man living beneath the Paris Opera House, that they have mounted a very public campaign to convince Lloyd Webber and Warner Bros. to cast Crawford as the Phantom in any movie based on the musical.

Once, that dream seemed so promising. When Crawford left the Ahmanson production in 1990, “Michaelmania” was at its peak, and two seats to his final performance were sold at a charity auction for $27,500.

But he is 57 now, and all his fans have heard from studio executives and Lloyd Webber’s emissaries is the same old story: Nothing has been determined; trust our judgment in these matters.

“Trust their judgment?” the fans ask incredulously. After waiting all these years only to hear that the filmmakers are thinking the unthinkable: casting a “box-office draw”--Antonio Banderas is the most frequently mentioned--in place of Crawford? How dare they!

So, they have formed the Michael Crawford Phantom Movie Campaign, voicing their outrage over the Internet, through the mails, at rallies staged outside Warner Bros. and in paid advertisements published in the entertainment industry’s two major trade publications, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. They have inundated the studio and composer with letters, some threatening in tone, some pleading on pink paper with little hearts dotting the I’s.

Crawford’s fans have no idea if their demands are taken seriously behind the guarded gates of Warner Bros. in Burbank or across the seas by the famous composer of “Cats” and “Sunset Boulevard.” They only believe, perhaps naively, that if they ring a bell loudly enough in the right places, someone in a position of influence will put things right and the one and only rightful Phantom’s performance will be preserved on celluloid for future generations.

The campaign was launched about a year ago after Flogerzi attended a Crawford concert in Southern California and heard someone mention that the singer might not be cast in the film. With the help of her husband, Steve, they put up a Web site and included a guest book for visitors in cyberspace to jot down their thoughts.

“I immediately started getting e-mails and people reacting and asking what can they do to help,” she said. To date, it has generated more than 40,000 hits.

To buy the trade ads, the campaign raises money either by staging Internet raffles--a set of limited-edition porcelain Ken and Barbie dolls dressed like the Phantom and Christine paid for a $2,900 ad in Variety--or by selling tote bags and T-shirts that carry slogans like “Anyone for President--Michael Crawford for Phantom” and “The role IS the man.”

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On its surface, “The Phantom of the Opera” would seem to be a logical choice, were Hollywood to make another big-budget musical (see accompanying story). Set in Paris, circa 1870, its “Beauty and the Beast” theme deals with a mysterious, disfigured man living in the sewers beneath the Opera House whose romantic obsession with a beautiful, young soprano comes to a tragic end.

Since it opened in 1986 in London, “Phantom” has brought in more than $2.8 billion in ticket sales worldwide. In January 1998, it celebrated 10 years on Broadway, where it is still going strong.

Until “Phantom,” Crawford seemed an unlikely performer to drive women mad with desire. For years, he had been the red-haired boy next door--kind of goofy, kind of wholesome--who is perhaps best remembered in Barbra Streisand’s “Hello, Dolly!” Now, here he was moving catlike on stage toward Christine, his hands sensually touching her body.

The mood was heightened by Lloyd Webber’s melodic score and Charles Hart’s lyrics, which feature now-familiar songs like “The Music of the Night.”

In New York, Crawford was paired with Sarah Brightman, while Dale Kristien played Christine in Los Angeles. And it was at the Ahmanson in L.A. that Diane Flogerzi first saw Crawford perform. The magical memories of that day still stir her soul.

“For me, it was almost difficult at times to watch,” she recalled. “It was almost like intruding on someone’s personal time.”

So, why didn’t Hollywood ever make the film?

Lloyd Webber’s spokesman, Peter Brown, said the project languished on the back burner at Warner Bros. for years “because there were so many theatrical productions around the world--five in North America alone. It had more legs than anyone thought it had.” Now, he added, the movie is on the “front burner.”

Studio sources say Warner Bros. is in “serious negotiations” with Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”) to direct the film, but they are still searching for a screenwriter.

Other sources, however, say that a screenwriter, whom they are not at liberty to name until a contract is hammered out, has already held consultations with the producers, and once a script is completed, casting can commence.

Ah, yes, the casting.

At one time, there was talk of John Travolta starring as the Phantom, but after that evaporated the spotlight shifted to Banderas, the star of last summer’s swashbuckling action film “The Mask of Zorro,” who won over critics in 1996 with his portrayal of Che in “Evita.”

When a 50th birthday bash was staged for Lloyd Webber last year at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Banderas’ performance amounted to a live audition for Lloyd Webber, singing two songs from “Phantom.” “It was his way of showing Andrew not only did he want the part but was capable of singing it,” said a source close to the project. “He did a great job.”

On the Flogerzis’ Web site, https://www.phantommovie.com, the thought of casting Banderas appalls Crawford’s fans.

“When I heard that they were thinking of casting ‘Mr. Zorro’ Antonio Whatever, just for the box-office draw, I thought it was such a shame,” one Pennsylvania woman wrote. “ . . . I suppose [Crawford will] join Julie Andrews, Patti LuPone, Carol Channing and so many others who were not ‘good enough’ to do the movie of their stage production.”

Ask Flogerzi what she thinks of Banderas’ performance in “Evita,” and the cheerful-looking Palmdale mother contorts her face and purses her lips. Mustering all the willpower she can summon, she refuses to say anything that might be remotely construed as anti-Banderas.

While the campaign insists it is not anti-Banderas, there is no denying that devotion to Crawford creates, by default, a resistance to seeing anyone else cast in the role. And judging by the Web site’s guest book, resistance is strong:

* “Dear Mr. Banderas: For the love of God, please don’t take this away from me! I have dreamed of this for as long as I can remember. . . . Don’t get me wrong, you were wonderful for the role of Che in ‘Evita,’ but let me be blunt. YOU CANNOT DO THIS.”

* “Mr. Banderas, I loved you in the Zorro movie remake. You did well in ‘Evita.’ But you, sir, are no Michael Crawford.”

These messages and hundreds like them have been mailed off to Lloyd Webber and the top brass at Warner Bros., including studio co-chairmen Bob Daly and Terry Semel, some threatening to boycott the film if Crawford isn’t the star.

Neither Banderas nor Crawford would comment for this story.

But while Crawford has never encouraged or discouraged their efforts, the campaign was ecstatic when the singer appeared last December on “The Howie Mandel Show” and thanked them personally. When Mandel said he should make the movie version, a beaming Crawford replied: “I would love to do it, yes.”

Since leaving “Phantom,” Crawford has crisscrossed the globe giving concerts, making recordings and appearing in a TV special. In 1995, he starred in a lavish $41-million production called “EFX” at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The Crawford campaign has also appealed directly to Lloyd Webber. In an open letter to the British composer that appeared in both Variety and in the British trade publication the Stage, the campaign stated: “ ‘Phantom’ is poised potentially to make or break the musical film genre. Will you take it to new heights or bury it?”

Lloyd Webber himself has not replied. Executives at his production company, the Really Useful Group, did reply to the campaign before the open letter, stating that while their casting choices might eventually differ from the wishes of Crawford’s fans, they are taking everything into consideration.

“We will not make any decisions that we feel would not be in the best interest of our film,” an executive wrote in August. “Nevertheless, our creative vision as producer and that of our director, whomever that might be, may ultimately differ from yours and we hope you and the other fans will give the film version of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ a fair chance to prove itself on its own merits.”

As for the studio, a Warner Bros. executive wrote the campaign in January that casting the film was in the hands of the filmmakers and Lloyd Webber, noting that the project was only in development and had not yet received a green light to move into pre-production.

But the campaigners remain undaunted.

“We’ve waited long enough!” Flogerzi said in exasperation. “We’ve waited nine years for the movie. It’s time. There are many people who would like to see the movie, but we’d also like to see it with Michael Crawford, the original Phantom.”

Flogerzi said that while it would be nice if Crawford made other films, her only wish is to see him on screen as the Phantom.

“I’ve already had my opportunity [to see him] on stage,” she said. “I’m seeking that opportunity for everyone else.” *