'Phantom of the Opera' Closes on Broadway after 35 Years
2023-04-18
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1The Phantom of the Opera closed Sunday night after 35 years on New York City's famous Broadway.
2The musical theater show opened on January 26, 1988.
3It completed nearly 14,000 performances.
4The show ended with another performance of its most famous song, The Music of the Night.
5The performance included many well-known singers and actors who had parts in the show over the years.
6The show's creator, Andrew Lloyd Webber, attended the final performance.
7So did Sarah Brightman, the singer who first played the lead character, Christine.
8The two came on stage for a final celebration.
9A video played that honored those involved in the show who had died.
10Some attendees drank sparkling wine as shiny gold and silver paper came down from the show's famous chandelier.
11Lloyd Webber dedicated the final performance to his son, Nick, who recently died after a long illness.
12The show is the story of the phantom, a composer with a misshapen face who wears a mask and haunts the Paris Opera House.
13He falls in love with Christine, a young singer.
14Actors, singers and Broadway producers with close connections to Lloyd Webber were there, too, including Glenn Close and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
15Lloyd Webber's other musicals include Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Sunset Boulevard and School of Rock.
16With Phantom closing, he has only one show playing on Broadway: Bad Cinderella.
17The longest-running Broadway show is now Chicago, which opened in 1996.
18New York theater experts say many shows had difficulties coming back after Broadway closed for 18 months during the COVID-19 pandemic.
19Some, such as Miranda's Hamilton, returned to full audiences.
20But other shows, including Phantom, depend heavily on out-of-town visitors.
21Many tourists have yet to come back to New York City.
22The show first played in London in 1986.
23It has been seen by over 145 million people in 183 cities around the world.
24In New York City alone, it sold over $1.3 billion in tickets.
25The show was supposed to close in February of this year but its run was extended because of increased interest.
26There are still theaters where you can see the show around the world.
27It is in its 37th year in London. You can also see Phantom in Japan, Greece, Australia, Sweden, Italy, South Korea and the Czech Republic.
28New productions are also opening in 2024 in Bucharest, Romania and Vienna, Austria.
29Emilie Kouatchou played Christine in the final show.
30"We get to celebrate at the end of this," she said before the show started.
31"We get to all come together and drink and laugh and talk about the show and all the highs and lows. It's ending on a big note."
32I'm Dan Friedell.