After 35 years, Broadway’s longest-running musical, ‘The Phantom of the Opera,’ closed on April 16.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical debuted in 1988 at New York’s Majestic Theatre, where it played the final show. The musical grossed over $1.3 billion during its 35-year-run on Broadway and Webber appeared during its final performance. He dedicated the show to his son Nick, who died in March 2023 after a battle with gastric cancer and pneumonia.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Broadway to go dark for 18 months. Once theaters were able to re-opened, costs to produce shows increased by 15% due to new operating protocols in place from the pandemic. The weekly run cost for ‘Phantom of the Opera’ was approaching $1 million and theater attendance wouldn’t offer enough to offset those costs. It was impossible to continue the lavish production without losing money.
Tourist levels in New York City have still not returned to pre-pandemic levels. With the closing of this show, the last remaining Andrew Lloyd-Webber show on Broadway is Bad Cinderella. Other Webber musicals include ‘Cats,’ ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ ‘Evita,’ ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ and ‘School of Rock.’
Chicago which opened in 1996, now takes the title of longest-running Broadway musical. While the show will no longer appear on Broadway, it won’t go missing from the theatrical landscape across the globe. There will still be touring performances and licensing rights to the musical are still available for amateur theater companies.
“The one question I keep getting asked again and again — will the Phantom return? Having been a producer for over 55 years, I’ve seen all the great musicals return, and ‘Phantom’ is one of the greatest,” says Producer Cameron Mackintosh. “So it’s only a matter of time.”
The story is based on a novel by Gaston Leroux and tells the story of a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House, falling madly in love with Christine.