“Phantom of the Opera” to close on Broadway in early 2023, ending 35-year run
After an unprecedented 35-year run, the New York production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,” Broadway’s longest-running show, will end in early 2023, producers confirmed Friday.
The show’s final performance will be held on February 18, 2023, producer Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Group said in a news release.
“As a British producer who has been fortunate enough to have been producing in New York for 40 consecutive years, it has been an unparalleled honor to present the longest-running musical in Broadway history, Andrew “Lloyd Webber’s ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’
Since it opened at the Majestic Theater on Jan. 26, 1988, Broadway’s “Phantom” has been performed more than 13,500 times to 19.5 million people and has grossed $1.3 billion, according to producers. It has won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Producers said the show has been Broadway’s biggest job generator in Broadway and American theater history, employing about 6,500 people during its run.
Worldwide, it has been shown to 145 million people in 41 countries and in 17 languages, the producer said.
Although the Broadway iteration is closing its doors, the show will still continue in other venues.
Getty Images
The novel “The Phantom of the Opera” written by French writer Gaston Laroux was published in 1909. The character was first brought to the big screen in a 1925 silent film.
On its 25th anniversary on Broadway, Weber, the show’s composer, CBS News called back. Reading Laroux’s Novel.
“I remember finding the book in New York and reading it one afternoon and thinking, ‘This is not what I remember,'” Weber told CBS News in 2013. . Saying ‘boo’ from behind the chandelier. It’s actually about a romance.”
When the show first opened in New York in 1988, it had already been a hit in London for two years. Still, not all critics took kindly to him. A reviewer in The New York Times called it “psychologically lighthearted”.
With elaborate sets and costumes, as well as a large cast and orchestra, it has been an expensive musical to maintain. Box office earnings have fluctuated since the show reopened after the pandemic — peaking at more than $1 million a week but also falling to around $850,000. Last week, it hit $867,997 — and producers must have seen the writing on the wall.
“Phantom” tells the story of a disfigured musician who haunts the Paris Opera House and falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lavish songs include “Masquerade,” “Angel of Music,” “All I Ask of You” and “The Music of the Night.”
The closing of “Phantom” means that the longest-running show crown will still go to “Chicago,” which debuted in 1996. “The Lion King” followed, which began performances in 1997.