In 1988, the show won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 1986, the show debuted in London’s West End, and it opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre two years later. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the acclaimed composer behind the music of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats and School of Rock, wrote the music, which includes iconic numbers like “ All I Ask of You” and “ The Music of the Night.” The Phantom of the Opera is based on Gaston Leroux’s 1910 French novel of the same name. The cast of The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running show, takes a bow. “It’s always been one of my mantras throughout my long career: There’s an art to closing a show, as well as opening one.” “You don’t want to run a great show into the ground,” Mackintosh, who has also produced Cats and Les Misérables, tells the Times. Yet Phantom remains a sensation: Its upcoming Broadway closure has prompted ticket sales to skyrocket, bringing in $2 million within 24 hours of the announcement. Meanwhile, production costs-which were already extravagant to begin with-have risen as a result of inflation. Many local fans, on the other hand, have already seen the show during its 35-year run. As an emblem of Broadway, the musical holds massive appeal for international travelers, producer Cameron Mackintosh tells the New York Times’ Michael Paulson. However, ticket sales began to fall during the pandemic.

Throughout the course of its Broadway run, Phantom has sold 19.8 million tickets and grossed $1.3 billion. It will close with a record 13,925 performances.

The gothic musical, which tells the story of a masked composer who haunts an opera house and becomes infatuated with a young, beautiful soprano, became Broadway’s longest-running show in 2006. This winter, the Phantom will haunt the Paris Opera House for the last time.Ī Broadway fixture since 1988, The Phantom of the Opera will conclude its run on February 18, 2023.

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