Is Phantom of the Opera closing on Broadway

This winter, the Phantom will haunt the Paris Opera House for the last time.

A Broadway fixture since 1988, The Phantom of the Opera will conclude its run on February 18, 2023. 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. It will close with a record 13,925 performances.

Throughout the course of its Broadway run, Phantom has sold 19.8 million tickets and grossed $1.3 billion. However, ticket sales began to fall during the pandemic. As an emblem of Broadway, the musical holds massive appeal for international travelers, producer Cameron Mackintosh tells the New York Times’ Michael Paulson. Many local fans, on the other hand, have already seen the show during its 35-year run. Meanwhile, production costs—which were already extravagant to begin with—have risen as a result of inflation.

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.

“You don’t want to run a great show into the ground,” Mackintosh, who has also produced Catsand Les Misérables, tells the Times. “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.”

The Phantom of the Opera is based on Gaston Leroux’s 1910 French novel of the same name. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the acclaimed composer behind the music of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Catsand School of Rock, wrote the music, which includes iconic numbers like “All I Ask of You” and “The Music of the Night.” 

In 1986, the show debuted in London’s West End, and it opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre two years later. In 1988, the show won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Harold Prince won for his directing, and performers Michael Crawford (the Phantom) and Judy Kaye (Carlotta Guidicelli) won in the Best Actor and Best Featured Actress categories. In 2004, Joel Schumacher directed a film adaptation of Phantom.

The pandemic hit Broadway hard, with all of its theaters closing their doors for more than 18 months. Some mainstays—including Chicago, Hamilton, The Lion King and Wicked—have pulled off a successful comeback. Others, like Phantom, have not fared as well. 

“I’m both sad and celebrating,” Mackintosh tells the Times. “It’s an extraordinary achievement, one of the greatest successes of all time. What is there not to celebrate about that?”

After Phantom closes in February, Chicagois in line to become the longest-running active Broadway show, having debuted its performance in 1996. The Lion King, which opened in 1997, is a close second; Wicked(2003) and The Book of Mormon(2011) follow.

The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running show, is scheduled to close in February 2023.

The musical – a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts – will play its final performance on Broadway on 18 February, a spokesperson said on Friday. The closure will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary. It will conclude with an eye-popping 13,925 performances.

Box office grosses have fluctuated since the show reopened after the pandemic – going as high as over $1m (£870,000) a week but also dropping to about $850,000. Last week, it hit $867,997.

Based on a novel by Gaston Leroux, Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a disfigured composer 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.

“As a producer you dream that a show will run for ever. Indeed, my production of Andrew’s Cats proudly declared for decades ‘Now and Forever.’ Yet ‘Phantom’ has surpassed that show’s extraordinary Broadway run. But all shows do finally close,” producer Cameron Mackintosh said in a statement.

The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities and performed in 17 languages over 70,000 performances. On Broadway alone, the musical has played more than 13,500 performances to 19 million people at the Majestic theatre.

The closing of Phantom would mean the longest running show crown would go to Chicago, which started in 1996. The Lion King is next, having begun performances in 1997.

The pandemic took its toll on Broadway with theatres closed for more than 18 months. Some of the most popular shows – Hamilton, The Lion King and Wicked – have rebounded well, but other shows have struggled. Breaking even usually requires a steady stream of tourists, but visitors to the city have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

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