The Phantom of The Opera: Longest-running Broadway musical in history

The Phantom of The Opera, the
longest-running show in Broadway history, will cease in February next year. The
decision to close the show was taken after numbers in theatres to watch the
show continued to decline during and after the pandemic. The Phantom of The
Opera ran in Broadway for a straight 35 years.

What is The Phantom of the Opera?

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical. Its
music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, while the show was directed by Hal
Prince and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. The lyrics of The Phantom of the
Opera were written by Charles Hart. The musical is based on a French novel by
Gaston Leroux by the same name.

The Phantom of the Opera opened in London
for the first time in 1986 and ended in 2020. In New York, the musical opened
in 1988. On February 11, 2012, The Phantom of the Opera celebrated its 10,000th
Broadway performance. It is the second-longest running West End musical
followed by Les Misérables.

While the musical will cease to be
produced in New York, it will continue to be staged in other parts of the
world. A production of The Phantom of the Opera began in Australia in August,
while another production, this one in Mandarin, will begin in China next year.

At the New York Broadway, The Phantom of
the Opera has been seen by 19.8 million people. In its journey of nearly
three-and-a-half decades, the musical has collected $1.3 billion. The Phantom
of the Opera was regarded as the most financially successful entertainment
event before The Lion King surpassed it in 2014.

In the week that ended on September 11,
the show had grossed $867,997, a sum not sufficient to continue running a show
of such scale.

The Phantom of the Opera revolves around
the life of a beautiful Soprano named Christine Daae, who becomes the obsession
of a mysterious, masked musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth
under the Paris Opera House.