CNN
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“Phantom of the Opera” is not just a Broadway icon – it’s a cultural behemoth.
There’s Andrew Lloyd Webber’s organ-heavy score, sumptuous sets and elaborate costumes. There is a melodramatic love triangle between a beautiful soprano, her hunky beau and a misunderstood sewer, composer and voice teacher. Then the chandelier of course. There are few moments in musical theater more thrilling than the one before the massive light fixture comes back to life.
After 35 years and nearly 14,000 performances, “Phantom of the Opera” takes its final bow Sunday on Broadway. Soon, posters advertising the show with nothing more than the iconic Phantom mask and a rose will be scrubbed from Times Square, and the Majestic Theater will sit empty for the first time since opening. the “Phantom” in 1988.
News of its closing has stunned fans of musical theater — Broadway’s longest-running show has always seemed to be a steadfast presence on West 44th Street. But it was an expensive venture — after the show returned from its pandemic shutdown, it did weekly operating expenses has reached $1 million, and often not gross enough to recover those costs. It became impossible for such a lavish production to maintain its place on Broadway without losing money.
No one took the news harder than “Phantom’s” most loyal fans — or “phans,” instead. Many of them have seen the show dozens or even hundreds of times. They followed the show around the country and the world, and some even got tickets to “Phantom’s” final performance on Sunday night. They were entertained by its fantasy, identified with the antihero at its center and formed lasting bonds with their fellow theatergoers throughout its run.
Many phans are fascinated by the musical, like Christine under the spell of the title character, for a long time they can no longer identify what makes it so fascinating – it has become a constant in their lives.
“I can say I love the music, the scenery, and the fact that the Phantom sacrifices his own happiness for Christine in the end,” says Katie Yelinek, a librarian in Pennsylvania who first fell in love with “Phantom” in 1993. “They create of magic and a sense of wonder. But listing those things one by one doesn’t explain the inexplicable sum of their parts that makes ‘Phantom’ such a unique musical.”
Charlie Peterson, a phan since eighth grade, said they spent the months after their mother’s death listening to the soundtrack with their childhood best friends. Although they now live across the country from that friend, the two still get together to catch a musical performance that inspired them in their youth.
“It’s a place to go when I feel like I need it,” Peterson told CNN. Losing “Phantom” off Broadway “is like another friend moving away.”
Sierra Boggess, one of the most beloved portrayers of the heroine Christine among the “fan”-base, told CNN that the show’s devotees are “very special” even to the most ardent musical theater fans.
Take Dick Moore: The Denver native has seen the show more than 200 times, and his home is decked out in “Phantom” memorabilia from his “35 years of chasing the Phantom,” he told CNN.
“Every time I see the show, it’s like seeing it for the first time,” he said said the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Center in 2019, in honor of seeing his 198th performance. “I will never get tired of it.”
Following “Phantom” is a lifestyle for some phans – many of whom regularly travel to the Majestic throughout their lives to catch new interpretations of Christine and the masked maestro. And when news broke of the show’s closing, fans clamored to buy tickets for the rest of its run – the closing date was pushed back a few weeks to accommodate fan demand. About a week after announcing its end, its weekly gross rose from $964,000 to $1.2 million. Last week, it grossed $3.6 million – tickets to see the show’s final performances don’t come cheap.
Phans told CNN in the days leading up to “Phantom’s” final production that they were preparing to say their final goodbyes with heavy hearts. Wallace Phillips, a filmmaker and animator in New York, has seen the show 140 times over the past 13 years. Speaking to CNN before the show closed, he said he hopes to squeeze in a few more performances before Sunday.
Ian Petriello Eisenberg learned of the closure while working in Hawaii. “Phantom” was the show that inspired him to study theater at the University of Texas at Austin, and years later, he won the chance to join a Broadway ensemble for one night and became a Broadway veteran. which is James Barbour, who played the Phantom in 2015.
Eager to relive what he called one of the best nights of his life, he quickly booked a flight to New York to catch a performance earlier this month.
“I’m saddened that this icon of Broadway is leaving for good,” Eisenberg said. “And even if it comes back, it won’t be the same.”
Many phans share Eisenberg’s sadness: “Phantom” returned in London’s West End with half an orchestra in 2021 after the pandemic halted all performances. Many feared that his score would lose its impact on lesser musicians. And many now fear that, if the show eventually returns to Broadway, it will lose much of the magic of the original performance.
The pandemic, for some, has made them appreciate “Phantom” even more. Andrew Defrin, a Fordham University student studying theater directing, has been “absolutely fascinated” by Phantom since he first saw the show at age 6. He would sing the soundtrack to sets he made out of cardboard. , proudly wearing his own Phantom mask. But he didn’t see the show again until it returned from a Covid-induced closure in 2021.
He is said to be attending his 20th performance of “Phantom” on Saturday. He planned to bring a tissue.
“It’s the end of an era, really,” Defrin told CNN. “I have not seen any other marquees at the Majestic Theater. Not seeing that mask would be devastating.”
“Phantom” is the most enduring relic of the ’80s era of spectacle-built musicals: “Les Miserables” had a bigger cast and a bigger barricade. “Miss Saigon” has an enormous helicopter and “Cats” its junkyard set. (All four mega-musicals, not coincidentally, share producer Cameron Mackintosh.) But those shows have all closed, revived and closed again since “Phantom” first hit the scene.
The musical reintroduced Gaston Leroux’s novel of the same name to fans who couldn’t get enough of Phantom. While adaptations of the source material existed before Webber’s musical, adaptations and parodies specifically referencing the show’s interpretation of “Phantom” can be found throughout pop culture — including movies and even children’s television.
Defrin acknowledged that Webber’s musical had its fair share of detractors who were unimpressed with its melodramatic script and score. But it’s hard to deny what has become a cultural “phenomenon,” he said – its iconography is so recognizable that the musical’s title isn’t even listed on its marquee.
“Of course there will be a hole in my heart,” Defrin said of its closure.
Some fans, like Phillips, are taking the show’s end in stride, even if it hurts them too.
“Part of me sees this as a new beginning,” he said. “I want to keep the show’s legacy alive the best way I can.”
Phillips said he dreams of adapting the musical as an animated film one day – another way for “Phantom” to live on after Broadway.
Meanwhile, Boggess has come to understand the weight of “Phantom’s” role in his life. She played Christine across the pond – not just on Broadway – and in the subsequent musical “Love Never Dies.”
From rehearsing for the Las Vegas production with the original director, the late Hal Prince, to hitting the high E in the musical’s title song, the highest note Christine sings in the show, she told CNN that he holds his memories of performing in “Phantom” as some of the most cherished of his career.
“Singing (Webber’s) music is one of the greatest gifts of my life,” he said.
While Defrin studied “Phantom” diligently as an aspiring director, he will miss sharing the show with friends even more. He brought more than 20 people with him to the show, and watching other people’s jaws drop when the chandelier goes up and the iconic organ starts playing is a unique thrill.
“There’s no reaction like this,” he says of sharing the “gift of ‘Phantom'” with loved ones.
“Phantom” won’t disappear from the theatrical landscape – it will likely continue to tour, and licensing rights are available for fledgling theater companies. But when the Majestic’s marquee dims Sunday night, and the Phantom finally leaves the theater he’s haunted for 35 years, Broadway will be less spectacular without it.