“Soon after the orchestra struck up those thundering, ominous organ chords, I found my expectations upended, my jaded armor melting away,” Isherwood wrote. 26, 1988, the New York Times critic Frank Rich criticized many elements of the show, but began his review by acknowledging, “It may be possible to have a terrible time at ‘The Phantom of the Opera,’ but you’ll have to work at it.”īy 2014, when Times critic Charles Isherwood revisited, the show had won over many of its skeptics. When the Broadway production opened on Jan.
The show, about a mask-wearing opera lover who haunts the Paris Opera House and becomes obsessed with a young soprano, is famous for that chandelier, which crashes onto the stage each night, and is characterized by over-the-top spectacle and melodrama. (Yes, there was a remix of the “Phantom” theme.) All were long devoted to the show - in 2018, when it turned 30, they celebrated with a light show projected onto the Empire State Building in sync with parts of the score last year, when the show resumed performances after the lockdown, Webber D.J.’d a block party outside the theater. “Phantom” is an icon of 1980s Broadway, created by three of the most legendary figures in musical theater history: the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, the director Hal Prince and the producer Cameron Mackintosh. The cast, crew and orchestra were informed of the decision on Friday. The show will commemorate its 35th anniversary in January, and then will play its final performance on Broadway on Feb. The closing is at once long-expected - no show runs forever, and this one’s grosses have been softening - but also startling, because “Phantom” had come to seem like a permanent part of the Broadway landscape, a period piece and a tourist magnet that stood apart from the vicissitudes of the commercial theater marketplace.īut in the year since Broadway returned from its damaging pandemic lockdown, the theatergoing audience has not fully rebounded, and “Phantom,” which came back strong last fall, has not been selling well enough to defray its high weekly running costs.
“The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history and, for many, a symbol of musical theater, will drop its famous chandelier for the last time in February, becoming the latest show to fall victim to the drop-off in audiences since the pandemic hit.
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