Broadway’s longest running show is to finally close, 35 years after it opened.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, is to close at the Majestic Theatre in New York.
A statement on the show’s website said: “We are sad to confirm that after 35 years on Broadway, Phantom will play its final performance at the Majestic Theatre on Saturday February 18th, 2023.”
The long-runnner will close in February after celebrating its 35th anniversary in January 2023. Emilie Kouatchou and Ben Crawford are the current leads of the show.
The Broadway production opened on 26 January 1988, and is way ahead of the second longest-running Broadway show, Chicago, by 8 years.
The show has been seen by over 145 million people since it opened in London in 1986, and the Phantom brand is still going strong, with an announcement this week that it will be used as the backdrop to a new murder mystery TV series on Peacock. Also a new Australian production has opened recently in Sydney, and a Mandarin production is heading to China next year.
Phantom is the West End’s third longest-running show, behind The Mousetrap and Les Miserables. It continues to play in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre, soon to be renamed His Majesty’s Theatre following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway has music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, direction by Harold Prince, choreography by Gillian Lynne, and set and costume designs by Maria Björnson.
Book tickets to The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London
