I heard the news that Phantom of the Opera was closing on Broadway a few hours before most other people, because that is what it is like to be the Broadway Outsider. My friend from the sound department told me. The cast and crew found out when the Post broke the story online.
…On a break from rehearsal.
Shame on those producers for letting that happen that way:
“Hey what are you doing on February 19th?”
“Not watching this fucking show.”
I made that part up.
Maybe this is a kind of stunt? I wondered. Because the show is certain to begin selling out as those groupies who see it over and over again show up for one last look, or people like me decide to finally see what all the fuss is about. Will the producers extend the closing date once ticket sales go through the roof like Elton John’s never ending farewell tour?
The Broadway insiders say not a chance.
The last two weeks have seen the Phantom box office grossing a weekly $850,000-$867,000. How bad is that? Only Chicago is lower at an average $650,000 a week with most of the bigger ones (Hamilton, Aladdin bringing in $1.8M and $1.1M a week respectively.)
True confession time; I am one of the haters of Phantom. Oh my God I hate that score. Another true confession – I’ve never seen the show, which kind of makes me an asshole, I am aware. I am a Cosette-head to my bones. To me, Les Mis is a superior score and story through and through. Give me Jean Valjean saving Marius because Cosette loves him (even though it means he will lose Cosette and his only reason for living) any day. Look down Javert, he’s standing in his grave! Phantom with its drum machine and electro-score sounds like it was composed on a Casio keyboard in a department store in 1987.
(For the youth – department stores were like small Targets – which are now also small, so, yeah.)
Up until very recently I would pass by the Majestic Theatre and see the lines of people outside and wonder, who hasn’t seen that show yet? And who wants to see it for the first time now, when tastes and everything have evolved?
I had even composed the original title for this article as; “There will be one less pile of garbage on 44th St. this winter.”
I checked social media to take the temperature of the tweeting public and there was a uniform outpouring of shock and crying face emojis:
“Oh no, guess I’m going to New York this winter.”
“This was my first Broadway show and then it was my daughter’s!”
“I cannot imagine a world without Phantom of the Opera. It will literally be the end of the world as we know it.”
Sheesh.
The show has legacy. Thirty-five years in fact. I, like most people at this point, do not remember a time when there was any other show there. What gave this show such staying power? The spectacle. They don’t make them like that anymore – the huge cast, the epic sweep of it, and yes, the chandelier, the goddamn chandelier. Also, it is the unabashed fantasy of the piece. It is pure escapism and that is what has kept audiences coming back every year. The tortured artist in love with the beautiful soprano he is ashamed to reveal himself to her because he is ugly and disfigured. It strikes all the chords in what an audience wants in a sweeping Broadway musical. So in many ways, it was perfect.
Does he die? I think he dies.
The thing is, love it or hate it, Phantom is Broadway in a way. It is legend. It touched a generation that kept it running for 35 years. Hundreds and hundreds of people have worked in that theatre. During it’s run, iconic touchstones of American musical theatre have come and gone – Les Miserables, Rent, Jersey Boys and The Producers to name a few. It even beat the record of its cousin, Cats.
Don’t even get me started on Cats.
So raise a glass to the Phantom, and Christine and Raoul and all the rest as another era ends.
