The romantic melodrama set to lush music by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber captures the title of longest-running show in Broadway history when the curtain went up for performance No. 7,486 last Monday night.
"Phantom" surpasses another Webber extravaganza, "Cats," when it begins its reign as Broadway champion with a special showing at the Majestic Theater, where it has run for nearly 18 years since opening on January 26, 1988.
"It’s overwhelming," Webber told Reuters. "I must confess when I realized how ‘Cats’ was going I did say to all my friends, ‘You realize that something like this could not happen again,’ and then, of course, ‘Phantom’ happened."
Focusing on the romance rather than the horror of Gaston Leroux’s 19th century novel, Webber and collaborators fashioned a show full of special effects to create the life of the Paris Opera House and the shadowy world beneath it, inhabited by a disfigured composer who falls in love with a young soprano.
The numbers generated by such a long run are also eye-popping.
More than 3 million pounds (1,300 tons) of dry ice have been used, and nearly 1.5 million gallons of shot powder to create gunshot effects. The Phantom has made almost 15,000 trips on his boat through the fog to his lair, and 7,486 sets of foam latex have been used to fashion his deformed face, which is hidden by the custom-made, ghostly half-mask he wears.
The Broadway production, which won seven 1988 Tony Awards including best musical, has been seen by almost 11 million people and grossed nearly $600 million, another record on the Great White Way.
The musical, which opened in London in 1986 and is still playing there, has been an international phenomenon. It has been seen by more than 80 million people worldwide and generated mind-boggling gross receipts in excess of $3.2 billion, according to the show’s publicists.
"It shows no signs of weakening. It’s cropping up in all sorts of places," Webber said. "It’s most extraordinary."
There are currently seven productions around the world–in London; New York; Budapest, Hungary; Tokyo; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Essen, Germany; and the U.S. national tour.
A new production is scheduled for Taipei, Taiwan, this month, and plans are in place to launch an open-ended "Phantom" run in Las Vegas.
Before bringing the show to those new frontiers, the busy keepers of "The Phantom" franchise celebrated setting the Broadway record with a ceremony after the curtain fell on Monday at the Majestic.
Among the special guests were Webber, producer Cameron Mackintosh and Michael Crawford, the first of 11 Phantoms to star in the role on Broadway.
Following that, in an echo from a famous scene in the show, revelers carried on to the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria for a masked ball.
Asked about the allure of his record-setting show, Webber said, "You find yourself in somewhat of an escapist, romantic world," and audiences seem to "surrender to the whole genre." – Reuters