After a run of over 13,000 performances, “The Phantom of the Opera” will close on Broadway on February 18, 2023. The show, which first opened at the Majestic Theatre on January 26, 1988, is the longest-running show in Broadway history. It celebrates its 35th anniversary on the Great White Way just weeks before its final curtain call.
The musical, directed by Harold Prince and featuring choreography by Gillian Lynne, is based on the novel “Le Fantôme de L’Opéra” by Gaston Leroux and features a book by Richard Stilgoe and Andrew Lloyd Webber, music by Lloyd Webber, and lyrics by Charles Hart. The current cast is led by Ben Crawford as The Phantom, Emilie Kouatchou as Christine, and John Riddle as Raoul.
The show was forced to shut down temporarily in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but was able to reopen to audiences on October 22, 2021. It is produced on Broadway by Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Group.
Mackintosh, a British producer working in New York for over 40 years, said of the show’s closing, “It has been an unparalleled honor to have presented the longest-running musical in Broadway’s history… Our gratitude to American audiences falling in love with The Phantom is infinite.” He added that while the Phantom may be disappearing for now, the show will continue to enchant audiences in London and around the world, and may one day return to Broadway.
