Playbill.com: Alumni of the 24-year Broadway run of The Phantom of the Opera are expected to be sprinkled among the audience of the history-making 10,000th Broadway performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical at 2 PM Feb. 11 at the Majestic Theatre. The matinee, to include a special post-show presentation, benefits The Actors Fund.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Broadway's Phantom Hits 10,000th Performance on Feb. 11; Milestone Benefits The Actors Fund
Playbill.com: Alumni of the 24-year Broadway run of The Phantom of the Opera are expected to be sprinkled among the audience of the history-making 10,000th Broadway performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical at 2 PM Feb. 11 at the Majestic Theatre. The matinee, to include a special post-show presentation, benefits The Actors Fund.
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4 comments:
Congrats to the cast and crew of this performance, and congrats to Andrew Lloyd Webber for writing such a successful show! However, for having done 10,000 performances over the course of 24 years, I would've expected for a show of that magnitude and grandeur to have done more to donate money to the Actors Fund. But for them to raise over $4 million with just those above mentioned projects is really remarkable. Knowing the kind of impact this show has on raising funds, I think it could definitely afford to do so many more fundraising projects for not only the Actors Fund, but for other organizations as well.
Individual opinions about phantom aside, it's nice that there it has found some consistency year-to-year in live theatre, and it's also interesting that it has had the same success in both London and New York. The remarkable thing is that some people have spent over 22 years with that show, doing the exact same role / trumpet parts etc. 8 times a week.
I'd be interested to learn more about he upkeep for such a show, since the timeframe is more than 10 times even a typical broadway show, and so the operations department has entirely unique concerns as they have been through generations of people, equipment and methods.
Being the longest-running Broadway production is a huge feat in itself, but the upcoming 10,000 performance is just awesome. They absolutely deserve it, and I hope they can take this celebration as a break to stop and look at all the shows they've done (whoever the current actors are, I'm sure they've done many shows, and I know there's at least one guy backstage who's been there for the full run) and really appreciate it.
Side note: I got to go backstage at POTO, because I know one of the techies. I can't even describe how amazing it was.
I enjoyed reading this article. I knew Phantom was the longest running show on Broadway , but had no idea how much money it had actullay made over the years. I think people who think of Broadway do think of Phantom of the Opera first as it represents the classic aura of what Broadway stand for. In a way, though, that can be a negative because the average person wanting to go to a musical may not realize the wide range of shows available to them. Not everyone will want to see the huge dramatic and deep plot of Phantom. There are so many great shows that close because they just never got the publicity that was needed. I hope that Phantom lasts forever on Broadway so patrons will fall in love with theatre in general. I think once one sees something like Phantom, they can be hooked for life on the wonders of The Great White Way.
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