Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Phantom of the Opera Hits a Majestic New Milestone Today
Playbill: As Broadway‘s longest-running musical, The Phantom of the Opera breaks a new record with every performance. But the November 28 performance marks a special milestone: Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, which opened January 26, 1988, plays its 12,000th performance—an achievement that would have been unthinkable to the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers & Hammerstein, who worked at a time when shows rarely exceeded 1,000 performances.
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3 comments:
While I knew that Phantom was a massive success on stage, I had no idea the kind of recognition it had received worldwide in terms of total box office revenue. It's incredible interesting, because I would never assume that a theatrical production would ever be able to surpass box office records set by some of the most iconic films in existence. You would never think that Titanic would have had less box office power than Phantom has had. 12,000 performances is a very inspiring and invigorating record for young theatre artists who have to face the realities of worrying about the future of the art form. Phantom simply goes to prove that theatre is still a space that can be commercially successful and powerful in that respect. While these kinds of successes are few and far between, I think the same thing could be said about the film industry as well.
When I saw Phantom of the Opera, it seemed to me that the show had been running so long that the only thing the show was concerned with was getting through the whole thing as fast as possible. Every bit of the show was being recalled by muscle memory, and it made for a really lackluster experience. Practically everyone knows Phantom, whether you’re interested in theatre or not, it’s a cultural staple now more than a genuine theatrical experience. It’s a revolving door that people pay $150 to go through just to say they saw Phantom on Broadway’. I know that there is currently no financial incentive to allow this to happen, but would it be such a bad thing if the show closed? Would it be so bad if the show that has been running for 7 years longer than I’ve been alive decided to say, ‘You know, let’s end on a high note. Maybe in 20-30 years some other team of people can revive the show in some new and cool reinterpretation. Maybe the McDonald’s: 99 billion served model isn’t one that should be applied to live performance as it can devalue it.’ Personally, I don’t think that would be that bad.
The Phantom of the Opera also toured in China and it was almost sold out everywhere every show. My mom has an old classic blue ray DVD of the movie version and I used to love it so much I would watch it over and over and sing along until my mom was finally fed up with my horrible shrieking voice. In fact, this is the first Broadway show I watched. I bought the ticket as soon as I got to NYC and the minute the orchestra started playing I could not stop crying till standing ovation at the end. This is how powerful it is to me and I believe to a lot of people who never get tired of watching the show or even listening to the sound track. I’m not at all surprised how successful the show is outside the United States and I think this speaks the essence of theatre – great productions will be appreciated and loved across cultures.
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