CNN
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âPhantom of the Operaâ isnât just a Broadway icon â itâs a cultural behemoth.
Thereâs Andrew Lloyd Webberâs organ-heavy score, sumptuous sets and elaborate costumes. Thereâs a melodramatic love triangle between the beautiful soprano, her hunky beau and a misunderstood sewer dweller, composer and voice teacher. Then thereâs the chandelier, of course. There are few moments in musical theater more thrilling than the one before the massive light fixture roars back to life.
After 35 years and nearly 14,000 performances, âPhantom of the Operaâ takes its final bow Sunday on Broadway. Soon, posters advertising the show with nothing but the iconic Phantom mask and a single rose will be scrubbed from Times Square, and the Majestic Theater will sit empty for the first time since âPhantomâ opened in 1988.
News of its closure stunned musical theater fans â the longest-running show on Broadway always seemed like a stable presence on West 44th Street. But itâs an expensive venture â after the show returned from its pandemic-induced closure, its weekly running costs approached $1 million, and it often wouldnât gross enough to offset those costs. It became impossible for such a lavish production to maintain its place on Broadway without losing money.
No one took the news harder than âPhantomâsâ most devoted fans â or âphans,â rather. Many of them have seen the show dozens or even hundreds of times. Theyâve followed the show around the country and world, and some have even scored tickets to âPhantomâsâ final performance on Sunday night. Theyâve taken solace in its fantasy, identified with the antihero at its center and formed lasting bonds with their fellow theatergoers throughout its run.
Many phans have been enamored with the musical, like Christine under the spell of the title character, for so long they can no longer pinpoint just what makes it so bewitching â itâs been a constant in their lives.
âI can say that I love the music, the scenery, and the fact that the Phantom sacrifices his own happiness for Christineâs at the end,â said Katie Yelinek, a librarian in Pennsylvania who first fell in love with âPhantomâ in 1993. âThey create magic and a sense of awe. But listing those things individually doesnât explain the ineffable sum of their parts that makes âPhantomâ like no other musical.â
Charlie Peterson, a phan since eighth grade, said they used to spend the months after their motherâs death listening to the soundtrack with their childhood best friend. Though they now live across the country from that friend, the two still get together to catch a performance of the musical that buoyed them in their youth.
âIt was a place to go when I felt like I needed it,â Peterson told CNN. Losing âPhantomâ on Broadway now âfeels like another friend is moving away.â
Sierra Boggess, one of the most beloved portrayers of heroine Christine among the âphanâ-base, told CNN that the showâs devotees are âincredibly specialâ even among the most enthusiastic musical theater fans.
Take Dick Moore: The Denver native has seen the show more than 200 times, and his home is decked out in âPhantomâ memorabilia from his â35 years chasing the Phantom,â he told CNN.
âEvery time I see the show, itâs like seeing it for the first time,â he told the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Center in 2019, in honor of viewing his 198th performance. âI never get tired of it.â
Following âPhantomâ is a lifestyle for some phans â many of them made regular journeys to the Majestic throughout their lives to catch new interpretations of Christine and the masked maestro. And when news of the showâs closure struck, fans clamored to buy tickets to the rest of its run â the closing date was even pushed several weeks to meet fan demand. About a week after its ending was announced, its weekly gross rose from $964,000 to $1.2 million. Last week, it grossed $3.6 million â tickets to see the showâs final performances werenât cheap.
Phans told CNN in the days leading up to âPhantomâsâ final production that they were preparing to say their final goodbyes with a heavy heart. Wallace Phillips, a filmmaker and animator in New York, has seen the show 140 times in the last 13 years. While speaking with CNN prior to the showâs closure, he said he hoped to squeeze in a few more performances before Sunday.
Ian Petriello Eisenberg learned of the closing while working in Hawaii. âPhantomâ was the show that inspired him to study theater at the University of Texas at Austin, and years later, he won a chance to join the Broadway ensemble for one night and shadowed Broadway veteran James Barbour, who played the Phantom in 2015.
Eager to relive what he called one of the best nights of his life, he quickly booked a flight to New York to catch a performance earlier this month.
âIâm devastated that this icon of Broadway is leaving forever,â Eisenberg said. âAnd even if it does come back, it will never be the same.â
Several phans share Eisenbergâs sorrows: âPhantomâ returned to Londonâs West End with a halved orchestra in 2021 after the pandemic halted all performances. Many feared that its score would lost its impact with fewer musicians. And many now fear that, if the show does eventually return to Broadway, it will have lost much of the magic of the original staging.
The pandemic, for some, made them appreciate âPhantomâ all the more. Andrew Defrin, a Fordham University student studying theater directing, has been âcompletely enrapturedâ with the Phantom since he first saw the show at age 6. Heâd sing along with the soundtrack on sets he made out of cardboard, proudly wearing his very own Phantom mask. But he didnât see the show again until it returned from its Covid-induced closure in 2021.
He said he would attend his 20th performance of âPhantomâ on Saturday. He planned to bring tissues.
âItâs the end of an era, truly,â Defrin told CNN. âIâve never seen any other marquees at the Majestic Theater. To not see that mask there is going to be devastating.â
âPhantomâ is the most enduring relic of the â80s era of musicals built on spectacle: âLes Miserablesâ had a massive cast and an even bigger barricade. âMiss Saigonâ had its jaw-dropping helicopter and âCatsâ its junkyard set. (All four mega-musicals, not so coincidentally, share producer Cameron Mackintosh.) But those shows have all closed, been revived and closed again since âPhantomâ first hit the scene.
The musical reintroduced the novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux to fans who couldnât get enough of the Phantom. While adaptations of the source material existed prior to Webberâs musical, adaptations and parodies specifically referencing the showâs interpretation of âPhantomâ can be seen throughout pop culture â including films and even childrenâs television.
Defrin acknowledged that Webberâs musical has its fair share of detractors who arenât wowed by its melodramatic script and score. But itâs hard to deny the cultural âphenomenonâ itâs become, he said â its iconography is so recognizable that its marquee doesnât even list the musicalâs title.
âOf course thereâll be a hole in my heart,â Defrin said of its closure.
Some phans, like Phillips, are taking the showâs ending in stride, even if it pains them, too.
âPart of me sees it as a new beginning,â he said. âIâd love to keep the showâs legacy alive in the best way that I can.â
Phillips said he dreams of adapting the musical as an animated film one day â yet another way âPhantomâ can live on after Broadway.
Boggess, meanwhile, has just come to terms with the gravity of âPhantomâsâ role in her life. She has played Christine across the pond â not just on Broadway â and in the sequel musical, âLove Never Dies.â
From rehearsing for the Las Vegas production with the original director, the late Hal Prince, to hitting the high E in the musicalâs title song, the highest note Christine sings in the show, she told CNN she held her memories of performing in âPhantomâ as some of the dearest of her career.
âTo sing (Webberâs) music is one of the greatest gifts of my life,â she said.
While Defrin eagerly studied âPhantomâ as an aspiring director, heâll miss sharing the show with friends the most. Heâs brought more than 20 people with him to the show, and watching someone elseâs jaw drop when the chandelier rises and the iconic organ starts playing has been a unique thrill.
âThereâs no reaction like it,â he said of sharing the âgift of âPhantomââ with loved ones.
âPhantomâ wonât go totally missing from the theatrical landscape â it will likely continue to tour, and the licensing rights are available for amateur theater companies. But when the Majesticâs marquee dims on Sunday night, and the Phantom finally abandons the theater heâs haunted for 35 years, Broadway will feel a bit less fantastical without it.
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