Phantom Closing? — Page 2

HOLY SH*T!!!!!!

I can't quite believe it, but it's true that it hasn't been selling well at all post-shutdown.

I guess the question now is, what shows potentially on the horizon could fill the Majestic?

A couple of thoughts here. First off, The Post has a long history of playing fast and loose with the truth and sometimes sensationalizes things for the sake of selling papers. And, I mean this across the board not just when it comes to theatre. Therefore, I will wait till word comes out from any more official and trustworthy source, say, a press release from either Cameron or Really Useful/ Webber before I think the post announcement holds even a drop of water.

Also, unlike the new production of Les Miserables, which aside from being on tour both here and the UK, as well as being used as international sit downs both on Broadway and various other countries Phantom doesn’t really have that. Yes, they had the tour with the new staging which wasn’t really well received. But, even when that was all said and done, they started an international tour with the original production. I don’t think that after all that, Webber would put the 25th anniversary staging on Broadway. And, keep in mind, unlike the new Les Miserables production which was Cameron’s production and his alone, he has to work with Webber on this. And, the only reason why Cameron ditched the original London staging in favor of the new production was nothing short of greed. The original staging was a co production between him and the RSC. Seeing as he was tired of having to pay royalties to the Royal Shakespeare Company, he decided to ditch that in favor of one that was all his and his alone.

If this is true, instead of coming to New York 4-5 times a year to see Phantom plus other shows, I would probably come just once a year, if that. And I could NEVER see another show at the Majestic.

It hasn't been selling that great but I believe the nut is around 700,000 or so and it's always been above that except for the worst of the omicron era earlier this year.

We know that CamMack would not mind closing Phantom at all and he and Seth are very good at coming up with trite meaningless taglines like "an all-new Phantom is coming to New York! A Phantom for the 21st century!"

And he could replace the precious, never-to-be-seen again original 1988 production with the stripped down, cheapened version that's in London now. And sadly, some of the posters on this thread are STILL saying things like "Phantom needs to update" Ugh. Some of y'all wont' be happy until Broadway is all video screens.

And if you saw the show "It's Only a Play", Nathan Lane made a joke about this topic: "Did you hear? Phantom of the Opera is finally closing! In 15 years."

But seriously, I would imagine they'd want a good year at least for people to see the show one last time. It definitely did sell well last fall until COVID started surging again, and that was all crazy Phantom fans like me.

All that said, if Phantom does set a closing date, I will not be seeing again because it would be too painful. I went to see it the Saturday after 9/11 one last time because the rumor was that all the long runners would shut down, and they brought everyone up to the first few rows of the orchestra. It was so sad and I don't want to have another sad memory in that building.

Updated On: 9/16/22 at 02:31 PM

I honestly don't believe it.

The New York Post isn't worth the paper it's printed on. It is, however, a perfect avenue for a closing rumor to drum up some publicity, as I believe someone alluded to earlier in the thread. Because the Post will publish anything.

ACL2006 said: "Now we all know that the producers of CHICAGO would keep it running just to surpass Phantom as the longest running Broadway show ever."

There’s about an 8-year gap there. I don’t know if that will happen but you never know.

Oleksiniski says "multiple sources," and yet also says "When reached by The Post, a Phantom rep denied that the musical is closing." So confusing.

I saw this show on Broadway about a year into its run when I was seven years old. It was the first Broadway show - probably the first real play - that I ever saw. I was hooked. Phantom is basically what got me into theatre. If this really is closing...I mean I don't even know how to comprehend that. I really thought it was going to run forever.

Could this be a ploy to get sales up?

Count me in the camp of "I'll believe it when we get a press release."

Looking their grosses, they seem pretty steady, on a broader scale at least; if you look back at the past 5-7 years, they oscillate between roughly $700k and $1.1MM pretty consistently, with some outlier weeks in both directions. Their current grosses are precisely on target for this time of year. So unless their advance has plummeted to an unprecedented low, it would be sort of a confusing move. Unless I'm underestimating the increase in COVID costs? I don't know.

Unless, of course, these theories are correct, and they plan to open a cheaper version, which seems plausible enough given what happened with Les Mis. But I'm still skeptical...

I'm also curious about the whole part about a rep from Phantom denying the closure. Or is that pretty standard for cases like this? I don't read tabloids very often, so I don't know if it's just standard practice for the shows' publicity reps to deny everything until their ready to announce it.

If they close it and re-open with a different production, I hope the League (or whoever is in charge of keeping track of official record-breaking) doesn't let them continue to count those performances toward their longest run record. I seem to recall Mackintosh tried to spin the Les Mis situation to make it seem like the show was continuing its long run, but I don't buy it. I think if it's a new production with a new director, that's not a continuous run.

Of course, a rep for the show would deny this. That's their job. It hasn't been officially announced.

That doesn't mean it's not true.

Thanks to the Sweaty Oracle, just about everyone knew that Into the Woods would extend and who would be joining the cast. But, I'm sure if you had asked Jordon Roth about it in an interview before it was announced, he wouldn't have told you anything.

The December thing doesn't make sense to me. Even if it is closing, I'd be shocked if ALW didn't keep it running until January 26, to make it to the 35th anniversary.

The London production is still the Hal Prince production but it has been cheapened and altered enough to lower the royalties to the Prince and Bjornson estates. The new choreographer, director and designer are all very much alive because they put the new show/tour/whatever into the London theater in summer 2021.

I think Cameron has given up on the "old" new tour with the entirely new set because it was so universally hated. It would be right out of Cameron's playbook to close Phantom in December and then right as it's closing, say that he found a way to keep it open: move it to the Broadhurst; take out most of the traps, replace most of the curtains and flylines with projections, reduce the orchestra by half, and call it the "new and improved Phantom!' And most theater-goers will fall for it.

If true, I'd expect multiple extensions due to ticket demand.