Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:15pm
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:16pm
The rumors swirling are that it will return to Broadway (different theater?) and be the revised, scaled down product to save $$$. Do they wait three years to be eligible for the Tony's?
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:26pm
They’d be wise to wait a little while… otherwise, it’s just, “jk, we’re back but worse!”
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:33pm
Remember when the original Les Mis announced they were closing and extended multiple times? It’s also weird the shows socials haven’t made a peep about this news. What are they holding out for?
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:35pm
I swear! What Cameron Mackintosh has done to these long-running shows in London and now on Broadway is terrible! First Les Mis, now Phantom! If a show cannot keep going, then it should close. Granted, I am still shocked about Phantom closing, but I think they should just close it and not come back as a different production! The Hal Prince production is a true masterpiece and one of a kind It shouldn't be scaled down! Definitely not on Broadway!
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:39pm
It will probably revived in less than 5 years. It's a great show but it will never really go away.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:45pm
Like in London, if it comes down to a scaled down Phantom vs no Phantom at all, I’ll give the new version a chance as long as it’s the one in London now and not the last tour version, which I did see and disliked. I don’t know what all of the changes are in London aside from the reduced orchestration, but from pictures the physical production looks mostly the same with a few different drapes, fewer sculptures on the proscenium and no descending angle sculpture for the end of act one. That doesn’t seem as dreadful as the tour version most definitely was.
I’ll also be curious to see what Andrew Lloyd Webber has to say about all of this. In London he publicly blamed everything on Cameron and claimed to be unhappy with the reduced orchestration while obviously agreeing to everything behind closed doors.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:45pm
Even if it were to come back, it won't be the same! I definitely wanna see it one more time before it closes!
Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:51pm
Wow I’m shocked and so happy I just saw it for the last time.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:07pm
Any chance they film this at the Majestic or will we lose The Brilliant Original forever?
Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:07pm
DIdnt Chuck Schumer secure govt funds to save the theaters and now cam closes shop??
Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:12pm
Wow. First the Queen and now the Phantom. Two constants gone.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:12pm
Not only that, Schumer was onstage at the reopening night performance and he gave a speech about his legislation and Cameron personally thanked him for making sure that Phantom could continue because of those funds.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:24pm
Lets hope Schumer demands our $ back if they are going to close and give us a watered down version as some suggest and not the original classic production.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:35pm
This is just confusing , especially with that Peacock show in development .....
Posted: 9/16/22 at 8:04pm
Anybody see that CNN article where they got numbers from the Broadway League ?
Posted: 9/16/22 at 8:22pm
Phantom4ever said: "Not only that, Schumer was onstage at the reopening night performance and he gave a speech about his legislation and Cameron personally thanked him for making sure that Phantom could continue because of those funds."
Posted: 9/16/22 at 8:51pm
What a long historic run!
Would love this to end with the Shuberts announcing teh Majestic will be renamed for Hal Prince.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 8:52pm
Mwb2 said: "DIdnt Chuck Schumer secure govt funds to save the theaters and now cam closes shop??"
That money was meant to defray the restarting costs and to provide a short-term financial cushion due to the uncertainty of the recovery. It basically was there to help shows get "back on their feet." It was not meant to indefinitely provide support. That money, with limited exceptions, was required to be spent by Dec. 31, 2021.
Come From Away also received funds, yet I haven't seen posts criticizing them for closing. To be honest I'm surprised Phantom held out this long.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 8:52pm
The only good thing coming out of Phantom closing would be if the Majestic gets renamed the Prince.
Posted: 9/16/22 at 9:17pm
Barry and Fran have been spotted at Staples creating “come see the longest running musical still on Broadway” posters to put on times Square garbage cans beginning in February
Posted: 9/16/22 at 9:29pm
Okay, folks... as the one who laid down exactly how London was going to play out before it did (at a time when it was planned to happen in NY), here's what I think is going down. Bookmark this post in the thread a year out, and see if I'm wrong.
Cam Mack (and perhaps ALW) has been playing the long game. After the reception of the completely restaged and largely redesigned 25th-anniversary tour (i.e., sold well to the punters, but lots of flak from fanatics), he knew he couldn't quite do to Phantom what he did to Les Mis. It would have to be subtler. Thus...
PART ONE: The launch of an international tour (remember, it traveled to parts of Europe and Asia first before it came to the UK just as the pandemic hit) with a slightly watered-down variant of the OG staging labeled "The Brilliant Original," which was swiftly followed by London and Broadway's marketing also switching to the same label. That's the first step -- call them the same thing, en route to gradually substituting the cheaper version, much like Coke swapping out cane sugar for high fructose corn syrup. Imprint in people's minds that every time you see the words "The Brilliant Original," that's what you get. Even if you don't.
PART TWO: As I previously discussed here in a thread about reopening back in lockdown, word on the street was that they wanted to do what they ultimately did in London here first. I guess that it was more convenient to do it there with the tour shuttered and temporary closure allowing them to recycle the physical elements. I also guess that they still wanted to do it here, but two things interfered: 1) the musicians' union is a stronger body in the U.S. than in the UK, enough that one can't just unceremoniously drop two-thirds of the orchestra, and 2) the reception that these moves received when deployed in the West End ensured that simply closing the show fair and square and reopening smaller was not an option without resulting bad PR. They needed to tread carefully.
PART THREE: The minute they announced this murder mystery series for Peacock centered around a fictional live TV event of Phantom (in its first season at least), I saw in a flash what I think is going on. They'd just been handed -- or had engineered -- a gift-wrapped method to market the switch. Simply close the original production and end that contract, clean and clear; use the TV show to build buzz, either around the "mildly modified" replica from London or a new one entirely as the "show within the show"; and reopen at a new venue on a smaller scale "because of public demand and the series' popularity." In other words, a little extra effort and assembly are required, but the same outcome as London.
I'll be very surprised if I'm wrong.
P.S. Look for an announcement that the Majestic is being renamed for Hal Prince, and that Cinderella will succeed Phantom post-reno.
Updated On: 9/16/22 at 09:29 PM
Posted: 9/16/22 at 9:46pm
Saw a Tiktok from a guy who's gotten all the tea on Funny Girl right that Cinderella is going to replace it and he said a month or two ago on there it will be starring Miley Cyrus (I can't picture her singing that score !) What a bad marketing tactic this is ! That show I know was horrible in London from what I've heard . Also , I heard ALW and Back To The Future were fighting for the Winter Garden according to that TikTok guy after ALW found out he couldn't have revolving seats at the Imperial !
Posted: 9/16/22 at 9:50pm
If that happens, I'm really surprised the Shuberts don't want to renovate the theater first. It's very much needed.
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