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PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Now In the Theatrical History Books
As Broadway’s Long-Run Champion
By ELLIS NASSOUR
Outside the Majestic Theatre, there were hundreds of media capturing the arrival of celebrities emerging from their limos onto the red carpet as audience members in elegant evening wear and sparkling jewels paused to observe and gawk.
There was jubilant celebration in the balmy January air, but with a bit of a twist.
It could not have been more gala or filled with more heart-pounding excitement if it was an opening night. But this was The Phantom of the Opera.
Big things, well, at least, in theatrical history, were afoot.
If not an opening night, then it was a sort of reopening night – after 18 years; and the beginning of a new era.
Inside, against the backdrop of Maria Björnson’s decadent faux proscenium of golden Gothic erotica, all those cascading curtains and swags and, under the brilliance of that gigantic chandelier, amid the flamboyance and color of Björnson’s gorgeous costumes, Vitoria, the white cat, materialized from the Heavenside Layer [and the tutus of the ballet corps] to pass the torch to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera.
The cast for the 7,486th record-breaker: Howard McGillin,
Sandra Joseph and Tim Martin Gleason are Front Center,
starting behind the T in Phantom>
Having played it’s record-shattering 7, 486th performance, it left Cats one notch behind to become the longest-running show in Broadway history.
This specially-staged post-curtain call skit, with Howard McGillin, the longest-running Phantom in Broadway history, front and center, marked the record-breaking performance that had the electric buzz of the January 26, 1988 opening night. In fact, Lloyd Webber said he was more nervous than on opening night.
There was a special record-breaker Playbill, a brand new record-breaker souvenir book with stunning oversized color photographs and a tickly feathered mask for every member of the black-tie audience.
....................... Howard McGillin and Sandra Joseph ride the gondola into the history books>
The show is still remarkably tight [in a production that has few slags]. The production design by the late Björnson, famed for her work in the world of opera, has been beautifully maintained.
What a far, far cry from the Gypsy Run Through, the last dress rehearsal, way, way, way back on that cold, wintry night when a very nervous [director] Hal Prince paced backstage, praying that everything in that early era of computer-driven shows would work.
It didn’t. Not long into the first act, the ghost of the Phantom struck. One of the huge swags [curtain drops] fell right onto the middle of the stage. Amazingly, no one was hurt and eventually the show went on. But not without incident.
As the Phantom snatched his student from the dressing room of the Paris Opera and the segue began that takes them to the bowels of the catacombs below, amide the mist from dry ice and the candelabra, the gondola went berserk. It followed a trajectory of its own, crushing candles in its wake with sparks of electricity flooding the stage.
There was fear from backstage that a fire might erupt. It didn’t and, in the truest sense of tradition, the show went on.
There was some fear and trepidation in the audience when it came time for the Phantom to crash that chandelier, which had been wobbling quite a bit throughout the first act. But not to worry. For weeks, the rigging had been tested and retested and tested again.
Not that they really had to.
ALW, his heart quite heavily pounding and as nervous as always, said it best:“It was a magical evening!” Surely it was, to celebrate his finest hour and, probably, his most lavish show and, certainly, one of his very best scores.
During the interval, as he sipped the gratis Phantom of the Opera Champagne in the aisle of Orchestra Right, he rehearsed his post-performance remarks with the brilliant Gillian Lynne [Cats], who did the choreography and musical staging.
Onstage, after six company calls and the strains of
“Memory” had faded, Lloyd Webber, after thanking director Hal Prince and lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, introduced a series of surprises: Tony Award winner Judy Kaye was the grand marshal of a long roster of Carlottas; then came the Raouls.In Sarah Brightman’s absence, Patti Cohenour, [now in The Light in the Piazza] who was Brightman’s alternate and her first replacement, led an array of Christines. McGillin then brought on nine of his Phantom alum.
Twenty-time Tony-winning Prince stated that he'd been reading a lot recently about POTO statistics but said he wasn't that interested in knowing the weight of the chandelier, but "proud of the fact that over these last eighteen years, The Phantom of the Opera has employed over six thousand eight hundred people."
The historic curtain call:
Tim Martin Gleason, Howard McGillin,
Sandra Joseph>
It was ALW’s honor, as he put it, to introduce Michael Crawford, the original West End and Broadway Phantom, who had much praise for Björnson, who died four years ago, and thanked ALW and director Hal Prince for selecting him “for the role that changed my life.”Crawford then graciously embraced McGillin and swept the current Christine, Sandra Joseph, off her tiny feet with a French nibble on the hand.
Lynne, in addition to her praise for Björnson’s valuable contributions to the show, remembered the late Steve Barton, the original Raoul on the West End and Broadway, and an eventual Phantom.
The handsome Texan, who found great success on the stages of Europe in numerous musicals, was beloved by the show’s cast and crew. He died in 2001, reportedly a suicide after struggling with substance abuse.
After POTO, his greatest success was as the star of the original Dance of the Vampires, conceived and directed by Roman Polanski, prior to its bowdlerization for Broadway].
Last night’s performance was followed by a masked ball in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria.
For last night's grand finale, canons of multicolored steamers and confetti exploded from the boxes over the entire theatre; and black balloons with the white mask of the phantom were dropped from the gods. [Pity the poor, but surely well-paid, cleaning crew.]
It seems POTO, not Cats, will be Now and Forever. On Thursday, January 26, the show will mark another milestone by becoming the first Broadway production to reach its 18th Anniversary.
Published on BroadwayStars.com on Tuesday, January 10, 2006
[Link to this Feature]
Ellis Nassour is an international media journalist, and author of Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline, which he has adapted into a musical for the stage. Visit www.patsyclinehta.com.
For a listing of all features written by Ellis, click here.
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2007-08
Broadway Season
June 28 - Old Acquaintance (AA)
July 10 - Xanadu (Hayes) [Robert Ahrens, Dan Vickery, Tara Smith/B. Swibel and Sarah Murchison/Dale Smith]
Aug 19 - Grease (Atkinson)
Oct 4 - Mauritius (Biltmore) [MTC]
Oct 11 - The Ritz (54)
Oct 18 - Pygmalion (AA)
Oct 25 - A Bronx Tale (Kerr)
Nov 1 - Cyrano de Bergerac (Rodgers)
Nov 4 - Rock 'N' Roll (Jacobs)
Nov 8 - Young Frankenstein (Hilton)
Nov 9 - Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (St. James)
Nov 10: Local One Strike Begins
Nov 28: Local One Strike Ends
Dec 2 - Cymbeline (Beaumont)
Dec 3 - The Farnsworth Invention (Music Box) [Dodger Properties with Steven Spielberg, Dan Cap Productions, Fred Zollo, Latitude Link and the Pelican Group]
Dec 4 - August: Osage County (Imperial) [Jeffrey Richards, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler, Jerry Frankel, Steppenwolf]
Dec 6 - The Seafarer (Booth)
Dec 9 - Is He Dead? (Lyceum)
Dec 16 - The Homecoming (Cort) [Richards, Frankel]
Jan 10 - The Little Mermaid (Lunt)
Jan 15 - The 39 Steps (AA)
Jan 17 - November (Barrymore)
Jan 24 - Come Back, Little Sheba (Biltmore)
Feb 21 - Sunday In The Park With George (54)
Feb 28 - Passing Strange (Belasco)
Mar 6 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Broadhurst) [Stephen C. Byrd]
Mar 9 - In The Heights (Rodgers)
Mar 27 - Gypsy (St. James)
Mar 29 - Macbeth (Lyceum)
Apr 3 - South Pacific (Beaumont)
Apr 17 - A Catered Affair (Kerr) [Jujamcyn Theaters, Jordan Roth, Harvey Entertainment / Ron Fierstein, Richie Jackson and Daryl Roth]
Apr 24 - Cry Baby (Marquis)
Apr 27 - The Country Girl (Jacobs)
Apr 30 - Thurgood (Booth)
May 1 - Les Liaisons Dangereuses (AA)
May 4 - Boeing-Boeing (Longacre)
May 7 - Top Girls (Biltmore)
TBA - Godspell
2008-09
Broadway Season
Oct 16 - Billy Elliot (Imperial)
Nov 08 - Dividing the Estate (a Shubert theater)
Dec 14 - Shrek: The Musical (Broadway) [DreamWorks]
Talked About
Not Scheduled Yet
TBA - 50 Words
TBA - Addams Family (Elephant Eye)
TBA - American Buffalo
TBA - An American Vaudeville [Farrell, Perloff]
TBA - The Beard of Avon [NYTW]
TBA - Being There [Permut]
TBA - Benny & Joon [MGM]
TBA - Billy Elliot
TBA - Brave New World [Rachunow]
TBA - Breath of Life [Fox]
TBA - Busker Alley [Margot Astrachan, Robert Blume, Kristine Lewis, Jamie Fox, Joanna Kerry & Heather Duke]
TBA - Broomhilda
TBA - Bye Bye Birdie [Niko]
TBA - Camille Claudel [Wildhorn]
TBA - Camelot
TBA - Carmen [Robin DeLevita and The Firm]
TBA - Catch Me If You Can
TBA - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [Bob and Harvey Weinstein]
TBA - Cry Baby [Grazer, Gordon, McAllister, Epstein]
TBA - Designing Women [Alexis]
TBA - Don Juan DeMarco [New Line]
TBA - Dreamgirls [Creative Battery]
TBA - Duet
TBA - Equus
TBA - Ever After [Adam Epstein]
TBA - Fallen Angels (Shubert) [Kenwright]
TBA - Farragut North [Richards]
TBA - Father of the Bride
TBA - The Female Of The Species (TBA)
TBA - Fool For Love (AA) [Roundabout]
TBA - Girl Group Time Travelers
TBA - Golden Boy
TBA - Harmony [Guiles, Karslake, Smith, Fishman]
TBA - Hitchcock Blonde
TBA - The Importance Of Being Earnest
TBA - Jerry Springer: The Opera! [Thoday, McKeown]
TBA - Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train (Circle)
TBA - Josephine [Waissman]
TBA - Leap of Faith
TBA - A Little Princess [Ettinger, Dodger]
TBA - Midnight Cowboy [MGM]
TBA - The Minstrel Show - Kander and Ebb and Stroman
TBA - Moonstruck [Pittelman, Azenberg]
TBA - Mourning Becomes Electra [Haber, Boyett]
TBA - Monsoon Wedding
TBA - The Night of the Hunter
TBA - The Opposite of Sex [Namco]
TBA - Orphans
TBA - Pal Joey [Platt]
TBA - Paper Doll
TBA - The Paris Letter
TBA - The Philadelphia Story
TBA - Peter Pan
TBA - Porgy and Bess [Frankel, Viertel, Baruch, Routh, Panter, Tulchin/Bartner]
TBA - The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert
TBA - The Princess Bride
TBA - Princesses [Lane, Comley]
TBA - Poe the Musical
TBA - Rain Man [MGM]
TBA - Robin Hood
TBA - Secondhand Lions
TBA - South Pacific
TBA - Speed-the-Plow
TBA - Stalag 17
TBA - Starry Messenger
TBA - Syncopation
TBA - A Tale Of Two Cities
TBA - Torch Song Trilogy
TBA - Turn of the Century
TBA - West Side Story
TBA - The Wall [Weinstein, Mottola, Waters]
TBA - Will Rogers Follies [Cossette]
TBA - The Wiz [Dodger]
TBA - Zanna [Dalgleish]
This list is compiled from various sources. If you have corrections to the Broadway Season, please contact us.
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