This is for the 3,208 of us on this planet who have never seen the musical of The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and friends. We probably should. It has already achieved the mantle of Longest-Running Musical Ever on Broadway and shows no signs of closing. At the time all shows in Manhattan shut down in March, it had logged 13,370 performances. When Broadway reopens — which now will not be before May 30 of next year — it will reopen and this show may run another 13,370 performances.
The current runner-up is the revival of Chicago, which ran 9,692 performances before the lockdown. Here's a stunning thought: If Phantom did not reopen and Chicago did — which is extremely unlikely — Chicago would have to run for around another nine years just to get the tying run on base. The Lion King is not far behind…and has about the same chance of besting Phantom.
So there aren't many of us around the world who haven't seen this show somewhere. This weekend, you have a chance to see it for free in your own private Fortress of Solitude. Sir Andrew and his company have put a fine (I'm told) video of the show online for 48 hours, three of which are already up as I post this.
This is a British staging from 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the show and it features Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess and Hadley Fraser. At the end, there's a curtain speech by Mr. Webber and some additional performances by folks who were in earlier productions, including the first. If you're never going to see the show in a theater, this might be the best you'll ever do — but hurry because it goes away soon…
