Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, which revolves around a man with a disfigured face who haunts the Paris Opera House and falls in love with the young soprano Christine, is the longest-running show in Broadway history and has been a major tourist attraction for New York’s Times Square .
Even so, theatergoers have not returned post-pandemic in sufficient numbers to cover the production’s high operating costs.
Anyone who wants to follow the fate of the “Phantom” in the future can go to London, where the show is still being played. After being down during the pandemic, the production returned a year later with a smaller orchestra and other cost-saving reworkings.
A new production also opened in Australia last month and the first Mandarin-language production is planned for China next year. In addition, actor Antonio Banderas is also learning to work on a Spanish-language production.
In 2012, Peter Jöback played the Phantom in the West End production of “The Phantom of the Opera” and the following year he had the same role on Broadway.