Is The Phantom of the Opera an overwrought and overrated musical? Maybe, but it’s also a Broadway institution. After 35 years and 13,981 performances at the Majestic Theatre, it is the longest running show in Broadway history. Since the show opened on Broadway in January of 1988, Phantom has been seen by over 20 million audience members, grossing over $1.3 billion. An estimated 6,500 people have been employed by the production (including over 400 actors). Each night, it takes a total of 125 people to put on the show including the cast, the crew, and the orchestra.
In September 2022, the show announced it would be closing in February 2023, saying that since reopening in 2021, the show had been unable to meet its weekly running costs. The announcement provided such an increase in ticket sales that the show extended its run for another two months. During the penultimate week of performances, Phantom had its highest grossing week in its 35 year run, taking in $3,648,872.13 (The Music Man holds the record for highest grossing week with $3.9 million).
The show was nominated for 10 Tony awards and won 7 (including best musical, best lead actor for Michael Crawford, best supporting actress for Judy Kaye). Maria Björnson won 2 Tonys for the show (best costume design and best scenic design). She was the second female in Tony history to win for best scenic design (as of last year, only seven women in total have won for best scenic design).
The sequel, Love Never Dies, opened on the West End in 2010 with plans to transfer to Broadway in 2011. The Broadway production was postponed and then canceled. Paule Constable, the production’s lighting designer and member of the original creative team, claimed that working on Love Never Dies almost led her to quit the theatre industry.
During its 35 year run, 40 actresses have played Christine on Broadway (this number includes alternates but excludes understudies). Only three principal actresses cast as Christine have been WOC:
– Sandra Joseph (half Lebanese) played the role for over 1300 performances (1998-2006)
– Ali Ewoldt (half Filipina) became the first Asian-American actress to play Christine (2016-2018)
– Emilie Kouatchou was the first Black actress to play Christine, first as an understudy in 2021 and then full time beginning in 2022
Other POC Broadway cast members of note:
– Kevin Gray (half Chinese) was the first Asian-American actor to play Raoul (1990) as well as the first Asian-American actor to play the Phantom (he was also the youngest actor to play the Phantom on Broadway)
– Norm Lewis was the first Black actor to play the Phantom (2014)
– Kanisha Marie Feliciano was the first Latina actress and the second Black actress to play Christine in 2022 (she was not included in the above list because she is an understudy, not a principal)
– Jordan Donica was the first Black actor to play Raoul in 2016
– Rodney Ingram was the first Latino actor to play Raoul in 2017
– Patricia Phillips became the first Black principal cast member when she played Carlotta in 2003
– Nehal Joseph became the first Indian-American principal cast member when he played Monsieur Andrew in 2022
Other POC cast members of non-Broadway productions:
– Robert Guillaume played the Phantom in the Los Angeles sit down production (1990)
– Margaret Ann Gates played Christine in the Toronto sit down production (1997-1999)
– Caitlin Finnie (half Chinese) played Christine in the international tour (2020)
– Lucy St. Louis was the first Black actress to play Christine in the West End production (2021)
Some company members have been with the show since the beginning. 11 of the 27 orchestra members have been with Phantom since it opened in 1988. Unlike principal actors who have short term contracts which must be renewed, full time members of the orchestra have a “run of show” agreement which guarantees their jobs until the production closes. Lowell Hershey, a trumpet player who has been with the show since the beginning, said that when the show opened, “There were some wide-eyed optimists who thought the show could run as long as five to six years. And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that would be really good.’”
Clarinetist Ed Matthew said that when he started playing on Broadway in 1994, he made about $140 a night. As of this month, the base wage for a musician at Phantom is about $291 per show. Broadway musicians may play up to eight shows a week and are required to attend at least 50 percent of the shows per quarter, according to union rules. This allows some musicians to work side gigs for extra money and to pursue passion projects.
There are five substitute musicians on call for each Broadway chair. Although substitutes receive the same union benefits as full-time chairs, they lack the consistency of an eight-show week.Some subs have been filling in at Phantom for over a decade. Being a sub can sometimes lead to joining the pit full-time.
Richard Poole has been an ensemble member for 25 years. He said, “I got the gig of a lifetime. There’s no other way to describe it. It’s given me the ability to have security, to plan ahead. It gives me discipline and structure in my life, and it gives me a constant way to maintain my craft.”
Alan Lampel, the head electrician, has been with the show since it opened. He is the one who wired the famous chandelier and has kept it lit since 1988. Every night before each show, he and the stagehands inspect all of the illuminated aspects of the show, from the candles and candelabras to the 1,200-pound chandelier with 56 bulbs. During the show, he runs the light board. Phantom was one of the first shows where the electrician worked from the audience with a clear view of the stage instead of running the console from the basement.
His official job is maintaining the show’s lighting design on a daily basis but he’s also the person responsible for the fog during the iconic boat scene, which is no simple feat even after 35 years. The theater has many seasonal microclimates (described by Alan as air conditioning, air conditioning with some outside air, no air conditioning with outside air), and doing his job means becoming obsessed with details beyond his area of expertise: monitoring the air quality, tracking the water levels of six 55-gallon machines, handling 400 pounds of dry ice for every performance so the fog is sufficiently foggy.
Over the years, the technology used to run the show has changed. The lighting board used to run on floppy discs and he used to manually play a sequence of strobe lights. Before Phantom, the longest theater job lasted 35 weeks. When he was hired for Phantom, he had no idea that it would be his last theater job. When the show closes on Sunday, 66 year old Lampel will retire.
On Friday night, Phantom held a special charity performance which raised $645,000 for Broadway Bridges (an initiative of The Broadway League, The American Theatre Wing’s Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative, The Hal Prince Fellowship (in association with Columbia University School), and The Stephen Sondheim Foundation. In addition, several costumes and props from the show are being auctioned online and proceeds will benefit the same four organizations. If you’ve ever wanted to swan around the house wearing Christine’s dressing gown or the Phantom’s cloak, you can bid here (or just look at the pictures while your bank account tells you that you can’t afford any of these items). Former Broadway Christines Sarah Brightman, Sierra Boggess, and Ali Ewoldt made an appearance at the charity performance (but did not sing together).
The same monkey music box has been with the Broadway production for 21 years (there is one backup monkey but they’ve never had to use it). You would think at some point in 35 years a crew member would have given the monkey a name, but according to Matt Mezick, who was the head of props for Phantom at the Majestic for 21 years before recently moving over to New York, New York, they have always just referred to it as the monkey (the stage cue to start the music is “go for the monkey”).
Jonathan Allen, assistant to Phantom of the Opera scenic designer Maria Björnson said that after technical rehearsals and previews began, he got the same note from Maria that said simply: “The monkey’s hair.” When he asked her why she kept giving him this note about the monkey’s hair, she said, “You always get it wrong.” He restyled the monkey’s hair into its now signature look. Every night before the show begins, the monkey’s hair gets a touch up: He has a spike up, the spikes to the left and right, and then the two cheeks. So, every night, he had a little grooming session.”
“People don’t appreciate what a complex piece it really is,” says Allen. “It’s a remote-controlled mechanical monkey that also transmits sound that’s played in the pit.” The props team turns it on and off via remote control; that’s what starts the arms to open and close as if the monkey is clapping his cymbals. The tune (again, “Masquerade”) is played on a keyboard live from the pit, but is transmitted to the monkey so that it seems like the music box is actually playing the tune. Allen says they originally tried an intake recorder inside the music box, but it proved unreliable.
In 2012, the national tour production was changed substantially. The sets were redone, the orchestra was reduced, and many of the costumes looked noticeably cheaper. People feared that this meant the Broadway show would be changed, partly because Cameron Mackintosh has taken the approach with several other shows in the past including Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, and Cats, all of which had longstanding productions close and then reopen a few years later with the shittier tour production sets and costumes. When the West End production of Phantom reopened in 2021 after the pandemic closure, the orchestra was reduced from 27 musicians to only 14 and the sets were noticeably changed. Barely a year later, the Broadway production announced it would be closing and many people predicted that Mackintosh would follow the same routine (close the show and then reopen with changes already used on tour and in the West End). And sure enough, both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh have already said that “of course” Phantom will return to Broadway.
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ONTD, who was your favorite Phantom and Christine?