Phantom of The Opera Celebrates 30 Year Milestone

The Phantom of the Opera celebrated 30 years on Broadway on January 24th with a very special performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber smash hit at the Majestic Theatre.Before the performance, there was a red carpet event hosted by musical’s acclaimed former ‘Christine’, and Phantom alumni Sierra Boggess and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s daughter Imogen Lloyd Webber.Previous Phantom alumni were present at the Wednesday night performance including the original Christine Daaé, Sarah Brightman who offered up a surprise post show performance of the musical’s title song with the current Phantom, Peter Jöback and cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's other broadway hit musical, School of Rock.Following Brightman’s performance, the original cast of the musical came on stage to sing happy birthday to not only the Phantom of the Opera, but also to Hal Prince, the original director and producer of the musical who turned 90 years old on January 30th and who was also present on stage with the cast, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh.

Phantom of the Opera also paired with the Empire State Building for a special Music-To-Light show during the Gala party following the anniversary performance. At 11PM, a custom-designed light show was lit at the top of the tower synched to a special arrangement of music from Phantom of the Opera. Not only was the show be completely visible to party guests with a clear view from Rainbow Room where the after party was taking place, but to all New Yorkers looking up at the skyscraper. Before the light show, the Empire State Building was lit in blue and white in honor of the 30th Anniversary. Since its opening in 1988, The Phantom of the Opera, based on the french novel “Le Fantome de l’Opera” by Gaston Leroux, set a record advance of $18 million, has performed in front of 18 million people in New York City alone and is the only broadway musical to celebrate a 30 year anniversary milestone.

It was the winner of seven Tony awards including Best Musical, seven Drama Desk awards and three Outer Critic Circle awards.In January 2006, Phantom of the Opera surpassed Cats to become the longest running show in Broadway history with 7,486 performances. It’s next milestone will be in February 2018 with its 12,500th performance.Over the course of 30 years on broadway, 400 actors have appeared on the Majestic theatre stage. Each night it takes 125 cast, crew, orchestra and house employees to put on the legendary musical.Fifteen actors have donned the iconic Phantom mask but Howard McGillin holds the record of being Broadway’s longest running Phantom with 2,500 performances. Between these fifteen actors, there have been 300 custom made Phantom masks and 12,484 sets of foam latex have been used in the 90 min application process of the Phantom’s deformity.

Additionally there have been 230 costumes and 111 wigs used in the show every night and the production has gone through over 7,000 pointe shoes for the famous ballet combination number.The original broadway cast recording of the Phantom of the Opera has sold over 40 million copies worldwide which makes it the best selling cast recording of all time.In 160 cities and 35 countries, over 140 million have experienced The Phantom of the Opera worldwide giving a whole new meaning to the Music of the Night.