Happy 25h Birthday, Phantom of the Opera!

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Today marks the 25th anniversary of this amazing show's run on Broadway! Let's look forward to another amazing 25 years!

[dramamama611]

Then why would I wish it Happy Birthday?

[TheGingerBreadMan]

.................

Because it's the shows birthday...........

.................

[dramamama611]

No, it has an anniversary. Not a birthday.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

It's both.

Why are you arguing, can we not just be happy for the show?

[dramamama611]

No. On all accounts.

It's just silly. On all accounts.

[backwoodsbarbie]

Whether you like the show or not, it has employed a lot of hard working actors and crew for all these years.

[singtopher]

A musical running for 25 years is no small accomplishment. My congrats to everyone involved.

[suestorm]

Ginger breadman. Just ignore the debbiedowner....I am thrilled too.going to see it for the second time next month just to see the amazing Sierra! !!!

[Wynbish]

The musical itself is not 25, but the Broadway version is.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Wynbish, I stated that it is the anniversary of the Broadway run in the original post.

[SNAFU]

Ah, but look at the Title of said post!

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Though this is the Broadway board, not the West End board. If I was indicating the original production, I would have posted this on the West End board. Thus it should be implied that I mean the Broadway production.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

NBC Nightly News had a nice item about it last night.

[Wynbish]

Yeah! Thus!

[lupone76]

Happy B'day, Phantom!!! While I think and appreciate you as a good show, I have no idea how your still around 25 yrs later. There are many shows that I feel are far better than you and don't last nearly as long. Well, Phantom you are no longer a broadway show, but a Broadway Institution and I'm sure your little brother from Disney will follow in your tradition. Here's to another 25 years.

[supersam1026]

On the bus home and still need time to gather thoughts, but it was an incredible night!! Show didn't start until 6:50 (ticket said 6:30) due to a video before the show. Sierra Boggess was amazing, her "Woshing You Were Somehow Here Again" is worth the price of admission alone! Once the show ended there was about 35 minutes of speeches and encores. Cameron Macintosh and Hal Prince did most of the talking. Then came the encores, same idea as the filmed version, Phantom into Music of the Noght. Sierra Bogess did the Christine part despite Sarah Brightman being there, the Phantom was split between Hugh Panaro, John Owen Jones, Peter Jobak, and Ramin Karimloo!! Great way to end a fantastic night and I'm glad I was able to get a ticket!

[backwoodsbarbie]

I was there as well. Sierra and Hugh were fantastic but the hardcore "Phans" ruined some of the enjoyment for me. They yelled and screamed after every number and it was just too much. I get that they are super fans and its a celebration but save that for the end. The screaming took me out of the atmosphere and made me feel like I was at Madison Square Garden and not a theatre. Then, a fight almost broke out up in the mezzanine when a woman wouldnt sit down during the 4 Phantoms at the end. Then the woman proceeded to boo every time Michael Crawford was mentioned because she was so miffed that he wasn't there. Otherwise it was fantastic!

[wskrs4]

I was in the front mezz and definitely wondered what the noise was about but couldn't hear that it was an almost fight. I will say due to the crazy amount of cheering the show never seemed to really pick up momentum tonight, but that's ok. Tonight was less about a flawless show and more about celebration. I don't know if anyone else saw Trista Moldovan but I actually thought she was better than Sierra. That said, Sierra had a great show and Hugh Panaro had the best show as the Phantom that I've seen him do (I saw him as Raoul and personally prefer him there, though he's too old now).

Off on a tangent I went.... a great night and I'm so happy Hal Prince and Cameron Mackintosh were able to make it, and I hope ALW knows he was missed!

[Visceral_Fella]

Congratulations to all involved.

[DEClarke]

I would have loved to be there. PoTO holds a very special place for me. It was the first show I got to pick for my family to see. No one in my family was interested, but they let me pick the show and we saw it on tour in 1996 at Jones Hall in Houston. It was blissful and we all loved it. I've seen it on tour about 7 times since. I hope to see it in NYC some day.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Congrats to the entire company and crew! Just got back from the gala at the NYPL, which was gorgeous!

[kec]

"Then came the encores, same idea as the filmed version, Phantom into Music of the Noght. Sierra Bogess did the Christine part despite Sarah Brightman being there, the Phantom was split between Hugh Panaro, John Owen Jones, Peter Jobak, and Ramin Karimloo!! Great way to end a fantastic night and I'm glad I was able to get a ticket!"

Was on twitter before I came here and was delighted to read John Owen Jones' tweet that he had been in NY for this event. Kind of glad to read Sierra Bogess did the Christine part; I was not crazy about SB's performance in the London event. Wonder why Michael Crawford wasn't there.

[best12bars]

I'm glad to see Sarah and Andrew aren't like George and Martha from Virginia Woolf.

They seem to have a deep respect and genuine fondness for each other.

I'm sorry their marriage didn't work out, but they seem like good friends now.



LINK

[metropolis10111]

I wonder if Phantom will hit 30...

[ACL2006]

I don't see why not. it continues to do solid business. It just doesn't have another milestone until it's 30th anniversary. 7 years ago(Jan 9, 2006 to be exact) it passed Cats to become the longest running Broadway show. 5 years ago it celebrated it's 20th anniversary. last year it celebrated it's 10,000 show(on Feb 11, 2012 to be exact). They really don't have anything to celebrate for another 5 years.