A "Phantom of the Opera" very resistant
"The Ghost of theOperaAndrew Lloyd Webber's musical comedy, based on Gaston Leroux's novel, beat the Broadway longevity record on Monday night after 18 years of uninterrupted career on the New York stage. The show won the record previously held by Lloyd Webber's "Cats," a show that followed the show, as well as a masked ball at the grand hotel Waldorf Astoria.
"I never thought anything else would ever beat Cats," the 57-year-old Briton Andrew Lloyd Webber told Playbill.com. Since its debut in New York in January 1988, the "Ghost" continues to drain the American crowds. In 18 years, eleven million spectators made the trip and $ 600 million (another record for Broadway) were raised. 2005 was the best year, with nearly $ 39 million in revenue.
On the world stage, the show, first played in London in 1986, holds the record for more than $ 3.2 billion (three times more than the "Titanic" film). 65,000 performances were given and more than 80 million spectators in 119 cities and 24 countries saw the play, which tells the story of a masked man who haunts the basement of theopera from Paris and falls in love with a young soprano.
Since Monday night, the five shows most shown on Broadway are "The Phantom of theOpera"(7,486 representations)," Cats "(7,485)," Les Misérables "(6,680)," Chorus Line "(6,137) and" Oh! Calcutta! "(5.959).
(Photo: a general view of Time Square - AFP MANDEL NGAN)
