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Video: Go Inside the Epic Final Performance of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
May 17, 2024
Broadway's longest-running show ever, The Phantom of the Opera, took its final Broadway bow on April 16, 2023, after a 35-year run and BroadwayWorld was there for the red carpet. Check out highlights from the red carpet and curtain call in this video!
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0:00
Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
0:02
The chandelier will descend one final time in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera
0:07
tonight at the Majestic Theatre. And we're here on the red carpet to celebrate the show's 35 year history
0:15
Welcome back to the closing. How does it feel tonight for you? It feels a bit confusing actually
0:21
because I don't think that it should be closing. I mean, this show, it's kind of universal
0:28
Everybody loves the show all over the world. So I'm sure that this is only a moment in time
0:35
and that it will come back shinier and newer and just as beautiful because people want it
0:42
Everybody all over the world seems to really identify with all the characters, the messages it's giving out
0:49
about the human soul really and our vulnerability as human beings and the things we all go through
0:56
So I think it's here for good. It's one of those evergreens
1:00
Do you have a favorite moment of working on this with like Hal Prince and working on this show originally
1:07
The whole time that we were working with Hal and Gilly and all of them was
1:13
and Andrew, it's just been such a pleasure. It's like you had all these wonderful people
1:18
with all this talent that just knew exactly what to do and it ran through like a train
1:23
It was beautiful. Wonderful, wonderful experience, the rehearsals. Cameron, what does today mean to you, sir
1:29
It's thrilling. I mean, to have had a show run this long and be such a success and going out as triumphant
1:35
as it came in is a schoolboy's dream and I'm so proud of this fabulous company
1:42
and how Broadway has embraced this show for so long and Phantom's great and will always be great
1:49
and I'm sure Phantom's disappear but then they reappear. Tonight is the final performance here, 35 years later
1:58
I mean, how do you prep for something like that? Like what's gonna be going through your mind
2:02
as you get backstage, you get ready? Well, the pressure is enormous, I must say
2:08
and so I think the only way to prep for it is just to keep it light as one of my castmates said to me
2:15
and treat it like any other show but of course it won't be any other show
2:20
I will be doing my very best to absolutely, to do the best performance of my life today
2:25
and I hope I'm able to do something along those lines. There's an enormous feeling of melancholy, I have to say
2:32
because we love this show so much and we have been feeling how much New York
2:38
and the world loves this production. It's been a very, very special home for so many of us
2:44
and I think we're just feeling a deep sense of gratitude and a real sense of an end of an era
2:52
What's your favorite part of the Phantom family? The fans, the fans are amazing
2:58
and there are people that come every single week that we see at stage door and we're like
3:03
hey, thank you for coming, who just support and love the show
3:09
And just like today, having all the alumni here and everything else, it's Sarah Brightman
3:15
I just saw her, she looks amazing, first of all. She is so lovely
3:22
It's just, it's beautiful, right? You know, the full circle, like the beginning
3:26
and then the end and I'm just lucky to be a part of it
3:30
You know, what is so beautiful is that they embrace the newcomers because I'm one of the babies in this company
3:35
and so you walk in the door and everybody welcomes you and you become part of the legacy of this show
3:44
and that is truly so special. Well, my first performance was, I was Christine, last century in Australia
3:52
So I have a long history, so I kind of got a little older and a little wiser
3:58
and now I get to play her mom. For you, your first performance
4:03
I remember it was a reopening night after the pandemic, was my first performance here
4:08
I was supposed to start before the pandemic but we know how that turned out
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and that was very emotional. How excited are you to be here tonight
4:17
for this final closing performance? Richie, I'm excited but I'm also sad
4:22
and it's been an incredibly emotional day. I didn't expect to feel this amount of emotion but I do
4:30
It's really, this is the end of an era, you know? You have quite a history with this show
4:36
Do you remember your first performance on stage as Christine? You're gonna make me cry
4:41
I remember the, even more than that, I remember the dress rehearsal
4:45
I remember the first time that I ever rode the remote control boat
4:50
Spoiler alert, it's a remote control. Spoilers don't matter anymore, ah! I remember that and I remember feeling just so elated
5:00
I started jumping up and down. I remember seeing the smoke on the ground for the first time
5:06
and feeling just like, oh my God, I'm part of this. I've been crying for about 24 hours
5:14
This is a big deal and I wouldn't miss it for anything. I actually took the red eye home so I could make it
5:20
yeah, very excited. When did your history with Phantom begin and who did you play
5:24
I was Christine Daae. I reopened Broadway but actually it began in Love Never Dies actually first
5:29
and then the world tour and then Broadway. I have a lot of history with her
5:34
Favorite moment in Phantom for you is what? It's so hard to choose from but reopening night on Broadway
5:41
That was historic and once in a lifetime. How excited are you to be here tonight, sir
5:46
I am beyond excited. I am thrilled, I am moved. I have seen people I haven't seen in 25 years
5:54
and I'm so grateful to be invited to this night. This was the biggest part of my life
6:03
and I thank Hal Prince and Andrew Lloyd Webber and everyone that got me to this place
6:08
Like two years, I mean six years, over 2,000 performances. The original Madame Giry
6:16
how does it feel to be here tonight? It's very emotional. I mean I feel the thrill of the early days of the show
6:29
We didn't know that it would be as fabulous as it turned out to be but it was and it still is
6:39
Remember your first performance on stage as Christine? Oh my goodness, January 29th I think it was
6:46
1998, right after the 10 year anniversary and I was here the night we broke the record
6:51
and became the longest running show of all time but to be able to be here tonight
6:55
to see the final curtain come down is just a dream really
7:01
I'm so excited, so proud to have been a part of this Phantom family
7:06
And for you, do you remember your first performance on stage? Oh my goodness, my first was as the Phantom
7:11
was at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 97? 97. Yeah, that was the first one and then LA after that
7:18
and a few other cities. But I've also been here so many times
7:21
as a cheerleader for my wife as she, I used to sit in box five where the Phantom famously sat
7:26
and just watch her kill it with Hugh Pinero, with Howard McGill and with so many
7:31
Thomas James O'Leary, so many wonderful Phantoms. How could we miss this
7:36
35 years, it just seems like in a blink of an eye
7:41
but we have to thank the founders of the show for writing such exquisite show
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with this exquisite storyline of unrequited love that everybody loves and it's so luscious and romantic
7:55
that I think it could run for another 35 years, don't you
7:58
I don't know why it's closing but Cameron's got something in mind, I'm sure
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