A full house that featured the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, members of the original 1988 Broadway cast, theater industry bigwigs and Phans decked out in masks and capes gathered at the Majestic Theater on Sunday for the final performance of “The Phantom of the Opera.”
The sumptuous musical, with its soaring score and gothic drama, is the longest-running production in Broadway history: The final performance, which was to begin at 5 p.m. Sunday, was number 13,981.
Hours before the curtain, fans began to gather behind barricades across the street, waving and taking pictures and hoping somehow to score a spare ticket. Among them was Lexie Luhrs, 25, of Washington, in full Phantom regalia: black cape, homemade mask, plus fedora, vest and bowtie, as well as mask earrings and a mask necklace. “I’m here to celebrate the show that means so much to us,” Luhrs said.
The Broadway run was, obviously, enormously successful, playing to 20 million people and grossing $1.36 billion since…
This article was written by Michael Paulson and originally published on www.nytimes.com