Could The Phantom of the Opera be returning to New York City in the near future? Andrew Lloyd Webber teased a return of his hit show with a letter "from the Opera Ghost" in the video below.
"He wasn't happy about the closure of his legend on Broadway," Lloyd Webber said. "He did intimate that he might be moving to what he feels is a better address in New York, in a better area."
Phantom closed on Broadway in 2023 after a history-making 35 years. In the past year, there's been rumors of the Opera Ghost making his return to New York, potentially in a drastically reimagined and immersive production of the musical modeled on Sleep No More. Indeed, in the video, Lloyd Webber is standing in front of 218 W. 57th St., a building located down the street from Carnegie Hall that used to house Lee's Art Shop. The front windows of the building have now been covered with vintage-style broadsheets about the Paris Opera House. In recent weeks, a website for the potential Phantom experience called . No official news has been released about the opening date.
But Lloyd Webber's video serves as a confirmation that Phantom is indeed returning to New York. Watch Lloyd Webber's video below, where he says, unequivocally, "he's back."
For those living outside of NYC, a North American tour of Phantom will begin November of this year.
The Phantom of the Opera has music by Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart (with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe), and a book by Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber. Phantom opened in the West End in 1986 and then on Broadway in 1988, where it won seven 1988 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It remains the longest-running show in Broadway history, offered its final "Masquerade" April 16, 2023, when the famed chandelier descended for the last time as the Tony-winning musical played its 13,981th performance at the Majestic Theatre.
A scaled-down version of the original production, with a smaller orchestra and redesigned sets, reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown in London's West End. It features direction by Seth Sklar-Heyn, based on the celebrated original direction by Harold Prince with choreography by Gillian Lynne, recreated and adapted by Chrissie Cartwright. The staging also features production design by Maria Bj枚rnson, redesigned by Matt Kinley. Phantom is still running at the Her Majesty's Theatre, along with several international tours and sit-down productions.
