West End's 'Phantom' has not closed for good according to production group

While its producer announced yesterday that it would be closing for good, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group has moved to crush reports that The Phantom of the Opera has closed permanently and has insisted the “brilliant original” will be returning to the West End.

RUG president Jessica Koravos told The Stage that when Cameron Mackintosh said that Phantom had closed permanently, he was incorrect, and that the show was only being closed to allow works to be carried out to both the show’s set and the theatre where it has been performed for 34 years. She told the news outlet:

“What Cameron was meaning to say is, we have closed down the production entity that has been that [production of] The Phantom of the Opera for 34 years, and closed down the physical production. Even before the pandemic hit, we were already in a process of going carefully through the physical production, some parts of it already having been decommissioned,” she said, adding: “There are systems in that set you could not get the replacement parts for me any more – they just aren’t made after 34 years.”

Ms. Koravos also confirmed that all previous contracts, including cast and crew, have been terminated.

“Unlike some other shows that can say they will reopen as soon as social distancing ends, we have these other issues which means we are not able to give people a date, and so could not in all good faith keep people hanging on for a genuinely unknown length of time,” she said.

As of right now, there is no planned date for when the show will reopen.

“I wish I could say it’s coming back and here’s when, but I can’t because of the layer of variables with the set and the building and the pandemic. But what I can say on behalf of RUG and Andrew is we will bring it back – we just can’t tell you when at this point in time,” she said.

Earlier this week, Mr. Mackintosh had written an op-ed where he declared that the show had closed permanently and pleaded with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to increased funding to theatres and reopen them without social distancing.

“Theatres aren’t meant to be dark, so please, Boris: “Curtain up, light the lights, we have nothing to hit but the heights”, he said. We are all raring to go back to work. But we need the money to survive and a realistic period of time to plan wisely so that the curtain stays up once we reopen. We are fed up of no business, we want to be back in show business.”

The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of Christine Daaé, a soprano who becomes the object of a masked figure’s affections in an underground lair at Paris Opera House.

It has won multiple awards – including the Tony for Best Musical in 1988 – and originally featured Sarah Brightman (then Andrew Lloyd Webber’s wife) as Christine and Michael Crawford as the Phantom.

With lyrics penned by Charles Hart, popular songs from the musical include ‘All I Ask of You’, ‘The Music of the Night’ and ‘Masquerade’.