‘Phantom of the Opera’ closes — and another NYC landmark is gone

nypost.com:

“Phantom” would finally end its storied run, ticket sales exploded. During the final two months, the musical has returned to being the highest-grossing production on Broadway, not to mention the hottest ticket in town — despite being more than three decades old.

The hoopla harkens back to January 1988 when “Phantom,” starring a then-unknown-in-America Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, opened with deafening fanfare and became an impossible ticket.

Future President Donald Trump snagged one for the big night. “Donald Trump showed up alone,” The Post’s Cindy Adams wrote the next morning. “Despite the wind howling and the snow falling and the temperature freezing, Donald posed for photographers from England.” Cindy added: “The show has an $18 million advance.

Thus it’s inversely chic to knock it.”Indeed, opening a musical on Broadway is always high-pressure, but especially for a team that had already brought hit after hit to the Great White Way.“The whole show came with such an expectation at that point,” Mackintosh, 76, said, citing his track record of 1982’s “Cats” and 1987’s “Les Misérables.” “But it was amazing to see how American audiences completely fell in love with it.