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It's a wrenching number of times to relive a heartbreak. When the curtain rises Monday at the Majestic Theatre, it will mark the 7,486th time the caped Phantom ascends from the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera to terrorize those within it. Every night, the masked figure falls dangerously in love with the delicate soprano Christine and challenges a stalwart nobleman for her affections.
Broadway's Phantom does not survive unscathed, as 11 million theatergoers have seen since Jan. 26, 1988. But don't skulk away to an underground labyrinth in sympathy with the guy just yet.
Monday, "The Phantom of the Opera" surpasses "Cats" as the longest-running show in Broadway history, a category whose top two placeholders were composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and whose top three were produced by Cameron Mackintosh, whose "Les Misrables" ran for 6,680 performances. Already the highest-earning show ever on Broadway, "Phantom" will mark another milestone this month when its grosses top $600 million. For the week ending Dec. 31, "Phantom" took in $1.266 million (nine performances), its highest-grossing week ever and a house record for the Majestic Theatre.
Some 80 million theatergoers worldwide, in 119 cities and 24 countries, have cowered as the first act ends with a cascading chandelier. They've snapped up enough CDs afterward to propel Lloyd Webber's confections "All I Ask of You" and "Music of the Night" into the pantheon of show-tune standards.
Monday's record-breaking show will start early to give special guests time to attend a masquerade ball at the Waldorf-Astoria. Original Phantom Michael Crawford (who was not available to be interviewed) will be on hand, as will Lloyd Webber, Mackintosh and director Hal Prince. Lloyd Webber's ex-wife Sarah Brightman, who created the role of Christine in London and New York, won't.
The two romantic leads have been played by 21 actors in New York alone. Several of them recently reminisced about doing "Phantom."
Rebecca Luker
Took the lead role June 5, 1989
If Luker learned anything from her "Phantom" experience, it was patience. Hired to play the Princess and to understudy Christine with the original company, she did not take the stage in the lead for nine months, until Sept. 28, 1988.
Luker was given only a day's notice that star Brightman and alternate...