In an article today in the Evening Standard, Cameron Mackintosh announced that he has had to permanently shut down both the UK touring and West End productions of The Phantom Of The Opera.
As a result of the coronavirus crisis, Cameron Mackintosh said he has had to undergo an ‘awful (and) distressing’ downsizing of his organisation, and has had to come to the difficult decision to close The Phantom Of The Opera alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber.
He spoke of the difficulties around re-opening, saying that his productions will need at least four months to re-start their productions, as it will take time to build audience confidence, get bookings up and get performers back on top form.
The Phantom Of The Opera has been running at Her Majesty’s Theatre since October 1986 and won more than 70 major theatre awards.
Cameron Mackintosh said he and Andrew Lloyd Webber are “determined to bring it back to London in the future”.
Update:
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group has clarified news on The Phantom Of The Opera, saying that the iconic musical will in fact be returning to the West End after this period of closure.
Jessica Koravos, president of Really Useful Group, told The Stage that the show is being closed to allow work to be carried out on the show’s set and on Her Majesty’s Theatre, where it has been running for 34 years.
Really Useful Group knew that they would have to refresh the set – some parts of which simply weren’t built to last the three and a half decades they have survived so far – but planned this a few years down the line. However, with the forced closure due to the pandemic, they realised that it made sense to start the work sooner, rather than to have two periods of closure.
So Phantom will be back, unchanged, as soon as they can!