Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hoary Broadway musical closed in 2023 after filling the Majestic Theater since 1988.
There was much rending of garments, a big send off, and a promise (or threat, depending on how you took it) they’d be back with a national tour.
Well, it’s exactly two years later and “Phantom” is coming back. But not to Broadway and not under its own name.
ALW has announced a show called “Masquerade,” an immersive experience, that will be just like “Phantom.”
It’s unclear what the “immersive” part will be, but ALW’s Really Useful Company is renovating the unoccupied old Lee’s Art Supply at Broadway and 57th St. They’re evidently turning it into a “faux” opera house, where audiences will feel like they’re part of the “Opera.”
“Masquerade” sounds like “Sleep No More,” or one of those gimmicky experiences that were so popular in the 1990s, like “Jekyll and Hyde” on Sixth Avenue.
What’s interesting is that “Masquerade” won’t be in a traditional Broadway Theater League theater. Maybe that accounts for changing the name. Will it be a union show? Will Actors Equity be involved? Or is this a clever workaround to be Broadway-adjacent and not pay the price for it? “Masquerade” will be physically on Broadway, but that could be where the connection ends.
Lee’s Art Supply building, built in 1896, was sold to Thor Equities in 2016 from the original family that owned it. Since then, it’s been empty. So this is pretty smart of Thor and ALW to repurpose a structure that looks a faux opera house already. Looking at it, you could imagine the Phantom of the Opera himself haunting the place for the last 129 years!
Will reconstituted “Masquerade” be a hit? Oh, yes. You know the show as international cult followers, and they’ll be putting on cloaks and masks and maybe even bringing their own chandeliers. How will “real” Broadway feel about all this? Not so good, I’ll bet. But this is why Andrew Lloyd Webber is really rich. Don’t cry for him!
