Originally published at: Final bow for 'Phantom of the Opera' after 35 years on Broadway | Boing Boing
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Just thinking about Brightman’s performance in the original cast recording gives me chills. That’s what I was listening to instead of grunge for much of the 90s.
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Thank fucking god
I was thinking like classic rock bands announcing retirement. Even lead singers dying can’t stop the comebacks. How much ya wanna bet this comes back as a revival in a couple years? Ha.
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I don’t wish to spoil anyone else’s enjoyment of ALW, but…
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I do love me some musicals but the only Andrew Loyd Weber production I enjoyed, and I think I was the only one, was Whistle Down The Wind.
But that was mostly because the lyrics were written by Jim Steinman and several of the songs were recorded by Meatloaf.
This American Life did a great piece about this, focusing on the musicians in the orchestra pit. We never think about them, but these are people who have been playing the same ten songs, six nights a week, for thirty five years.
There are hilarious stories of trying not to kill each other and trying not to go insane. One violinist describes himself as, “I am not a musician. I am a violin operator”. 
They kept doing it of course, because there are precious few ways to make a genuinely stable living in this world as a classical musician. They don’t dare give it up, but be careful what you wish for.
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I heard that last week… very interesting!
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