"Christine, You're Talking In Riddles!/And It's Not Like You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                Girls, I had to say something.

                                Pictured above is the complete company of the show on its last performance.

                               I saw "The Phantom Of The Opera" on Broadway on January 12, 1988, two weeks before its actual opening.  The show was set.  What I recall most is the chandelier rising at the opening and going out over the audience.  I thought if there is a technical glitch here.....I did not want to think about it.

                               I never imagined the show would run 35 years.  That is a record that in my lifetime will never be broken.  So attention must be paid.

                              I respected the show, though it never blew me away, as others have.  I have only seen it once, and for me that is enough.

                               I am sad for the closing, for altogether different reasons than what has been recounted.

                                Thirty-five years is a lifetime of work.  Hey, it was how long I worked at where I retired from.  A lifetime for actors, musicians, backstage workers, everyone on this show.  Gone.

                               And while everyone extols Andrew Lloyd Webber, and mourns the tragic loss of his son, let us not forget that this closing ends forever any stage imprint of......Harold Prince!

                               Webber wrote the music, Prince put the production up and running.  Yet he seems to be forgotten in the waves of tributes.

                                But not by me.

                                Goodbye, 'Phantom.'   You had the best run so far.

                                No matter what goes into the Majestic Theatre next--and something will--it will be impossible to live up to.

                               The end of an era, indeed.