Phantom of the Opera outfoxes "Cats" for longest running Broadway show

The Phantom of the Opera is not dead-at least, not if Andrew Lloyd Webber has anything to say about it. "The Phantom of the Opera," which opened Jan. 26, 1988, has continued on for nearly 18 years, earning over $3.2 billion worldwide, with the end still nowhere in sight. "Phantom" deposed another Webber project, "Cats," as the longest-running Broadway musical Monday night, with performance number 7,486; "Cats" closed with 7,485 performances in September 2000. Lloyd Webber, whose credits also include "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita," cited Phantom's success to not only the introduction of the musical to the next generation via the film and DVD release, but to the strong foundations of the musical itself: "I think there isn't another musical that has been written in the last two decades or so, which has a plot that is so escapist, that allows high romance to happen," said Lloyd Webber.