Lyric Opera of the North hosts ‘Pharewell to Phantom’ party

DULUTH, MN. (Northern News Now) -- After 35 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical ‘Phantom of the Opera’ closed its Broadway run Sunday evening.

At its closing time, ‘Phantom’ is Broadway’s longest-running production, with nearly 14,000 performances.

New York City honored and thanked Webber with a key to the city.

While that final performance was happening in New York City, a local celebration of the milestone performance was happening in Duluth.

Lyric Opera of the North, also known as LOON hosted a “Pharewell to Phantom” event at Greysolon.

The event featured performances of songs from the musical as well as a photo booth and a chandelier pinata, paying homage to the musical’s iconic set piece.

LOON leaders said there are many local connections to Phantom of the Opera.

Marni Raab, a performer in the final Broadway company, will be directing LOON’s summer opera production and LOON’s artistic director Sarah Lawrence was a company member in the third national U.S. tour of Phantom for several years.

“We’re celebrating just this historic event, we thought it would be a fun reason to have a party. There’s a lot of people who love Phantom of the Opera, and a lot of those people have never even been to an opera or been to an opera here and we’re interested in talking about some of the ways those things interact,” Lawrence said.

LOON’s summer opera, Cavalleria Rusticana will be on June 9th and 11th.

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