Andrew Lloyd Webber, the famed composer, dedicated the final Broadway performance of “Phantom of the Opera” to his late son, Nicholas, on Sunday. “Phantom,” Broadway’s longest-running show, closed less than a month after Nick died. It was a “season of goodbyes, personal and public,” Lloyd Webber wrote in a new New York Times essay.
Lloyd Webber begins the essay by recalling his last visit with his son, Nick, who was in hospice care. “The next day, my son died,” he says.
Nick Webber, a Grammy-nominated composer and record producer, died of gastric cancer and pneumonia in March. He was the 43-year-old son of Lloyd Webber and his first wife, Sarah Hugill.
“Nothing is more heartbreaking for a parent than the death of a child.” “In my bones, I feel it’s wrong to write about the end of ‘Phantom’ or where Broadway is going right now,” Lloyd Webber writes. “But I’ll try.”
Lloyd Webber is the creator of 13 Broadway musicals, including “Cats,” “Evita,” and the current production “Bad Cinderella.” He revealed that in 1985, he was inspired to write a musical based on the book “The Phantom of the Opera,” which he accomplished with the help of his late friend and collaborator, Hal Prince.
The show ran for a record-breaking 35 years. “It’s a personal loss to see the end of this wonderful creation, the last Hal Prince Broadway production, with its nearly 30-piece orchestra and one of the grandest designs ever seen in the theater.” The irony is that this season was the best yet. “Perhaps it will reappear,” he writes.
Lloyd Webber stated that Broadway is not doomed, but that it must improve. He claims that ticket prices are too high and that theater conditions, such as restroom wait times during intermission, must improve, and that theater unions must assist in this effort. “It’s in their members’ best interests to keep Broadway healthy and vibrant.” He writes, “The way multiple union contracts drive up the costs of Broadway shows is unsustainable.”
After being closed for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters took a significant hit in March 2020. According to CBS New York, many shows were still seeing a decrease in ticket sales and empty seats last year, but Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin said at the time that “the rumors of our death are wildly exaggerated.”
Nonetheless, many shows have struggled to stay on the air.
“With the curtain now down in New York on the musical that has been the most successful of my career,” he writes, “I fervently hope that Broadway rediscovers the appetite for new scores and original work that enthralled me when I was, as Hal always called me, a kid.”
Lloyd Webber joined the curtain call during the final performance of “Phantom,” according to CBS New York. “I hope you won’t mind if I dedicate this performance to my son,” he explained.
“Nick, we love you very much,” said Sarah Brightman, who played Christine in 1986 and was married to Lloyd Webber from 1984 to 1990.
