The performance period of most Broadway shows are open, unless they are limited engagement performances. In another words, depending on the popularity, shows continue to run year after year. The longest running musical is CATS. It opened in October 7, 1982, and closed September 10, 2000. It ran for 18 long years and was performed 7485 times.

The Phantom of the Opera
The winner of Best Musical in 1988. It is the masterpiece in the masterpieces of Broadway musical. It is the longest running musical on current Broadway. It has been more than 17 years since it opened on January 1988. The popularity remains very strong and it still is the most popular show on Broadway. It's a musical drama, based on the classic novel "Le Fantome de l'Opera" by Gaston Leroux.

The story sets at Paris Opera House in 1880’s. A masked figure that lurks beneath the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit it. He falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano. It's an offensive and defensive battle between the Phantom and her lover and supporters. The original story, published in 1911, was written based on the mysterious phenomena happened in the Paris Opera House in the 1880’s. In Broadway version, some grotesqueries in original are veiled with romanticism.? It is directed outstandingly with beautiful and mysterious visual expression.
In this musical, it is not overstating to say that the highlight is the whole show. Andrew Lloyd Webber who wrote the CATS, another masterpiece on Broadway, composed memorable music. And Maria Bjornson who worked with Royal Shakespeare Company designed the spectacular Scenic and Costume.
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The Phantom of Opera is closely connected with the Untied States. The original book was hardly noticed in France at the time it was published. It became known to the world when it was made into the motion picture in United States in 1925. In another words, the success of Phantom of the Opera is credited to the Untied States.