To glance behind

Is Dear wife and I's favorite line in the musical The Phantom of the Opera. It's a kind of inside joke between us.

Phantom, the Andrew Lloyd Webber created musical just broke the record of Cats as the longest running musical ever. I like Phantom but never cared for Cats. Before marrying my wife, I was not into music at all. My interests consisting of movie/television theme songs and James Bond music. That changed with my marriage.

I've grown to enjoy musicals and certain singers. My favorite musical CDs are Miss Saigon, Les Miserables and Fiddler on the Roof. I've seen MS 6 times, Fiddler and Les Mis twice. One time I saw Fiddler when the local philharmonic was on strike making the show 'Piano on the Roof'. Giving new meaning to when Tevye says 'There were even musicians there'.

Phantom has a problem common to many of Webber's musicals. Its half a musical. The second half drags. Other than Masquerade, the music is not very good. This also happens in Webber musicals Sunset Blvd and Whistle Down the Wind. Don't even get me started on Cats, one good doesn't carry a show for me.

My brother-in-law who was a cruise ship musician says the same thing. I think Webber and most of his musicals are overrated.

Hat tip- Poliblog
Open Post- TMH's Bacon Bits, Outside the Beltway

The 7,468th performance of the award-winning show in New York overtook the record set by Cats, another of Lord Lloyd-Webber's shows.

The 57-year-old said he was finding the "overwhelming" fact hard to take in.

The musical, which opened in London in 1986, has been seen by more than 80m people worldwide.

"There is no formula for success in musical theatre. It's just one of those things - it happened," he told BBC News 24.

"So I don't really know...I think it's a primal tale, it's highly romantic. I think most people feel there's something about themselves that they'd like to alter in their physical appearance, and perhaps they relate to the phantom for that reason.

The show's producer, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, said: "The musical is a kind of beauty-and-the-beast story. It appeals to everyone because it is about an impossible love, which I think many of us have had."

'Extraordinary' feat

The musical is also the most successful entertainment venture of all time, with worldwide box office takings of more than $3.2bn (£1.8bn).

This greatly exceeded the $1.2bn (£670m) taken by Titanic, the world's highest-earning movie.

More than 65,000 performances of Phantom of the Opera have been staged in 119 cities in 24 countries.
The only thing that has hit me is it's an achievement I'll never be able to top

Andrew Lloyd Webber

"The extraordinary thing, which is a bit overwhelming, is that it's my own show that I'm taking the record off, which I never thought would happen to me in my career at all," Lord Lloyd-Webber said.

"The only thing that has hit me is it's an achievement I'll never be able to top."

A gala performance took place on Monday, followed by a masked ball at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel attended by original star Michael Crawford.

Lord Lloyd-Webber's ex-wife Sarah Brightman, the first singer to play female lead Christine, was unable to attend the event due to recording commitments.

Phantom of the Opera opened in January 1988 with a then-record advance of $18m (£10m) - but Lord Lloyd-Webber said he could not have guessed the scale of its US success.