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The curtain is about to fall on Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" for the last time. On Friday, Sept. 16, it was confirmed via the Broadway show's official website that the musical will end its history-making run on Feb. 18, 2023, at Broadway's Majestic Theatre. "The Phantom of the Opera" is the longest-running production in Broadway history - on Jan. 26, the show will celebrate its 35th anniversary.

Currently, the production's cast includes Ben Crawford as The Phantom, Emilie Kouatchou as Christine, John Riddle as Raoul, Nehal Joshi as Monsieur André, and Craig Bennett as Monsieur Firmin. Seth Sklar-Heyn is the show's director and will remain so through its final run. By the time the show ends, it will have played 13,925 performances.

As reported by Playbill, the show's producer, Cameron Mackintosh, issued a statement about "The Phantom of the Opera"'s Broadway run coming to a close. (Popsugar has reached...

Three Broadway understudies Ben Crawford, Merwin Foard and Alena Watters are profiled in Stephanie Riggs' documentary The Standbys Sunchaser Entertainment -- 76 minutesNR. The DigiNext Films release, also featuring Broadway veterans and headliners Bebe Neuwirth and David Hyde Pierce, is available beginning today on Apple's iTunes platform for Hdsd purchase or rental. Fans of the movie can also purchase the original music soundtrack via iTunes, including individual tracks.

Disrespected by both audiences and the headliners who they're hired to step in for at a moment's notice, Broadway understudies get their own brief moment in the spotlight in The Standbys.

Director Stephanie Riggs's brief, amiable documentary focuses on three subjects, a wisely narrow gaze that affords genuine insight into the aspirations, struggles, and fleeting triumphs and failures of Ben Crawford, Merwin Foard, and Aléna Watters.

From stories about siblings' deaths and sleeping on couches to tales about being snubbed by producers who tend to forget they even exist and stars who'd do anything to avoid ceding the stage to a backup, the film captures the unshakable grip live performing has on these musical theater-lovers, as well as the personal and famil...

When director Stephanie Riggs attended a concert series of Broadway understudies and standbys a few years ago, she was blown away. “Their voices were so powerful, and they were so talented,” recalls Riggs. “And then they would tell these horrific and hilarious stories.”She immediately saw the potential for a film, and set to work on a documentary that would shed light on the unrecognized and unnoticed performers of Broadway. The result is “The Standbys,” which premieres on May 12 at the second annual Tony Awards Film Series. Both humorous and heartbreaking, the documentary follows Merwin Foard, Aléna Watters, and Ben Crawford, three performers who work as understudies, standbys, and swings, as they try to land lead roles on Broadway.For many Broadway hopefuls, working as a standby can be thrilling at first. Watters, who Riggs describes as the documentary’s “ingénue,” earned her first Broadway credit as a temporary standby in “West.