Actor Elizabeth Welch can’t imagine Broadway without “The Phantom of the Opera.” “The marquee itself is a New York landmark,” the Colorado native told The Denver Gazette.

But it’s true: The longest-running musical in Broadway history will be closing in February after 35 years at the Majestic Theatre. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s horror romance has been seen by nearly 20 million people and has grossed $1.3 billion on Broadway alone. Worldwide, it has been seen by 145 million in 40 countries.

And its roots run deep, from London and across the globe to right here in Colorado. The current Broadway company includes two Coloradans: Welch, who graduated from Rangeview High School in Aurora and the University of Colorado Boulder, plays Hannibal Princess and covers the leading role of Christine Daaé (a part she also sang in German with the company in Oberhausen). George Washington High School graduate Patricia Phillips made history when she became the first woman of color ever to play Carlotta.  

Denver East High School grad Rebecca Eichenberger has been in and out of the Broadway company for 32 years playing the opera diva Carlotta, the Innkeeper’s Wife and finally the imperious Madame Giry – a role she most recently held from Feb. 14 through May 11.

“‘Phantom’ has played a central role in my life,” Eichenberger said. “It was my first Broadway show in 1990, and I met my husband backstage. He did the load-in 35 years ago, and we were hoping my son would do the load-out 35 years later.”

The Colorado stars aligned for one phantastic performance on April 30 when Welch was called on to play Christine alongside Eichenberger as Madame Giry and Phillips as Carlotta. Other Coloradans who have performed with the Broadway company include Sierra Boggess, Patty Goble and Gina Jeffries. John Almon was with the Las Vegas company. Likely many more.

“This show has touched so many lives in so many beautiful ways,” said Welch – and not just among its cast.

In 2019, I interviewed a then 81-year-old Dick Moore of Wheat Ridge, who had seen 198 “Phantom” performances around the world over 31 years – most of them during national touring stops here in Denver. He attended 26 performances when ‘Phantom’ christened the Buell Theatre in 1991 – a run that sold more than 224,000 tickets.

For that first performance, Moore arrived at the Buell by horse and carriage wearing full “Phantom” regalia. The license plate on his Miata says “OPRGOST.” He has been called the ultimate “Phantom Phan,” though some of his nearest and dearest call him the “Phantom Phreak.”

“Sure, people say I’m crazy,” Moore said. “But this is all fun for me. I mean, I don’t do drugs, and I don’t hurt anybody by doing this.”

Producer Cameron Mackintosh has cited high production costs – including a cast of 52 and a live orchestra of 27 – at a time when Broadway tourism is down. But he’s hinted that a scaled-down version of the show will probably return to Broadway at a later date. Welch is sure that it will, “but it will never be the same,” she said.

Welch joined the ‘Phantom’ family when her daughter, now 18, was 4. “I am grateful and honored to have been a part of its 35-year legacy, grateful for the lifelong friends and the blessings it has brought to my life, and grateful for everyone who brought it to life every night,” she said. “I will miss hearing this music every day and miss seeing the faces in the audience, changed by the experience this show creates.”

Everyone will miss the mask, Eichenberger said, but she said the show’s closing is not, in itself, a tragedy. “This is the ultimate success story,” she said. “It thrived for 35 years. All good things must end. Broadway should ever-evolve, and a wonderful new show will take its place.”

Mutiny’s doors are open again

Matt Megyesi spent four hours in kidney dialysis Wednesday morning. But when noon came, there was only one place he wanted to be – and it wasn’t home in bed. It was at 2 S. Broadway for the official reopening of his Mutiny Information Café.

The iconic counter-culture home for books, music, comedy, pinball and an addictive cherry Italian soda with cream, had been seized by the city of Denver for failure to pay back taxes totaling $31,300. But a GoFundMe campaign from more than 1,100 supporters raised nearly $60,000 in three days, paving the way for Wednesday’s reopening.

Among those donors was Melanie Tatum of Denver, who chipped in even though she had only visited Mutiny once. But when she heard the news, she remembers thinking, “I just found this place – now they can’t close,” she said. “When I saw they had a GoFundMe, I immediately said yes.”

Tatum made a point to visit the reopened store Wednesday – and buy a Vapors album. When she considers that more than a thousand people contributed to the campaign, she said, “that tells me this place is somewhere I want to shop. It tells me that people love this place. And what makes it special are the people who come to it, and the people who run it and work here.”

The store may be temporarily saved, but Megyesi’s medical odyssey continues. Megyesi has had two strokes, a heart attack and permanent vision loss just this year. He is receiving dialysis for his failing (and possibly cancerous) kidney and is on a transplant list. He’s looking at $40,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses so far.    

Shakespearean struggle in Oregon

Nataki Garrett, former Associate Artistic Director of the DCPA Theatre Company, got her big career break not from the Denver Center but from the 85-year-old Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which hired her as its first Black and first female Artistic Director in 2019. OSF is one of the largest theater companies in the country, and its success is considered critical to the entire economy of Southern Oregon thanks to its $252 million annual economic impact.  

Garrett was featured on a searing NPR report this week that looked at both her attempts to make social and racial progress in an overwhelmingly white state with a deep history of institutional racism, and the frightening backlash that has wrought.

“The American theater has relied for decades on one demographic of people: Over 65, affluent, White. That’s the breadbasket of the industry,” Garrett says. Changes she has made to the company have brought death threats and a board mutiny. Garrett now makes all public appearances with a security team. “I am the only artistic leader in the American theater that I know of who is having this experience,” said Garrett. “But to be quite honest: I am not free to live here in this community the way that other people are.”

I visited OSF in 2015 and while I was there, a longtime, beloved member of the acting company, a Black woman named Christina Clark, was walking her dog when a man on a bicycle started circling her. He said to her: “It’s still an Oregon law that I can kill a (Black person) and be out of jail in a day and a half. Look it up. The KKK is alive here,” before pedaling off.

New Pop Culture Classroom leader

Denver’s Pop Culture Classroom, the main charity behind the Denver Comic Con, has named educator Matt Hess its new Executive Director. Hess started his career teaching girls expelled from public school before joining World Hunger Relief, first as Education Director and later as Executive Director. World Hunger Relief operates a 40-acre training farm where Hess lived with his family for 10 years. More recently, Hess worked at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, focusing on programs that encouraged students historically excluded from health-care careers. Most of Pop Culture Classroom’s work centers around arts and education workshops for Denver-area students and teachers. Board Chair Tone de Ellis Jesus said Hess was chosen for his community-oriented approach to things.

Briefly …

Dazzle will celebrate jazz legend Charles Burrell’s 102nd birthday with a sold-out brunch on Friday (Sept. 30) featuring Purnell Steen & the Five Points Ambassadors. “Burrell spent most of his professional life paving the way for Black musicians and personally mentoring many of them throughout the years,” the club said in a statement. That would include his niece, five-time Grammy-winner Dianne Reeves of Denver …

The City of Lone Tree has promoted Leigh Chandler from artistic director to executive director of the Lone Tree Arts Center. Chandler has been at the center since 2015. She was named interim executive director six months ago …

The Aurora Fox’s Oct. 7 opening of a new musical called “Futurity” will mark the official end of Helen Murray’s tenure as producing artistic director. “Futurity,” running through Oct. 30, imagines a world where an invention can stop the Civil War. Murray is moving to the American Stage in Tampa Bay. The city of Aurora has not yet named Murray’s successor.

Denver actor Jeff Parker, also Professor of Theatre at Metropolitan State University, will be a contestant on the Oct. 6 episode of “Jeopardy.” Parker just won a Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Award for his performance in Performance Now Theatre Company’s “The Drowsy Chaperone.” “This has been a dream of mine since I was 11, and filming this show was truly one of the best days of my life,” said Parker, who faces “Double Jeopardy” if he dares to spill whether he also appears on any further episodes of “Jeopardy.” …

Aspen Film is presenting its 43rd Filmfest through Oct. 2 with films featuring Olivia Colman, Colin Farrell, Colin Firth, Brendan Gleeson, Woody Harrelson and more …

Desirée Mee Jung, an alumna of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and soon to make her DCPA Theatre Company debut next week as Margaret in “Much Ado About Nothing,” made her national TV debut on Monday as a guest star on CBS’ “NCIS.” She played Dee Walters on an episode titled “Daddy Issues” opposite Katrina Law, Wilmer Valderrama and Brian Dietzen. “Much Ado” plays Sept. 30-Nov. 6 in the Kilstrom Theatre.

And, in case you missed it …

Nicole Sullivan announced this week that her beloved BookBar will close out of its Tennyson Street location in January, citing the coming minimum-wage increase. But her other store, The Bookies, will continue to operate in Glendale. Read the story here.