The chandelier has been slowly dropping on “The Phantom of the Opera” for six months, but it still felt a bit abrupt when the curtain fell for the last time Sunday on the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

The buildup to the end of the record-shattering 35-year run has been marked by both celebration and sadness of “Phantom”-like proportions. When a February closing date was announced back in October, it kicked up a storm of renewed interest and a string of $3 million weeks at the box office to follow. That prompted savvy producers to delay the phinal “Phantom” phinale till April 16, when it indeed shuttered after 13,981 Broadway performances.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who made an emotional speech from the stage of the Majestic Theatre afterward, was in the news last month when his son, Nick, died from gastric cancer at age 43. “I hope you won’t mind if I dedicate this performance to my son,” Lloyd Webber said Sunday. “When he was a little boy, he heard some of this music.”

Webber was joined onstage by luminaries such as Glenn Close, Lin-Manuel Miranda alongside past and present Phantoms and Christines, including Sarah Brightman (the 1988 original) and Sierra Boggess, a graduate of Denver’s George Washington High School. Many in the invite-only crowd attended in full Phantom attire.

When the bell first tolled on the show in October, we spoke to several Coloradans who have been significant players in the “Phantom” phamily over the years. Boggess parlayed her starring role in the Denver-born stage adaptation of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” into playing Christine in both “Phantom” and its sequel, “Love Never Dies.” Lloyd Webber himself went on record to say on the record that Boggess “is the best Christine, certainly.” Boggess played Christine on Broadway, on the West End and on the televised 25th anniversary concert production. She’s now considered one of the biggest stage stars on the planet.

Elizabeth Welch, who graduated from Rangeview High School in Aurora and the University of Colorado Boulder, had plenty of opportunities to play Christine over the years, both on Broadway and in Germany, where she sang the role in German. She posted to her Instagram Sunday:

“When Phantom won the Tony Award in 1988, (late director Hal Prince) said, ‘The best thing about the theater as far as I’m concerned is that it’s a family. And if you’re lucky enough to keep working, you keep extending that family.’ Hal is right (per usual). This weekend was a beautiful ‘Phantom’ Phamily reunion. I spent every moment surrounded by loved ones. I am so proud to be a part of this legacy.”

Years ago, George Washington High School graduate Patricia Phillips made history when she became the first woman of color ever to play Carlotta. (She’s now appearing in the broadway revival of “Sweeney Todd”). 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. Colorado State University grad Elena Jeanne Batman and Denver West High alumna Geena Jeffries also played Carlotta (Batman for five years). Other Colorado actors to have performed in the ensemble include Tamra Hayden, Patty Goble, and surely more.

“It’s all kind of a blur,” Eichenberger wrote Sunday on her Instagram. “I do remember calling my brother from a pay phone in Times Square in 1988, telling him I had just auditioned for Hal Prince on the stage of the Majestic Theater. I knew it was huge. It led to my husband, my children, my career and the life that I have now, for which I am eternally grateful. To have been asked back last year after the pandemic was the icing on the cake. We have been a part of theater history.”

Welch was the only Coloradan to appear in Sunday’s final performance. But Eichenberger was in the house, both to attend the show and a red-carpet party afterward.

“The Phantom of the Opera” has been the longest-running show in Broadway since Jan. 9, 2006, when it surpassed the nearly 18-year run of “Cats.” According to Playbill, the show was seen by 19.5 million people and grossed $1.3 billion in ticket sales.

For the final performance, the plan was for Ben Crawford, Emilie Kouatchou and John Riddle to play to the Phantom, Christine and Raoul, respectively. But Crawford has been out sick since April 1, so Laird Mackintosh stepped in to take his place in Broadway trivia immortality.

Boggess, who just starred in a Los Angeles revival of “The Secret Garden,” also posted several photos to her Instagram this week, including vintage snaps with Lloyd Webber and director Hal Prince. “How lucky we are to have your music in our souls forever and ever, Amen,” she wrote to Webber.