Did you know that The Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running Broadway show?
It officially opened on January 26, 1988 and is still playing at the Majestic. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical won 7 1988 Tony Awards® including Best Musical.
Based on the eponymous French novel by Gaston Leroux, its central plot revolves around a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.
There are other incredibly long-running shows on Broadway, such as Chicago, The Lion King and Cats.
However, the ‘world’s longest-running show' record doesn’t belong to The Phantom of the Opera.
It actually belongs to The Mousetrap, a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in London's West End in 1952, and has been running continuously since then!
The longest running West End show, it has by far the longest initial run of any play in history, with its 25,000th performance taking place on 18 November 2012. The play has a twist ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theater.
sources: broadway.org and wikipedia.org