The Phantom of the Opera - His Majesty's Theatre

After the Cinderella debacle, I feel I owe Scarpia and several others on this thread an apology.
I wrote your views off about Phantom and ALW as carping / bitter / whinging, when in fact you called it correctly.
It's all about the money and zero empathy for the artists.
I now see what you saw and hope you'll accept my retraction of previous criticism.
You have been vindicated and I was wrong.
CB

Wow, wasn't expecting this post, have to admit! No worries. I would much rather have been wrong myself about what we were saying back in 2020 than have this all happen, but here we are.

Agreed. Big respect to ceebee for posting this. As Scarpia says; (who I don't know, by the way, but we certainly have always seen the truth behind the shenanigans here), I certainly hoped for the best but expected the worst.

I really like to hope my explanation of what exactly occurred with the closing and reopening of the show has helped people get a clearer picture of exactly how cynical this how process has been.

It didn't take my last modicum of respect for ALW to be extinguished by the Cinderella debacle, it was already killed by what he did to Phantom. The sacked musicians, crew and cast were treated equally as terribly if not worse.

Let's not forget, they were sacked via Zoom, several cast members after decades in the show, with not so much as a thank you. **** you is more like it.

Be delighted for this to close now.

Do you really feel it's as black and white as that? 

I do. There's no CML to blame or hide behind this time round, which suggests a repetitious pattern of behaviour and disrespect towards actors, musicians and crew. I am possibly one of the most forgiving of people - however, this latest debacle has opened many more eyes. I found it's ALW - some management flunky probably messed up. But it's his name on the posters and the buck stops with him.

Back in the day I made a poor job of explaining my feelings about operations of RUG, especially with what I know about ALW operates it.

People are now seeing this persona of this meek, bumbling composer is as fraudulent as that of a "funny" bumbling politician.

It's his company. He is not some blind majority shareholder with unscrupulous execs doing the actual business without his knowledge.

And let's entertain that it were; why haven't heads rolled? This is ALL ALW's express will, perhaps under advisement, but he is entirely responsible.

Still think the existence of LND itself is worthy of criticism, particularly given it was well known what it was going to be based on. (Speaking of LND, there's another show where the London cast found out they were fired via social media before RUG told them).

But yes, as I said before...as Alan Jay Lerner (apocryphally) said, people take an instant dislike to ALW because it saves time.

Even if there is no CML/Paramount/some other co-producer to hide behind this time, he still will find something. When RUG deliberately (and fraudulently) inflated the grosses of Sunset on Broadway when Glenn Close was off, ALW ensured a poor RUG employee in the accounts department took the blame. Personally, I didn't (and still don't) buy it.

Someone ought to compile a list of all the poor people who've taken the blame for him in the past. The most distasteful and offensive one for me was when his press statement at the closure of Woman in White on Broadway (it only lasted about a month or so there) seemed to imply the reason was Maria Friedman's cancer.

Lets not forget the 180 about turn he did with the Cats Movie.

From this...

To this...

Also, had never seen this before, claiming to require a therapy dog for emotional damage.

It's the best movie adaptation of any of his musicals. He would not be saying any of this if the movie had been a commercial or critical success. 
How come he's never had anything bad to say about the Phantom movie which is truly an abomination? He's never said anything disparaging about that one. This also seems to be based on a misunderstanding of why the critics hated the movie, which is fundamentally because they hate the musical itself (and him in some cases), whether they acknowledge that or not. It's not because they hate the adaptation of the musical. So him saying "Nothing to do with me... I'm with you guys" is useless and does him no favours.    

I know they always say sperate the artist from the art and that is especially true of ALW but over the years I have found it hard to continue supporting and hearing his work. I remember years ago getting into theatre and falling in love with ALW musicals then being absolutely shattered hearing about the behind the scenes drama with Sunset, Evita and the Canadian production of Phantom. It's such as shame that a man behind some of the most influential and beautiful scores in theatre: Phantom, Evita, Sunset, Aspects, LND (controversial yes but I adore the music not the book), is a money-hungry and egotistical d---head. He's no better than CAM regardless of what he may think! It's shocking how he continues to get away with the nonsense that spews out his mouth.

I'm not as well informed about the behind the scenes goings on as people here. The fact that you talk in such strong terms about his character makes me think there is an awful lot I have missed. If you can point me to any resources where I can find out more about his treatment of colleagues, employees etc, I would appreciate it. I am interested in knowing the truth whatever that might be. 

Thanks for your reply. I will have a look back and see what I can find and will keep an open mind. My scepticism is only in the fact that we are always hearing from the supposed "victims" in these scenarios, the person with the axe to grind, and there are usually two sides to any story. Also, these kinds of disputes, arguments etc. are bound to arise from time to time in an art form that is so collaborative, although I accept that ALW may have a ruthless streak. I am sure, as I mentioned earlier, that ALW can be a difficult person to deal with at times but that doesn't make him the villain he's made out to be on this forum. Also ALW isn't as much of a "public" figure as these other people, he's quite media shy, and doesn't get the opportunity to defend himself from these accusations. I knew about the incident with Patti Lupone, the issue there appears to be that a hugely successful musical theatre star who got her big break in an ALW show, Evita, and performed in the London run of another ALW show, Sunset Boulevard, didn't get the chance to perform the same role on Broadway, and found out about this at short notice. That seems to be the sum of it. She seems like such a prima donna and unpleasant character all round that I wouldn't blame him if he was desperate to get rid of her, I would probably have done the same. I didn't know about Hal Prince and Evita but he seemed to like ALW overall, spoke highly of him and worked on future projects with him (Phantom and Whistle).