Andrew Lloyd Webber pays tribute to son, Nicholas at the final performance of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway

The curtains have finally come down on The Phantom of the Opera. The show ran for more than three decades. The cast and crew, including Andrew Lloyd Webber cheered at the confetti which fell down on them marking the last performance.
Earlier, the Oscar winning composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber had requested the audience when he asked humbly: “I hope you won’t mind if I dedicate this performance to my son.” His son, Nicholas Lloyd Webber had passed away exactly a month earlier from gastric cancer.

Nicholas’s mother and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ex-wife Sarah Brightman who had been part of the original cast was also there. It was an emotional moment for both of them as Sarah also said that when her husband was writing the music for the phenomenal Broadway musical, “Nic was there with us” and in that sense, “His soul is with us.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber had also said in his speech that when Nicholas was a little boy, “He heard some of this music.” In total, the Broadway opera had a record 14,000 showings and premiered in London in 1986.

Last month, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical, Bad Cinderella had its opening night on Broadway, but the composer missed it because of his son’s untimely passing.