The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Divolved Bad Died

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Andrea Long: Has the broader musical gotten less commercial? Absolutely not. The difference is now what audiences want or what producers think audiences want, she says. "It's taking some of the most important parts of that formula and then adding a kind of smug, vaguely liberal politic"

The chandelier crashes for a final time as Broadway’s longest-running musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s extremely ’80s Phantom of the Opera, closes after 35 years and nearly 14,000 performances. Vulture’s Andrea Long Chu assesses its cultural staying power.

This episode was produced by Siona Peterous, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Victoria Chamberlin and Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King.

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