Fondest Greetings, Good Monsieurs…did you think that I had left you for good?

We’ve been waiting. Since Sunday April 16^th 2023…when Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera played its final performance at The Majestic Theatre on Broadway. After 35 years and 13,981 performances (marking it as the longest running musical in Broadway’ illustrious history), there was a darkness that overtook The Great White Way, though not without the promise of a return…and that return has finally arrived. In the form of the newly built and launched National Tour. And it’s launching from the greatest city on the East Coast— Baltimore City. And it’s launching from Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. In a TheatreBloom phone-exclusive, we had a few minutes to talk with Ron Legler, President of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, and get his take on how thrilled he and the city are to be welcoming such a national treasure.

Thank you so much, Ron, for giving us some of your time, I know you’re very busy! But this is such a wild and wonderful thing— I couldn’t resist the chance to hear your thoughts about it. Tell me how excited you are that not only do we get it first, but we get to build the National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera here in Baltimore and launch it on its way across the nation!

Ron Legler: I keep pinching myself and asking “Is this real?” We haven’t had a lot of good news lately in the world so I’m feeling very, very lucky that this is happening for us. I’m just thrilled. Phantom is one of the shows that started my career and it has followed me. It’s been active and going ever since I started. I got to open The Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale (Broward Center for the Performing Arts; opened February 26^th 1991) which was America’s premiere theatre at the time. And we opened it with Phantom. We had ten sold-out weeks; it was really just a magical experience. It was really the beginning of the big, mega-musical. After that you had Les Mis, you had Saigon, but Phantom was really the beginning.

It’s such a majestic production. I think Andrew (composer Andrew Lloyd Webber) is one of the world’s most complex composers and really one of the most amazing visionaries when it comes to musical theatre. He’s like a Shakespeare but for our time. He is absolutely incredible. Then combine that with the lyrics of Tim Rice and then Cameron Mackintosh being one of the world’s premiere producers of live entertainment— it’s a trifecta that you just can’t beat.

And this is a new take on Phantom or more like the Broadway original or more like the most recent tour? What might we expect from this tour?

Ron: This production promises to be the grandeur of the Andrew Lloyd Webber original production but the brilliance and the excitement of what Cameron was able to do with the last touring production. It really is going to be the best of both worlds. If you think about it, when Phantom opened 35 years ago, think of how technology has grown and changed over the last 35 years. The way that LED lighting is now, the new types of special effects, the way we rig things now in theatres, this show is really going to be a Phantom that’s built for tomorrow. I’m really super excited that new generations will get to see it.  

Phantom is so many people’s first show. It’s the show that got people to fall in love with Broadway. So for us here in Baltimore, it’s a big shot in the arm. The fact that it’s actually coming to Baltimore— you get this vision of everything coming from London by boat into the Baltimore Harbor, getting unloaded, and being rolled into The Hippodrome…I’m just over the moon. I couldn’t be more excited!

This is truly extraordinary, a real theatrical boon for Charm City. How did Baltimore get to be so lucky? I know a large component of that is the state tax credits that went into making opportunities like this possible for our great city.

Ron: You know, here’s what I’m going to say about Maryland. Maryland believes in going to work. Our unions were out of work for two years with the Pandemic. Like literally no work. They had to find other things to generate revenue. So when I went to do the tax-credit submissions, it was both parties, bipartisan support, 100%, unanimous decision that by the time the tax credit ended in five years— all tax credits have a sunset of five years— that by the time this one ended, it would have replaced all two years of the work that they missed during the pandemic. And that’s powerful. That’s really powerful.

We have a few unions. We have a box office union, stage hands, a loaders union, and hairdressing, wardrobe, the musicians union— these are salaries with livable wages and insurance and all the benefits that come with that. And we’ve been able to make up what was lost for those workers during the pandemic with this tax credit. The fact that we’re having all these creative people come to our city for a month— they’ll be here rehearsing and doing all the things that they need to do to get this production perfect before it goes out on its national tour— it’s so extraordinary. Our audiences will get to see it here first. It’s a dream come true for me, it really is.

It really must be— you’ve got quite the history with the production.

Ron: I got to open it at Broward, and then I got work on Phantom again a bit later, something was happening at a different theatre at the time— a group sales person left and they called me in because I had been doing group sales in South Florida at the time— and Bill Miller was the original press agent for Phantom and he called me and he said, “Ron, we need you to come up, we need you to find us money, we need you to make sure everyone has their tickets,” and that was Norfolk, Virginia at The Chrysler Center at the time. I went up for about a week, got to meet Cameron, and then Bill Miller and The Phantom company gave me an original poster from The Majestic Theatre. It’s one of my prized possessions. It’s been in every entrance of every home I’ve had ever since then. I get to see that poster every day and it reminds me of the excitement that theatre brings, and it’s just very special to me.

Now Phantom has been to the Hippodrome at least once or twice before.

Ron: Multiple times. I’ve been here ten years and it’s been here at least twice in my time. (The Phantom of the Opera National Tour has played Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre four times since the theatre’s opening— Aug 11 2004 to Sept 19 2004, April 8 2010 to April 25 2010, Jan 27 2016 to Feb 2 2016, Oct 9 2019 to Oct 20 2019)

I know it wasn’t the inaugural production that launched The Hippodrome’s reopening, but I remember it being there pretty early on, I was lucky enough to attend, I’m pretty sure it was the end of summer or beginning of fall right after I graduated high school.

Ron: It sure was. It essentially launched the 2004/2005 season. It was the fourth big show to come through— The Producers was first in February of 2004, then it was the third national tour of Les Mis, then the second national tour of Mamma Mia! and then Phantom. It’s a forever show. It’s honestly one of those shows you can watch ten different times and see something different each time. Sometimes you follow Madam Giry and you think maybe she’s in on it. Sometimes you’re following The Phantom or Christine and watching them on their journey. I love Meg, I love following her story. When you’ve seen this show as many times as I have, you can just pick a track to follow and still get this incredible, beautiful, regal, majestic experience. The music will haunt you. It just stays with you. You walk out and you’re humming it. You will remember it, you hum it, and it becomes a part of your being. It never leaves.

I could not agree with you more. It is absolutely my favorite musical, and one of my very first on Broadway. I just had the pleasure and privilege of seeing it in the West End a few months ago in August of 2024, I’ve seen it three of the four times it played The Hippodrome, I’ve seen it on Broadway two or three times before it closed, I’ve seen it at The Kennedy Center multiple times, I’ve seen it in Sydney, Australia at the Opera House when I was living there in college. And I am jumping out of my skin to get November of 2025 here so I can see it again.

Ron: With Phantom being the longest-running Broadway musical, I really feel like this production could lead back to Phantom going home to Broadway. The show was there for so long, I mean 35 years— some people their whole career on Broadway was Phantom. Some of those musicians were there from the first day to the last. Imagine being in that orchestra for 35 years, getting to play that gorgeous, haunting music again and again. It’s phenomenal; Phantom is a juggernaut. There is nothing bigger than Phantom of The Opera.

Someone said to me, “Man, that’s a mic drop for Baltimore.” And I said, “No, no, no. That’s a chandelier drop for Baltimore.” It is going to be a spectacular sight to see. I’m thrilled. I’m so thankful for the partnership with Commerce, they want Maryland to go to work. It’s viable. For every dollar they spend in the state of Maryland, they get 25-cents back, up to two million dollars. So this production is probably well over 20-million dollars. To spend that amount and to say, “oh and here’s two million back” that’s the reason we’re attracting the best of the best. We had The Wiz, we just launched & Juliet, we’ve just announced Water For Elephants, that’s coming next season— and of course Phantom.

We’re just booming. I wouldn’t be surprised if you start seeing costume shops start popping up around town and set designers coming into Maryland because the business is now here. Our union guys are eating it up, they’re happy, they’re working, they’re here for it. Last week (second week of November 2024) we actually had Annie in tech’ing at The Hippodrome before it goes to Chicago and then to Madison Square Garden for a month, but Annie did their tech here. It’s catching on; the industry is really catching on here in Baltimore. Our audiences are kind, they’re really wonderful, and people in the industry are loving the experience of being here with us. The theatre is beautiful, the audiences are loving, it gives you the New York experience. There are just so many wonderful things going on right now. We’re attracting the very best shows to come to our city and that’s what I think is the most important part.

We’re becoming an ‘out-of-town’ try-out city.

Ron: Yes we are. The Wiz went pretty much directly from us to Broadway, with a stop here or there, and now it’s going back out on the road, it was very successful, sold out almost every single place it’s been. These productions are like little children, we create them here and we get to say, “Go out and do well!” It’s so interesting to be in the theatre and watch the creative process. We never had the opportunity to do that before. And it’s a big business. Everything that happens before the show starts? That’s a big business. Why would we miss out on that? Why shouldn’t it be created in Maryland? And now it is.

I’m just so thankful for all the representatives and our state senate who came together to support the arts in this state. I’m proud to live here.

It is wonderful; we are lucky to live in such a great state. Now, Ron, do you have a favorite song in Phantom?

Ron: Oh man, you’re going to make me pick? Okay, let me tell you, “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” kills me every time.

I feel that. And I love “Notes/Prima Donna” because you get so much of Andre and Firmin, my two favorite bumblers in that show!

Ron: Oh my gosh. I always say that’s Chris (Vice President and Venue Operations Chris Mahan) and I. “These two fool who run my theatre will be missing you.” I say that to him, “that’s you and I. We’re the owners of the theatre doing the best we can to hold it all together.”

Oh I love that! That’s hilarious. Now I know you mentioned the poster you were gifted that came from The Majestic, do you have any other pieces of Phantom memorabilia that’s very near and dear to you?

Ron: I do have— it was gifted to me by my college professor Bill Robinson— he gifted me The Monkey Music Box and it’s another one of my prize possessions. I cherish it. We went to go see Phantom in Toronto when Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford were in it and it was stunning.

I have quite a few pieces myself, probably my most prized is my Erzgebirge-Palace Nutcracker, a German handmade Phantom of the Opera nutcracker who sits on a shelf in my living room. And I have a little ‘haunted’ Christmas tree ornament. Carlton Cards 2004 or 2005 I think— and it’s the boat scene and it plays music…even when you take the batteries out it just randomly plays music in the middle of the night on the Christmas tree, which was always a bit frightening, so I think the actual phantom might be haunting that ornament! But you must be so thrilled that this production that means so much to you and so much to Baltimore gets to be built and launched here.

Ron: It feels really good. I cannot wait for Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew to come to Baltimore, to see the Hippodrome, to have the show be played for audiences, and to get to send it out on the road.

What would you say to people who have never seen it or to people who have seen it before as to why they should come and see it at The Hippodrome when it launches here next November?

Ron: Obviously our subscribers get tickets first. It will go on sale next year as a part of the 2025/2026 season. The best way to secure tickets is to become a season ticket holder. I promise you that Phantom is not the only wonderful show that we’ve got coming as a part of that season. You already know we also have Water For Elephants, which like Phantom is being built here in Baltimore and launched on its national tour. And we’re also going to be launching one more tour next season. So we will have a total of three national tours that we are launching here, that you will be able to see first if you’re here in Baltimore.

I look forward to talking to you all about that at the tail-end of this year! Is there anything else you want to say about the joy of Phantom?

Ron: I’m just talking about something that everybody knows already, how amazing and spectacular this show is. I’m proud that it’s coming to Baltimore, I’m proud to represent The Hippodrome, and onward and upward, my darling, onward and upward! I’m so proud of it!

The Phantom of The Opera will launch its National Tour in November 2025 from Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre— on the Main Stage of The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center- 12 North Eutaw Street in the heart of the Bromo Arts District of Baltimore, MD.

For more information on how to become a season subscriber at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre, click here.