Andrew Lloyd Webber 'sad' after The Phantom of the Opera ends Broadway run

Andrew Lloyd Webber was "sad" to witness The Phantom of the Opera close on Broadway after a 35-year-long run.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night, the composer discussed how emotional it was for him to view the final performances of the classic musical over the weekend.

"Well, it was strange, really, because, you know, one of the funny things that's happened with Phantom is that over the last few years...well, few months really, a young audience found it. And it's, I don't know, it was sad last night because I just felt it could run on. But there you go," he mused.

The London-born theatre impresario added that it was "very unusual" for everything to come together as it did with The Phantom of the Opera.

The 75-year-old stated, "Like the production, the whole thing meshes, it's just one of those moments. I mean it happened with The Lion King, it's happened with Hamilton, it's happened with me with Phantom. It doesn't happen very often."

Elsewhere in the conversation, host Fallon jokingly asked Webber about Cats - one of his other long-running Broadway shows.

"How does one come up with an idea like Cats? And are you a cat person?" the TV host asked.

"Well, I am a cat person," Webber humoured, before referring to the controversial 2019 screen adaptation. "Well, I was a total cat person until I saw the Cats movie."