NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- An usher at New York City's Majestic Theatre says she has seen "The Phantom of the Opera" 9,000 times since it opened on Jan. 26, 1988.

Usher Sylvia Bailey, 86, began working at the theater two years before the play premiered, the New York Post reported Sunday. She will turn 87 the week before "Phantom" plays its 10,000th performance in February.


Bailey watches the show five nights a week from an empty seat in the back or a folding chair she keeps by the orchestra if there is an empty house.

She still enjoys the play despite seeing it thousands of times, particularly the song "All I Ask of You."

"I love that song," she says. "That sticks in my brain. When I lug my bag onto the bus, I'll be humming that song."

Occasionally she is asked by theatergoers if the production ever changes.

"It's been the same since Day 1," she tells them. "No changes. Just different people."