Lloyd Webber to resurrect “Phantom of the Opera”

The Phantom of the Opera is coming back -- but this time, he'll be haunting the amusement park at New York's Coney Island.
Star composer Andrew Lloyd Webber announced Thursday a long-awaited sequel to his massively successful "The Phantom of the Opera," one of the world's best-loved and longest-running musicals.
"There's unfinished business," Lloyd Webber told journalists assembled for a teaser -- a new song featuring the titular Phantom, played by Iranian-born Canadian Ramin Karimloo, and his love interest, Christine, played by American actress Sierra Boggess.
"I don't regard this as a sequel; it's a standalone piece," Lloyd Webber said.
The new musical will be called "Love Never Dies." It is due to open in London in March. It will be staged also in New York beginning in November 2010 and will open in Australia in 2011.
The musical picks up a decade after the original's conclusion, and has the Phantom trading his customary hideout beneath the Paris opera house for Coney Island, the iconic Brooklyn amusement park known for its roller coasters and "Nathan's Famous" hot dogs.
Lloyd Webber said he wanted to produce a sequel because the original's ending, which sees Christine leave the brooding Phantom for his rival, Raoul, was unsatisfactory.
"Christine goes off with this boring guy, the Phantom disappears," Lloyd Webber said. He said he wanted to set the piece at Coney Island because, at its turn-of-the-century heyday, it was "the eighth wonder of the world."
"Think of Vegas and then triple it," he said.
Based on the eponymous French novel by Gaston Leroux, the play is the longest-running show on Broadway, beating Lloyd Webber's other masterpiece, "Cats," in 2006 and reaching an unprecedented 9,000 performances on the night of September 17. Producers say it has been seen by more than 100 million people worldwide and has been translated into 15 languages and staged in 25 countries, including Brazil, China and Poland.
The album of the show has sold more than 40 million copies.