Phantom of the Opera... the Sequel?!

[NotGreyheim]

Not TV, anime, movies or music... but I wasn't sure it belonged in general or here. So I'm posting it here to be safe.

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber presented the first act of his sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, entitled Phantom: Once Upon Another Time, at his annual Sydmonton Festival earlier this month.

The New York Post reports that approximately 100 guests were invited to witness the first half of Once Upon Another Time at Lloyd Webber's 5,000-acre estate that is located outside London.

The new musical, directed by Jack O'Brien, is set in Coney Island in 1906. The Post describes the musical's first half as such: "The Phantom, having fled Paris, is running a freak show. At night, he crawls into his lair and makes love to an automaton that looks like Christine. Christine, meanwhile, has become a famous opera singer. But she's fallen on hard times because her husband, Raoul, has squandered their fortune. So she's accepted a high-paying gig from a mysterious impresario to open a new amusement park. On her first night in New York, she draws back the curtain in her hotel suite and comes face to face with her new employer — flash of lightning, crash of chords — the Phantom! Christine has a child, Gustave, but is his father Raoul or the Phantom?"

A Lloyd Webber spokesperson told Playbill.com March 26 that American lyricist (and 2008 Tony nominee) Glenn Slater is now working on words to Lloyd Webber's music for the sequel to the smash international hit. With composer Alan Menken, Slater wrote new songs for the Disney Broadway musical, The Little Mermaid, as well as the dawning musicals Leap of Faith and Sister Act.

Lloyd Webber will have book and music credit on the Phantom sequel. O'Brien (Hairspray, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia) directs the project. Bob Crowley (The Coast of Utopia) is the designer.

The Stage reported in May that Phantom: Once Upon Another Time is aiming for a bow in London's West End in November 2009.

Source

Old news judging by the date, but I did a search and didn't find anything on it. This sounds terrible, and I really hope I'm being trolled here...

[Rockstaru]

Phantom: Love Never Dies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

'The Phantom of Coney Island' was a front-runner for possible names, especially after it was discovered that The Really Useful Group (Lloyd Webber's production company) had recently registered the domain name of 'phantomofconeyisland.com'. In May 2008, on the live finale of his show I'd Do Anything, Andrew Lloyd Webber made the announcement that the sequel would likely be called 'Phantom: Once Upon Another Time'.[11]

However on September 14, 2008, during the BBC's Birthday in the Park concert celebrating his 60th birthday, Andrew Lloyd-Webber announced, in what he called an 'exclusive', that the title shall actually be "Love Never Dies".

Ewwww. And if that really is the plot, then...more ewwww.

[grantlogan]

Watching the Phantom make love to an automaton sounds great....not really.

[Katlan]

why can't ppl leave good things alone

[Melchiah]

Someone shoot him, now. He's lost it.

[Apelila]

Someone shoot him, now. He's lost it.

This. Reading that made me think 'jee, what if they put arnold schwarzenegger in the lead roll of a care bear movie and called it "Care Bears 2: The revenge'

Seriously, I can't imagine anything worse for fans of Phantom than whats described. Its like someone let Tim Buckley write the play.

[Zilong]

inb4 hamlet 2

wait...