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Sequels have been the rage in Hollywood for years, why not Broadway too? That's what Andrew Lloyd Webber thinks, he's making a Phantom of the Opera sequel ready for the end of 2009.
With a working title of PHANTOM: LOVE NEVER DIES is almost sounds like the typical Hollywood film part deux.
Lloyd Webber told The Times of London that he hopes the new musical will open in New York, London and possibly Shanghai or another Asian city.
"I don't think you could do this if it wasn't the sequel to Phantom ... We've been into the feasibility of rehearsing three companies at once and opening very fast in the three territories. The one which really interests me [in the Far East] would be China ... I think to open Love Never Dies in Shanghai would be an enormous thing.
The sequel will be set a decade or so after the first instalment, during which time the Phantom has relocated from the Paris Opira of Gaston Leroux's original novel to Coney Island in Brooklyn, then still a hugely popular beach-side amusement resort for New Yorkers. It was the place, said Lloyd Webber. Even Freud went because it was so extraordinary ... people who were freaks and oddities were drawn towards it because it was a place where they could be themselves.
The Phantom will be reunited with Christine, the Swedish soprano.
And who does Webber have in mind to take the Phantom role? He says, "We are pretty clear who our Phantom is going to be - I can't say who," he said.
The Times said possible candidates for the role include Hugh Jackman and Gerard Butler, who played the Phantom in the 2004 film version of the musical but I don't know. Jackman is an extremely busy guy and is very much in demand.
He's already set to portray Harry Houdini next on the Broadway stage but there isn't a script yet although it is said that Kurt Anderson is writing it, so there may be time.
And Butler, although I love him and he was great in 300, he didn't exactly have a very strong voice in the 2004 film adaptation certainly not strong enough to play the Phantom on stage, but I could be wrong.
Jack O'Brien, who has had successes with The Full Monty and Hairspray, will direct the production. The sets will be designed by Bob Crowley, who has won five Tony awards and whose credits include Sir Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins.
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