Love Never Dies is a musical with a book and lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. A sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, it will be directed by Jack O'Brien and is scheduled to open at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End on 9 March 2010, on Broadway on 11 November 2010, and in Australia in 2011. It will be the first time a musical sequel is staged in the West End.
On 8 October 2009, Lloyd Webber launched the musical at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986. Also present were Sierra Boggess, who has been cast as Christine Daaé, and Ramin Karimloo, who will portray the Phantom, a role he currently is playing in the West End. Karimiloo sang his character's first song in the new production for the journalists, industry insiders, and fans who had assembled for the presentation. Boggess originated the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid on Broadway.
The musical is set a decade after the end of Phantom. Christine is invited to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction in Coney Island, by an anonymous impresario and, with her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, journeys to Brooklyn, unaware it is the Phantom who has arranged her appearance in the popular beach resort.
Lloyd Webber first began plans for a sequel in 1997. Following a conversation with Maria Björnson, the designer of The Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber decided that were a sequel to come about, it would be set in turn-of-the-20th century New York City. Lloyd Webber began collaborating with author Fredrick Forsyth on the project, but it soon fell apart as Lloyd Webber felt the ideas they were developing would be difficult to adapt for the musical stage. Forsyth went on to publish some of the ideas he had worked on with Lloyd Webber as a novel entitled The Phantom of Manhattan.
Lloyd Webber continually returned to the project throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, collaborating with a number of unknown writers. Although it was during this time that Lloyd Webber came up with the idea of making The Phantom the designer of Coney Island amusement park attractions, Lloyd Webber still did not feel the ideas he had were adaptable into a piece of musical theatre.
Finally, in 2007, Ben Elton (who had served as the librettist for Lloyd Webber's The Beautiful Game) approached Lloyd Webber with his own synopsis for a sequel, based on Lloyd Webber's initial ideas. Elton's treatment of the story focused more on the original characters of The Phantom of the Opera and omitted the new characters that Lloyd Webber and Forsyth had developed. Lloyd Webber was pleased with Elton's treatment and considered it to be the right version of the story to be adapted into a musical. Elton's synopsis served as the catalyst that led Lloyd Webber to begin work on the sequel, and in early March 2007, in his website's video blog, he officially announced he would be moving forward with the project.
In May 2008, on the live finale of his show I'd Do Anything, Lloyd Webber made the announcement that the sequel would likely be called Phantom: Once Upon Another Time. However, on 14 September 2008, during the BBC's Birthday in the Park concert celebrating his 60th birthday, Lloyd Webber announced the title would be Love Never Dies.
In July 2008, the first act of what was still known as Phantom: Once Upon Another Time was performed at Lloyd Webber's annual Sydmonton Festival. In the preview, the Phantom was played by Ramin Karimloo, while Raoul was played by Alistair Robbins.
On 3 July 2009 Lloyd Webber announced that Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess had been cast as the Phantom and Christine in Love Never Dies. It also was confirmed that the role of Meg Giry would be played by Summer Strallen.
Lloyd Webber had originally intended for Love Never Dies to open in London, New York and Shanghai simultaneously in the Autumn of 2009. Production was later put on hold as Lloyd Webber felt it would be too difficult to cast and rehearse three simultaneous productions of the same show without it being detrimental to the quality of the productions. On 8 October 2009, at a press launch event at Her Majesty's Theatre, Lloyd Webber announced that Love Never Dies would begin previews in London on 20 February 2010. A production will be mounted in New York on Thursday 11 November 2010 and a further production in Australia will begin performances in 2011. Lloyd Webber has also announced that plans for Asian and Canadian productions are well under way.
Lloyd Webber revealed that the original cast recording has already been recorded, though will not be released in its entirety until the production begins.
The plot takes place on Coney Island in 1906, approximately a decade after the events of The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom has travelled to Coney Island with Madame Giry and her daughter Meg. Beginning his new life in America as a freakshow attraction, he has worked his way up to a position of power and is now the successful architect of a number of Coney Island attractions. Despite his new found wealth and success he still longs for Christine and manages to arrange for her to come and sing at one of his latest attractions. Christine arrives at Coney Island along with Raoul and their son Gustave, unknowingly returning to the man she feared most.
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