Back in 2007 the world learned that Andrew Lloyd Webber was writing a sequel to his world famous musical, The Phantom of the Opera. At that time he revealed the setting would be New York rather than Paris, the setting of the original story. Little more than that was known (at least by me) until last Sunday when he revealed more details including the possible move of opening in three places at once at the end of 2009. Also revealed was the location in New York as well as the reunion of the Phantom and Christine Daaé, as the title, Phantom: Love Never Dies, suggests. I can’t get over the location though- Coney Island. I guess this quote from the man himself explains this choice:
“It was the place,” Lloyd Webber said. “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.”
In the article he also mentions the role of the phantom is as good as cast, but left the name a mystery. Any ideas? As I haven’t been part of the musical theatre scene for a while I offer no guess of my own. Anyway, read the article at msnbc for more info:
‘Phantom of the Opera’ sequel due in 2009
Ok, who would want a sequel to Phantom of the Opera? And then move it to New York? I guess they will do anything for the almighty dollar.
Lloyd Webber has not had a MAJOR hit since Phantom opened 20 years ago… Sunset Blvd. closed without a profit in less than a year and none of his other West End shows have made the transition to Broadway. It doesn’t sound like the sequel will do much better. But there is always hope and 2009 has only just begun.
It will be interesting though to see a complete work of his own though. Most of his musicals, Phantom included, were already written by others before he made them into musicals. Of course Aspects of Love was original, wasn’t it? Well, we can hope this will be better than that show. Come to think of it, Cats was too. So will Phantom II be a winner like Cats, or will it be an Aspects of Love?
Will this be the show to revive a flat-lining Broadway? And I have one guess for the role of the Phantom: David Hasselhoff.
😀
Though to open in three places at once he will need three phantoms. As we in the US are not so enamored at Hasselhoff in anything but Knight Rider (Baywatch = Pamela Anderson, so don’t go there 😀 ), he would have to be in one of the other two locations were ALW to use him.
No… Aspects was a novel prior to the musical (Don’t go there… Love Changes Everything did not a show-saver make). Wonder if he will have the cast from the Phantom movie as one of the casts… still an “eh” movie for me. Cats was a winner in what way? Longevity?
Of course, I have known that he has been working on a sequel to Phantom since 1995.
Aspects was a book? You learn something new every day. Granted, not as popular as Phantom, but wasn’t Cats quite popular in its time? And as you say it lasted a while I think. I would have to look it up I suppose, I’ve just been going on what I remember. If my comment was total garbage let me know and I will just delete it.
Edit: Hmm. First sentence from Wikipedia’s Cats entry (emphasis mine): “Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. It introduced the song standard, ‘Memory’.”
So much for that being original then, either.
But it looks like I was right about Cats being a winner, with actual research to back me up this time instead of my frail 38-year-old memory. 😀 Ball one. Count is now one ball, two strikes… 😛
“The musical first opened in London in 1981 and then on Broadway in 1982, in each case directed by Trevor Nunn. It won numerous awards, including both the Laurence Olivier Award and the Tony Award for Best Musical. The London production ran for 21 years and the Broadway production for eighteen years, in both cases setting historical long-run records. Actresses Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley became particularly associated with the musical.” (Wikipedia)
Yes, Cats was a success in every aspect for whatever reason. I never cared for it myself… I like the music but the show itself fell flay, IMHO. I often wondered why it lasted for 18 years on Broadway.