Today in London Andrew Lloyd Webber launched his new Phantom sequel Love Never Dies.

The brand new musical will star current London Phantom Ramin Karimloo and American actress Sierra Boggess as Christine.

At a launch event at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, current home of The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber revealed how he struggled for years to find a suitable plot for the sequel. Despite working with novelist Frederick Forsythe on a follow-up story set in Manhattan, it was discussions with Ben Elton (We Will Rock You) that sparked the new plot for the show by suggesting that the sequel should follow the story’s original characters.

This long-awaited new show will have its world premiere at the Adelphi Theatre in London on Tuesday 9 March 2010 followed by a New York opening on 11 November and Australian debut in 2011.

The new musical is set 10 years after the first, and sees the Phantom move from the Paris Opera House to haunt the fairgrounds of Coney Island near New York, billed in its hay day as one of the great wonders of the world.

The original musical has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide and is billed by Lloyd Webber’s company the Really Useful Group as the single most successful entertainment entity in history.

Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom

At the launch event in London a full orchestra played the new show’s dramatic opening waltz set against a film that highlighted the significance of Coney Island at the time. Ramin Karimloo also sang a number from the show. The Iranian-Canadian actor became the West End’s youngest ever Phantom when he took on the role at Her Majesty’s theatre in 2007, aged 29.

Sierra Boggess, who was present at the launch but did not sing, was the original lead role in The Little Mermaid on Broadway and has played Christine in the Las Vegas production of Phantom.

The original cast album will be released on 11 March, a day after the world premiere in London.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music features lyrics by Glenn Slater, who penned the lyrics for current West End hit Sister Act, and will be choreographed by Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Legally Blonde) and directed by Jack O’Brien (Hairspray).

Book tickets to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London

Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s new sequel to The Phantom of the Opera – “Love Never Dies” – will have its world premiere in London, as reported today by Baz Bamigboye in the Daily Mail.

It was initially believed that the new blockbusting musical would open simultaneously in New York, London and Shanghai, but it now appears that managing the logistics of this has proved too complex. However, the show will still break new ground in opening productions around the world in quick succession – starting with London and then following with Toronto, Shanghai and then Broadway.

In London, the show will play at the Adelphi Theatre, owned by Lloyd-Webber’s Really Useful Group, in late October or early November.

Lloyd-Webber also revealed to Baz that, as predicted by previous rumours, Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess will launch the show in the two main leads.

Variety recently reported that the show would open in Toronto at the Canon Theater, where the original Phantom launched in Canada in 1989, although Lloyd-Webber has now confirmed that it will open after London at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto and then go to Broadway.

The show’s music is written by Lloyd Webber with a book by Ben Elton, who has more than proved his musical credentials with We Will Rock You, which continues to pack them in and celebrates the start of its 8^th year in London from the end of April.

The book is based on an original idea by best selling author Frederick Forsyth, and is set in Coney Island in 1907.

Ramin Karimloo (pictured) is currently appearing as the Phantom in the West End and will continue in the role in the new production. The actor was born in Iran and brought up in Canada.

A notice placed on the Actors’ Equity Association website says of the plot that, “the mysterious “Maestro” who runs the theatre at Coney Island announces a one-off concert by legendary Parisian soprano Christine Daaé. Her arrival in New York with husband Raoul, Victome de Chagny and son Gustave, and their subsequent meeting with the “Maestro,” bring the cataclysmic events of 10 years earlier at the Paris Opera crashing back into all their lives.”

Director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell – the dream team from the Hairspray musical – will stage the show.

O’Brien said to Baz that Lloyd-Webber was enormously passionate about the project: “‘It is like the last flowering of a great era of lyric romanticism – the theatre doesn’t seem to have that any more.”

It is unclear whether Jospeh, currently playing at the Adelphi Theatre starring Gareth Gates, will extend its run until Love Never Dies Opens.

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Original article published 20 March 2009