Phantom 2: Love Never Dies to premiere on Broadway in Nov 2010

Yesterday, Andrew Lloyd webber took to the stage of the Majestic Theatre after the matinee performance of Phantom of the Opera and announced that the Phantom sequel, Love Never Dies, will bow on Broadway Nov in 2010.

The announcement was made during celebrations being held at the Majestic Theatre to mark the 9000th performance of Phantom of the Opera, the first Broadway show in the history of the Great White Way to have ever done so.

Phantom of the Opera does not actually play its 9000th performance until this evening (17 Sep 2009), but the celebration was held in anticipation.

Now in its phenomenal 22nd year, the Cameron Mackintosh/Really Useful Group, Inc. production, directed by Harold Prince, continues to play at The Majestic Theatre, with no apparent end in sight.

On Broadway, since its debut on 26 Jan 1988, Phantom of the Opera has grossed $740 million, making it the highest-grossing show in Broadway history. Total attendance is over 13 million.

Andrew Lloyd Webber used the celebrations on 16th Sep to make the surprise announcement that Phantom 2: Love Never Dies will bow on Broadway in Nov 2010 - he revealed nothing further about the forthcoming Broadway musical.

The announcement ends months of speculation about where Love Never Dies will have its premiere. Lloyd Webber originally hinted he wanted the musical to bow on Broadway - which would be fitting since the story of the new musical will be set in New York's Coney Island.

Then at Eurovision Song Contest press conference on 16 May 2009 Lloyd Webber announced that the musical would premiere simultaneously on Broadway and in London's West End in Mar 2010.

Now, after countless speculation encouraged by the composer, the details for the world and broadway premieres are finally becoming known.

Love Never Dies will have its world premiere in London in the early part of 2010. It is belived performances will begin in Mar 2010 at London's Adelphi Theatre. Further details of the World premiere production will be announced on 8 Oct 2009.

With this latest statement by Lloyd Webber, it is now expected for the musical to bow on Broadway in Nov 2010, though no definate dates were provided by the composer during his surprise announcement.

For Broadway fans eagerly awaiting an opportunity to see the new production it is still too early to pencil the date into their diaries, for that we still have to wait for an official announcement.

A report last year in The New York Post said the musical will be "Set in 1906 in Coney Island. The Phantom, having fled Paris, is running a freak show. At night, he crawls into his lair" (where he is kept company by 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 recent casting notice also offered a similar discription: �In 1907 New York, the mysterious �Maestro� who runs the theatre at Coney Island announces a one-off concert by legendary Parisian soprano Christine Daa�. 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.�

It now known that the sequel will have book by Ben Elton and Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, direction by Jack O'Brien and design by Bob Crowley, with choreography by Jerry Mitchell and lighting by Paule Constable.