Phantom of the Opera - 2: O'Brien to direct & Crowley to design

London's Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye has reported in his column this week that Jack O'Brien will direct, and Bob Crowley design, Andrew Lloyd's Webber Phantom of the Opera 2.

According to the article Lloyd Webber has composed most of the music, but there is still work to do on the book and lyrics. Ben Elton, who worked with Lloyd Webber on the musical 'The Beautiful Game' has worked on the book, but not to the satisfaction of the composer, who has now asked the author Frederick Forsythe to work with the musical's director O'Brien.

O'Brien has a reputation for bringing complex texts to the stage, his recent staging of Tom Stoppard's trilogy 'The Coast of Utopia' earned him the 2007 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. His other Tony Award winning credits are 'Henry IV' (2004) and 'Hairspray' (2003). He has been nominated for Tony's for his direction of 'Porgy and Bess' (1977), 'The Piano Lesson' (1990), 'Two Shakespearean Actors' (1992), 'The Invention of Love' (2001), 'The Full Monty' (2001), 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' (2005).

Designer Bob Crowley won three Tony Awards in 2007: Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Mary Poppins), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Mary Poppins) and Best Scenic Design of a Play (The Coast of Utopia).

Work on a sequel began almost a decade ago when the author Frederick Forsyth was asked to write a sequel to the story in the original Phantom of the Opera. In 1998, at a concert held at London's Royal Albert Hall to celebrate his 50th birthday, Lloyd Webber revealed the song "The Heart Is Slow to Learn," performed by opera diva Kiri Te Kanawa, written for the sequel.

The composer dropped the idea of a Phantom of the Opera sequal in 1999 to work on his musical 'The Beautiful Game'. Author Frederick Forsythe then published, in 1999, the story he had written for the musical as a novel named 'The Phantom of Manhattan.'

It is believed the sequel will be called'Phantom in Manhattan' and the book will be a re-working of the plot that Forsythe originally wrote a decade ago.

Baz Bamigboye reports "From what I understand, the story would be set 15 years after the events of the first show, which is still running in London. The Phantom has slipped away to New York and has set up a fairground world on Coney Island, along with Madame Giry and her daughter, Meg. He organises a concert in Manhattan for Christine, the object of his desire."

Broadway's longest running musical, The Phantom of the Opera, turned 19 years old on 26 Jan 2007 and on that date will have played 7,923 performances. The musical opened at the Majastic Theatre on 26 Jan 1988, it is a re-working of the ply currently booking to 21 Jul 2007.

The musical became the longest running musical in Broadway history when it played its 7486 on the 9 Jan 2006, on the 21 Jan 2006 it became the only Broadway musical to play more then 7,500 performances.