Phantom: Once Upon Another Time: Lloyd Webber reveals first act of his Phantom sequel

The New York Post reports that Andrew Lloyd Webber revealed the first act to his sequal to Phantom of the Opera at his annual Sydmonton Festival, which took place two weeks ago.

The concert reading was narrated by director Jack O'Brien, who is to helm the show when it plays in London's West End, where it is expected to bow in Nov 2009.

There are apparently no plans. at present, to bring the production to Broadway, but considering the success of Phantom of the Opera, Broadway's longest running show ever, it should not be long before the production crosses the Atlantic, if it is received well in London.

The New York Post report descirbes Phantom: Once Upon Another Time has being "Set in 1906 in Coney Island. The Phantom, having fled Paris, is running a freak show. At night, he crawls into his lair and makes love to 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?

Phantom: Once Upon Another Time has book by Ben Elton, with lyrics by Glenn Slater, lyricist for the Disney musical The Little Mermaid and design by Bob Crowley.

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.'