Lloyd Webber Unmasks Phantom II in New York???

Andrew Lloyd Webber has confirmed that he’s going ahead on a sequel to his hugely popular musical The Phantom of the Opera (See The Goss, 20 Feb 2007). The project - which the composer originally started working on almost a decade ago, in collaboration with author Frederick Forsyth - was dropped back in 1999, after which Forsyth released the tale as a novel, The Phantom in Manhattan. Set in New York in the early 1900s, the story sees the Phantom flee to the Big Apple, where he builds the Manhattan Opera House and persuades his old flame Christine, now a huge star, to sing for him once more. Now Lloyd Webber has taken up the project again - with some changes - to form a sequel to his iconic musical. The Phantom of the Opera has been running for more than 20 years at the West End's Her Majesty's Theatre. In the romantic story, based on the gothic novel by Gaston Leroux, a mysterious masked phantom haunts the backstage areas of the Paris opera house, dedicating his musical gift to chorus girl, Christine, who is beguiled by the phantom but becomes engaged to a young admirer.

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