Photos

Photos: Webber With Love’s Phantom & Christine

Editorial Staff
London's West End

Andrew Lloyd Webber today officially unveiled his long-awaited sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. At the launch event – held at Her Majesty’s Theatre, home of The Phantom of the Opera since it premiered 23 years ago tomorrow – Lloyd Webber was joined on stage by the show’s two stars, Ramin Karimloo, London’s current Phantom, who plays the masked man ten years on in the new story, and American Sierra Boggess.

Love Never Dies will receive its world premiere on 9 March 2010 (previews from 20 February) at the West End’s Adelphi Theatre, before opening on Broadway on 11 November 2010, followed by Australian and other international productions in 2011. The already-recorded concept album, featuring Karimloo and Boggess, will be released on 10 March 2010.

The story is set in 1907, ten years after the conclusion of the original story. The Phantom has escaped to New York with Madame and Meg Giry and found success in Coney Island as a magician and entertainer. When he builds a new opera house, he persuades his old ingenue Christine Daae – now a huge star and married to her old flame Raoul with whom she has a ten-year-old son named Gustave – to sing for him once more. Press material describes the tale as a “rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue” in which the Phantom “set out to prove that, indeed, love never dies”.

The sung-through musical has a score by Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater and a libretto credited to Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton (with whom he previously collaborated on The Beautiful Game) with input from Slater and director Jack O’Brien. Design is by Bob Crowley.


TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL LOVE NEVER DIES LAUNCH PHOTOS, JUST CLICK ON THE “NEXT >” LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.
PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM.


Whatsonstage.com’s full coverage from today’s Love Never Dies launch includes: