SEQUEL-ITIS has not only infected the movie business, it's coming to live theater. Andrew Lloyd Webber announced yesterday a long-awaited sequel to his massively successful "The Phantom of the Opera."

This time he'll be haunting the amusement park at New York's Coney Island so we guess they couldn't work out a licensing deal with Great Adventure.

"There's unfinished business," Lloyd Webber told journalists assembled for a teaser - a new song featuring the Phantom, played by Iranian-born Canadian Ramin Karimloo, and his love interest, Christine, played by American actress Sierra Boggess....

It picks up a decade after the original's conclusion, and has the Phantom moving to Coney Island, which almost sounds like a "Saturday Night Live" skit, but isn't.

Lloyd Webber said he wanted to produce a sequel because the original's ending, which sees Christine leave the sexy, masked Phantom for his rival, Raoul the dullard, was unsatisfactory.

He said he wanted to set the piece at Coney Island because, at its turn-of-the-century heyday, it was "the eighth wonder of the world."

Wouldn't it be cool if in the new version, instead of a chandelier falling, the Cyclone rollercoaster flies off its rails into the audience?

And don't forget, Nathan's hot dogs at the refreshment stand.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists...ney_Island.html

I was fortunate enough to hear some of the music from the show since I am in "the business."

I am never one for sequels... movies, tv shows etc... only because they always seem to fall short. On Broadway it's never fared better (Think "Bring Back Birdie." Oy vey!)

Not saying this wont... however the few songs I've heard from it are incredible. There's one called "Till I hear you sing" that is on par with his mega hits "Memory," "Music of the Night," and "Don't Cry for me."

That song alone has caused me to become VERY excited about this show. Well, that and the fact I recently got to experience Coney firsthand recently.

Rumor has it that the opening of the show will include EXTREMELY rare footage of Coney in it's heyday shown on the main curtain during the overture. Apparently it's film found only in the National Archives. Oh and the overture has a haunting/turn of the century/carousel sound to it. It's IMO as memorable as the original Phantom overture.

So far, so good!

Shaggy

I adore Phantom so much! This is wonderful news and November 2010 is not that far away. I see a roadtrip in my future...

I did a search and found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq_tkxWV-QY

It's a link to the press announcement held in London this week. If you skip to 7:24, you'll see the Coney Island footage I was referring to. If you skip to 11:04 in the video, then you'll hear the song I was referring to.

Shaggy

I'm excited about this. Phantom was always my favorite musical in high school (everyone else was raving about Les Mis at the time, which I didn't give a chance until after I graduated college... and found that I liked Les Mis slightly better). And to set it at Coney Island will give them the opportunity to create some awesome sets. I can't wait to see the production. I'll have to wait until I have a chance at home to watch the video, since I don't have sound hear at work.