Love Never Dies....Or Does It?

So in scanning Broadway.com today I came across an article stating that some big news will be released on October 8th concerning Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to The Phantom of the Opera entitled Love Never Dies (http://www.loveneverdies.com/). When the website loads a letter from "The Phantom" appears and you can click it to watch a teaser trailer with scenes from the Las Vegas show which features actress Sierra Boggess as Christine who will be reprising the role for the sequel.

The new musical was supposed to be based on the novel The Phantom of Manhattan which was written as a sequel to the musical not the original novel. It appears most of the plot has been used as Love Never Dies is set in New York and involves an amusement park. Having read the novel, I thought the plot was a bit weak and the ending left a great deal to be desired. It's a short novel and a fairly quick read. My main complaint was that all of the narratives are told from secondary characters' points of view instead of focusing on Christine, Raoul, and, of course, the phantom himself.

My opinion is that Andrew Lloyd Webber should have left well enough alone. The movie was bad enough. The Phantom of the Opera is perfect as is, and the story is haunting as it leaves the theater goer able to come up with their own conclusions of what might have happened after the Phantom disappears from his lair. To me this is the quickest way to put to death one of my favorite musicals.