The sequel to the longest-running show on the Great White Way will finally land in the U.S.! Broadway.com has confirmed that Love Never Dies, the follow-up to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, will tour North America in the 2017-18 season. The production is based on the Australian reworked incarnation of the musical, directed by Simon Phillips, which was later filmed and will bow in Hamburg, Germany, this fall.
"There is no official announcement at this time, but after the success of the show in Sydney and Melbourne and subsequent DVD, Andrew Lloyd Webber is delighted by the interest and looks forward to American audiences seeing this Australian production," said a spokesperson for the composer in a statement.
Love Never Dies follows the Phantom to Coney Island, New York, where he begins a new life among the side shows, but still pines over Christine. When the Phantom lures Christine and her family across the world, their love story continues. The tuner features music by Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, a book by Lloyd Webber, Slater and Ben Elton, and additional lyrics by Charles Hart.
The original West End production of Love Never Dies opened in March 2010, directed by Jack O’Brien and starring Broadway faves Les Miz's Ramin Karimloo and It Shoulda Been You's Sierra Boggess. The show closed after a year's run and Main Stem plans were officially scrapped, although Lloyd Webber later said he was "sure" the subsequent revamped Australian version would hit the Great White Way.
Watch Broadway.com’s exclusive interview with Lloyd Webber and Phillips below, as they discuss the 2014 Japanese production.