The Lord works in mysterious ways. For years now Andrew Lloyd Webber has nursed the idea of a sequel to his most successful show The Phantom of the Opera, for years Phantom fans have pondered what might have become of him after that â??final exitâ?.
Nightly he vanishes from his subterranean lair deep in the bowels of the Paris Opera House (a.k.a. Her Majestyâ??s Theatre) leaving only his iconic half-mask as a symbolic reminder of his continuing omnipotence on stages throughout the world: 149 cities across 86 countries. Follow that. Lloyd Webber has.
Itâ??s 10 years on from the fabled â??disappearanceâ? and five minutes walk from Her Majestyâ??s to the Adelphi Theatre where Phantom 2 Love Never Dies is in the final stages of preparation. The man himself â?? Lloyd Webber, that is â?? escorts me into the gutted auditorium where an army of technicians and banks of computer screens are rather more suggestive of space exploration than musical theatre. The orchestra will be in situ for the first time and in a couple of hours the showâ??s big opener will see Coney Island, New York, rise from the ashes of one of its countless fires and reanimate to the strains of a sumptuous bitter-sweet waltz in the grand tradition of Lloyd Webberâ??s great idol Richard Rodgersâ?? Carousel.
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