LOVE NEVER DIES Still Hoping to Hit Broadway?

Michael Riedel writes in today's New York Post that composer Andrew Lloyd Webber will be screening the filmed version of the Australian production of LOVE NEVER DIES to theatre executives in New York next week, with the hopes that it'll lead to a production on the road or in New York. 

Riedel writes that "He hopes the movie will spark interest in future live productions. There are no official plans for “Love Never Dies” just yet. But if those influential insiders like what they see, the show could wind up on Broadway next season. One strategy may be to tour it across the country before bringing it to New York."

LOVE NEVER DIES, Andrew Lloyd Webber's follow-up musical to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA will arrive on DVD in the US on May 29, 2012. 

According to the Sydney Morning Herald in late December, the show might have a future in Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul. Andrew Lloyd Webber told SMH that he 'would like the show to tour Canada,' though he 'would not rush straight into Broadway.' 

Lloyd Webber told SMH: 'I find film fascinating because you can get so much more from it, you are into the actors' thoughts in film. I want to go back to the West End, in due course. The fact is, we made a miscalculation closing when we did in London … In the last few weeks of the West End run, people really started to get into it but by then it was too late to extend the season because the theatre had another booking.'

With lush visuals and a mesmerizing score that rivals the original in power and beauty, this live production of "Love Never Dies" finds Christine and the Phantom reunited in turn-of-the-century New York City after a decade apart.

The principal characters of The Phantom of the Opera continue their stories in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies. 10 years after the mysterious disappearance of The Phantom from the Paris Opera House, Christine Daaé accepts an offer to come to America and perform at New York's fabulous new playground of the world - Coney Island. Christine arrives in New York with her husband Raoul and their son Gustave. She soon discovers the identity of the anonymous impresario who has lured her from France to sing.

Ben Lewis, who appeared in the original Australian casts of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT and SPAMALOT stars as the Phantom, opposite Anna O'Byrne as Christine Daaé. O'Byrne previously played the role in an Australian tour of PHANTOM.

LOVE NEVER DIES opened January 12 at Sydney's Capitol Theatre. It plays through March 11.

The Australian productions are not a carbon copy of the London production, and instead have new design and a new director. Simon Phillips (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) directs, with Gabriela Tylesova behind the design. Guy Simpson, who worked with the Australian production of Phantom, serves as music supervisor, and Graeme Murphy choreographs. 

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