STAGE TUBE: Sierra Boggess Sings 'Love Never Dies'

 Andrew Lloyd Webber premiered the title song of LOVE NEVER DIES with new leading lady Sierra Boggess at the South Bank Awards Show in London. 

Sierra Boggess (who plays Christine) sang while Louise Hunt and Lloyd Webber both play the piano. The performance took place at the final South Bank Awards show at the Dorchester hotel on January 26. The awards were broadcast on January 31. 

The UK Press Association quotes Lloyd Webber as saying, "I am absolutely delighted to be able to accompany my new Christine as she gives the very first performance of Love Never Dies at the last ever South Bank Show Awards - no television show in the last half century has done more for the arts than the South Bank Show and we are very much looking forward to being part of this final ceremony."

The theme music of the South Bank Show is taken from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations composed in 1977 for his brother, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. This is based on the theme from Paganini's "24th Caprice".

Awards host Melvyn Bragg said, according to the UK Press Association, "I could not be more pleased that Andrew has chosen to bring the world premiere of Love Never Dies to the South Bank Show Awards.

"The films we've made with him over the 30 years have charted a unique and phenomenal career in music theatre. It is just great that, having been in at the beginning, he is helping us to bring the curtain down."

"LOVE NEVER DIES" continues the story of ‘The Phantom', who has moved from his lair in the Paris Opera House to haunt the fairgrounds of Coney Island, far across the Atlantic. Set ten years after the mysterious disappearance of ‘The Phantom' from Paris, this show is a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue...in which music and memory can play cruel tricks...and ‘The Phantom' sets out to prove that, indeed, "LOVE NEVER DIES".

The World Premiere of "LOVE NEVER DIES" will take place in London on 9 March 2010 at the Adelphi Theatre. Previews begin on 20 February. The show will subsequently open in New York on 11 November 2010 and then in Australia in 2011.