LOVE NEVER DIES Australian Leads to be Announced Next Week

The continuation of Broadway's longest-running musical The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies will open in May 2011 at the Regent Theatre. It's now been announced that The Phantom and Christine will be revealed in Melbourne next week, in a special announcement that will also feature the pair singing two songs from the show ('Til I Hear You Sing and Love Never Dies) along with a full orchestra. Nearly 900 entertainers are said to have had auditioned for the parts. 

The Australian production will not be a carbon copy of the London production, and instead will have new design and a new director. Simon Phillips (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) will direct, with Gabriela Tylesova behind the design. Guy Simpson, who worked with the Australian production of Phantom, will serve as music supervisor, and Graeme Murphy will choreograph. 

Tickets for Love Never Dies in Australia have been on sale since October, and are selling through July 2011. 

"I'm delighted that Andrew Lloyd Webber has chosen an Australian team to work on his inspired new structural changes, which promise to further intensify the thrills and spills of the story as told in London. I've already begun developing a design with Gabriela Tylesova, hoping to do with the razzamatazz of Coney Island what Maria Bjornson's iconic Phantom designs did with the opulence of the Paris Opera!" Simon Phillips said in a statement.

The London production, running in the Adelphi Theatre, features direction by Jack O'Brien, choreography by Jerry Mitchell, and design by Bob Crowley. It opened to lukewarm reviews in March 2010.

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.

Visit http://www.loveneverdies.com/ for tickets and more information.