Just in time for Halloween, Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced that his long-planned sequel to the smash hit musical The Phantom of the Opera will open next March in London, and November 2010 in New York. Titled “Love Never Dies”, it continues the story of the Phantom, who has left the Paris Opera House and moved to the fairgrounds of Coney Island in New York. According to an interview with Lloyd Webber, many of the characters from the original musical will be returning, including Christine, the Phantom’s love interest.

The musical The Phantom of the Opera is based on a book of the same name (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) by French author Gaston Leroux, originally published in 1910. The musical premiered in 1986 in London and 1988 in the US, starring Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Sarah Brightman as Christine. It is the longest-running musical in Broadway history, and the highest-grossing as well.

While Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is the most famous adaptation of the story, it is not the only one. There is a 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney, a 1943 movie featuring Claude Rains as the Phantom, and the 2004 film version of the musical, starring Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, and Patrick Wilson. Several authors have also written their own sequels to The Phantom of the Opera. Susan Kay’s 1990 novel Phantom is a reinterpretation of the story from the point of view of Erik, the Phantom. Frederick Forsyth’s The Phantom of Manhattan (1999) is a sequel to Lloyd Webber’s musical (rather than Leroux’s novel) in which the Phantom has moved to New York. Andrew Lloyd Webber's new sequel is said to be inspired by the same ideas as Forsyth's novel.