The Phantom of the Opera Moves to Coney Island

Posted by Robin Ruinsky (robin@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 2, 2009

When we last saw The Phantom of the Opera both on stage and on screen, he had slipped out of the opera house and taken off to parts unknown leaving his mask and his lair behind.

The same can’t be said for Andrew Lloyd Webber who took Gaston Leroux’s nineteenth century horror novel and turned it into a musical romance that hit the twenty year mark on Broadway this year. “The Phantom of the Opera” is Leroux’s most famous work and while Lloyd Webber has had his share of mega hits, The Phantom of the Opera is still his most successful and biggest hit of them all.

In the new Lloyd Webber musical sequel “Love Never Dies” the Phantom doesn’t quite make it to Manhattan. Instead he settles in Brooklyn, Coney Island to be exact. There he starts at the bottom working himself up from freak show exhibit to Coney Island’s main man. I’m wondering if he has a song called “Fuhgeddaboudit” backed by a chorus of happy freak show employees.

Names of possible Phantoms have included Hugh Jackman and Gerard Bulter, who played the role in the film version. Jackman has musical theater experience but is supposed to be of sound mind, so I doubt he’d take this on. Butler has no musical theater experience, and I don’t see him suspending his film career to go into training for this. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing him kick his romantic rival Raoul down a well while yelling “This is Brooklyn!”

Lloyd Webber wants his sequel to open simultaneously in London, New York and Shanghai so he might be looking at three former stage Phantoms to take on the role. Somehow I doubt this will happen. It seems more likely the show will open in London and if it’s successful it will open on Broadway.

As for the love of his tortured life, Christine, there’s no word on any prospects for the role. The plot line of course will have The Phantom of Coney Island luring his lost love back to him via his music. Maybe he’ll sing to her in a transatlantic phone call.

I know you’re just dying to know what I really think of a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. Personally I think the Phantom should escape his lair into our imaginations and stay there. A sequel? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Read more articles by Robin Ruinsky