Lloyd-Webber writes Phantom sequel

Lord Lloyd-Webber has written a sequel to his hit show The Phantom of the Opera, which in 22 years has grossed £5bn, making it the world's most lucrative musical. Entitled Phantom: Love Never Dies, it will receive its premiere at the end of 2009 and is set to make theatrical history if, as Lloyd Webber intends, it opens in London, Broadway and an as yet unnamed Asian city at the same time.

Said Lloyd-Webber: "I don't think you could do this if it wasn't the sequel to Phantom ... We've been into the feasibility of rehearsing three companies at once and opening very fast in the three territories. The one which really interests me [in the Far East] would be China ... I think to open Love Never Dies in Shanghai would be an enormous thing."

The sequel is set a decade or so after the first show ends, during which time the Phantom has relocated from the Paris Opera to Coney Island, Brooklyn, then still a hugely popular beach-side amusement resort for New Yorkers. "It was the place," said Lloyd Webber. "Even Freud went because it was so extraordinary ... people who were freaks and oddities were drawn towards it because it was a place where they could be themselves."

The production has yet to be cast, but Lloyd-Webber said: "We are pretty clear who our Phantom is going to be - I can't say who."