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Phantom: Once Upon a Time

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Phantom: Once Upon Another Time is a stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, planned to debut in London in November 2009. The musical will be the sequel to Lloyd Webber's 1986 hit musical The Phantom of the Opera.

Early Rumors

Phantom: Once Upon Another Time's roots go back to at least 1997, when author Frederick Forsyth published, with Lloyd Webber's endorsement, his novel 'The Phantom of Manhattan'. This book, intended as a sequel to Lloyd Webber's first Phantom musical, followed the story of Erik (the Phantom) after the end of that musical, as he flees to America and eventually becomes a very wealthy (if reclusive) man by designing attractions for the Coney Island amusement parks. The book went against many of the ideas established in the original musical, as well as being dismissive of the original The Phantom of the Opera novel, leading most fans to dislike of the new book for 'ruining' Phantom, with reactions ranging from simply ignoring its existence, to outright hatred. There was some talk of Lloyd Webber adapting the story for the stage, but, with the book's poor reception, the idea of a Phantom sequel hung in limbo while Lloyd Webber worked on other projects.

Confirmation

But it wouldn't always be this way: In early March of 2007, in his website's video blog, Andrew Lloyd Webber announced that he would officially be moving forward in the production of a Phantom sequel[1]. He wasn't ready to release all the details yet (most of them probably yet unwritten), but was able to divulge that it would be set in New York City. From that, it wasn't difficult for everyone to infer that he was in fact writing Phantom of Manhattan as a musical. This became even clearer later on, in May 2007, when Frederick Forsyth was confirmed to be collaborating with Lloyd Webber on the plot of the new musical[2]. Forsyth however, a mystery writer by trade, was apparently ill-suited to plotting romantic musicals, and soon dropped from the production team.

Otto

Meanwhile, Andrew Lloyd Webber was hard at work composing the score of the new musical. In a strike of dramatic irony (considering Lloyd Webber's 'other' huge hit, Cats), Lloyd Webber's six-month-old Turkish Van kitten, Otto, somehow managed to delete the entire score from Lloyd Webber's digital piano[3]. It's unknown exactly how Otto did this, but he reportedly climbed inside the piano, a Clavinova, and from there mananaged to erase the memory of the piano's internal computer. The Phantom fans 'adopted' Otto as a mascot of sorts, saying that "even a cat could see that [the sequel] is a bad idea", and hoping that if he deleted it again, Lloyd Webber might 'give up' on writing it. Sadly for Otto, this wasn't to be the case: a few months after the incident, Lloyd Webber announced in his video blog that "...Otto, my first swimming cat, was killed on the road... It's a dangerous stretch of road outside our family home, where many pets have been lost." With Otto gone, the writing continued.

The Production Team

Even with the best of composers at the helm, a stage musical is nothing without a good team to back it up. Tim Rice, who had collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber in the past, was alleged to have been approached to be the lyricist for the sequel, but eventually Glen Slater was chosen for the job[4]. Later announcements included Ben Elton as the librettist[5], Jack O'Brien as the director, and Bob Crowley, who will be the designer of the sequel[6].

Casting Rumors

As the production process progressed and those involved began to get a better grasp of who the characters were and how they had changed since the first musical, casting also began to be more seriously considered. Many names were mentioned in connection to the part of Erik, including Michael Crawford (the original London and Broadway Phantom), and Gerard Butler[7] (who portrayed the Phantom in the 2004 film version of the musical). But none were more strongly rumored than West End and television star John Barrowman. In July 2007 it was confirmed that Barrowman was Lloyd Webber's own personal choice for the role[8]. As of May 2008, Barrowman has confirmed that he is in the process of deciding between two roles: Erik in Phantom 2 or the title role in Cameron Mackintosh's production of Barnum[9], which are both planned to begin their runs in late 2009[10]. Also in July 2007, Lloyd Webber talked about his choice to play Christine in the sequel: mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins[11]. Lloyd Webber has met with both she and Barrowman, and, when seeing them together reportedly said "That's it, I have my two romantic leads."[12] The (as yet unconfirmed) casting of Jenkins puzzles some, as the part of Christine has traditionally been played by a soprano, not a mezzo-soprano.

The Musical is Named

Throughout these discussions and rumors, another question lingered: what would the new show be called? 'Phantom 2'? 'The Phantom of New York'? The possibility of it being called 'The Phantom of Manhattan' had diminised slightly, since it was announced that the musical actually wasn't going to be based on Phantom of Manhattan (even though it still retains the same basic plot). 'The Phantom of Coney Island' was a front-runner for possible names, especially after it was discovered that The Really Useful Group (Lloyd Webber's production company) had recently registered the domain name of 'phantomofconeyisland.com'. Finally, in May 2008, on the live finale of his show I'd Do Anything, Andrew Lloyd Webber made the announcement that the sequel would be called 'Phantom: Once Upon Another Time'.[13]

Preview at Sydmonton

In July of 2008, the first act of Phantom: Once Upon Another Time was performed at Lloyd Webber's annual Sydmonton Festival. From the plot summary provided by attendants of this preview, it seems to be quite similar to the Phantom of Manhattan novel, with the largest apparent difference being that, rather than an amusement park designer, Erik becomes a freakshow proprietor after he reached New York.[14]

Fan Opinion

It is the general consensus among fans of the original Phantom musical that a sequel is unneeded, and is even a possible threat to it's precursor: According to them, the sequel will fail miserably at the box office, and make people who haven't yet seen the original Phantom think badly of it. These feelings of dislike stem greatly from feelings that the Phantom of Manhattan novel left in its wake: Any sequel that could have been written would be poisoned by fan's memories of the book. Andrew Lloyd Webber's choice to write a musical based on Phantom of Manhattan only made matters worse. There aren't many fans of the sequel's name, either: it sounds "too much like a Disney movie" some have said. Many fans have written to Andrew Lloyd Webber, complaining, as well as starting petitions and vowing to boycott the show. None of these efforts seem to have made any impact on Lloyd Webber's decision.

Other Sequels

A theatre company in Portugal is reportedly also currently working on a sequel to Phantom-- this time the original Gaston Leroux novel. This musical will be called The Phantom of Paris, and is planned to debut in London's East End in 2009.[15]


References

18, 2008

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