Mackintosh told Daily Variety the Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster will be produced in an all-new version. Directed by Laurence Connor, it will feature new sets and costumes by Paul Brown and lighting by three-time Olivier Award winner Paule Constable. Mackintosh said the production will open at a regional UK house.

The tour of Phantom is something that has been mooted in the West End for some time. It is the 25th Anniversary of Phantom in October this year with rumours of a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall. So a tour next year would make sense. Also Ramin Karimloo who has just extended his contract to play the Phantom in Love Never Dies has been tweeting that he has an exciting project lined up for next year

Love Never Dies Australian Cast

Love Never Dies Australia Cast

The Australian Christine is to be played by a previous Christine from The Phantom Of The Opera. Anna O’Byrne has already played the part to great acclaim in an Australian tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Anna is an award-winning classically trained singer, and has performed as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and appeared in works by Mozart, Puccini and Ibert for The Victorian Opera, Victorian College of the Arts and Victorian Youth Opera.

The Phantom  in the new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is being played by Ben Lewis.

Ben’s previous stage credits include the original Australian cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical, Sir Galahad in the original Australian cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot, two-seasons as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Urinetown with Sydney Theatre Company and Polites in The Odyssey for Black Swan and the Malthouse.

Performances begin in Melbourne on May 29th 2011 at the Regent Theatre.

If you miss it on the night and you are a UK resident don;t worry because you will be able to log in to the BBC Radio “Listen again” service, the iPLayer – a link to the exact show will be provided here later.

Ramin and Sierra from Love Never Dies sing a selection of music about the masked men of stage and screen with a programme that includes songs from Robin Hood, William Tell, The Masked Ball, Batman and Spiderman.

Andrew Lloyd Webber gets to introduce the pieces from his own shows including The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies with Ramin and Sierra accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Simon Lee.

Michael Ball will be hosting an exclusive interview with Webber about Love Never Dies as well as his production of The Wizard of Oz.

Ramin Karimloo of course plays the role of The Phantom in the Adelphi Theatre production of Love Never Dies.

The episode can be seen live on ITV1 on Friday September 10th at 3pm in the afternoon, or later on the ITV Player at : http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=the%20michael%20ball%20show
Michael Ball and Andrew Lloyd Webber have worked together many time in the past, for example when Michael played Raoul in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, and Alex in Aspects of Love at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London and on Broadway.

Michael Ball DVDs

The show is a casting competition for another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Wizard of Oz which opens in London in April 2011 with a Leading Lady – the part of Dorothy, chosen by the public. Sierra Boggess helped out with the final four contestants during the week giving them advice on singing, stamina, and the West End Leading Lady lifestyle which the lucky winner might expect.

The performance was also interpreted visually by none other than Ice dance superstars Torvill and Dean.

So what did you think?

I was struck by the performance style of Sierra Boggess being reminiscent of the Sarah Brightman who was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s inspiration for the original Phantom of The Opera. The flourishing crescendo of that operetta style is a bit much for my taste just for a few moments but I did recognise a great show tune in there which will have a strong emotional appeal when seen live at the theatre in just a few weeks tine when Love Never Dies opens in London. I did actually start humming the tune the next day after only having heard it once.

Bluebird is a passionate new musical, set during World War Two and charts the story of ordinary people living in extraordinary times. It tells the heartbreaking story of Roberta Jones (Sarah Lark) as she comes to terms with her husband Pete (Stephen Weller) going off to war. Roberta, a nurse, soon meets the charismatic U.S. serviceman Ben (Ramin Karimloo) and a friendship grows, much to the disapproval of best friend, Jane (Abi Finely).

Ramin Karimloo remarked:

It was great to help out a new and up and coming British composer. (Gareth Peters) He has put his heart and soul into this project. I think he’s done a great job and was honored to be asked to take part in it and also have a song written for me. It was also a lot of fun to go back to singing with a rockier sound.

According to an interview published in the Telegraph last month, Ramin Karimloo star of The Phantom of The Opera and Love Never Dies said he believed the Phantom showed clear signs of the condition known as Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism. Sufferers often have difficulties with communication and social relationships.

According to Ramin Karimloo, who joined the London production of Phantom of The Opera two years ago, the autistic spectrum and asperger’s in particular could explain the Phantom’s eccentric traits, his musical genius and his difficulty with social interactions which led him to hide away beneath the Paris Opera House for all those years.

It’s an interesting theory, which could also help to bring better public understanding of the increasing common condition of autistic spectrum symptoms but it seems to me that Ramin Karimloo is completely ignoring the effect of the Phantom’s facial disfigurement and hence the mask in the story which is set two centuries ago. But never mind,

“I saw a documentary on Asperger’s syndrome and it made a lot of sense to me,”

said Karimloo.

Ramin Karimloo was born in Iran and has been central to the launch of Love Never Dies, the long awaited Phantom story continuation which Andrew Lloyd Webber says “is not a sequel”

Love Never Dies with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess opens in London in March 2010 at the Adelphi Theatre, and then later around the world.