Webber Moves 'Phantom' to Coney Island

Producers say the sequel will be ''a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue.'' It is set 10 years after the Phantom's mysterious disappearance from Paris. Funny, I left Phantom almost 10 years ago... I wonder what they say happened to the ladies of the ballet chorus...? They became dancewear designers?

(AP) -- The Phantom of the Opera is coming back -- but this time, he'll be haunting the amusement park at New York's Coney Island rather than the Paris opera house.

Star composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on Thursday announced a long-awaited sequel to his massively successful ''Phantom of the Opera,'' one of the world's best loved and longest running musicals.

The new production will be called ''Love Never Dies.'' It is due to open in London in March of next year. The musical will also be staged in New York beginning November 2010 and will open in Australia in 2011.

The musical picks up a decade after the original's conclusion, and has the Phantom trading his customary hideout beneath the Paris opera house for Coney Island, the iconic Brooklyn amusement park known for its roller coasters and ''Nathan's Famous'' hot dogs.

Webber said he wanted to produce a sequel because the conclusion of the original was too boring.

The original hit musical, a longtime fixture on the London and New York stages, featured elaborate staging and songs like ''The Music of the Night,'' and ''All I Ask of You.''

Based on the French novel by Gaston Leroux, the play has been seen by more than 100 million people worldwide and has been translated into 15 languages and staged in 25 different countries, including Brazil, China and Poland.

The album of the show has sold more than 40 million copies.

Producers say the sequel will be ''a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue.'' It is set 10 years after the Phantom's mysterious disappearance from Paris.

Few details were released Thursday, but a new official Web site devoted to the sequel shows an early trans-Atlantic ocean liner making a voyage across the sea.

Tickets for the London shows at the Adelphi Theatre were placed on sale Thursday and fans were also told they could pre-order the album of the show's tunes.

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The New York Times addresses the problem

New York’s garment center, once the heart of an industry that employed hundreds of thousands of workers and produced most of the clothing in the United States, is in danger of extinction.

For decades, cheaper foreign competitors and rising rents forced many of the sewing and cutting rooms and the button and zipper shops that once thrived on the side streets south of Times Square to close, shrink or move as mass production shifted to China, India and Latin America.

Now, even the remaining factories and shops that make the couture coats, dresses and other apparel for glamorous fashion designers like Nicole Miller, Yeohlee Teng, Anna Sui and Nanette Lepore are in jeopardy. Owners say they are caught in a vise between declining retail sales and landlords eager to find better-paying tenants.

Some city officials and industry leaders worry that if manufacturing is wiped out, many of the designers who bring so much luster to New York will leave, along with the city’s claim to be a fashion capital rivaling Paris and Milan.

The Bloomberg administration is now considering designating one or more large buildings in the garment center solely for manufacturing and related businesses.