The New York Times
August 31, 2010
Patrick Healy   
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‘Love Never Dies’ less likely for Broadway this season

It looks increasingly like “Love Never Dies,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera,” will not be coming to Broadway in the spring of 2011 as planned.

While a spokesman for the production said on Tuesday that “Love Never Dies” was still set for the Neil Simon Theater in the spring, the director and choreographer of the show in London, Jack O’Brien and Jerry Mitchell, who were expected to work on the Broadway version, have left the production to focus on their new musical “Catch Me If You Can,” according to two Broadway producers who are not involved with either show, but have spoken with the men.

The two producers shared the details on condition of anonymity because Messrs. O’Brien and Mitchell asked them not to say anything publicly. They said that their understanding, from the director and choreographer, was that a Broadway version of “Love Never Dies” would not happen this season. Mr. O’Brien and Mr. Mitchell did not return messages seeking comment.
“Love Never Dies” opened in March in London to mostly negative reviews,some of them quite harsh, and several prominent Broadway producers returned to New York from seeing the show with the same judgment: The book and parts of the score were by no means ready for New York. Then, in April, the production announced that the Broadway run of the show, which had been scheduled this fall, would be delayed for several months because Mr. Lloyd Webber was dealing with postoperative problems from his treatment for prostate cancer.

A third producer, Margo Lion, who is aiming to bring “Catch Me If You Can” to Broadway this season, said she did not know if Messrs. O’Brien and Mitchell had left the “Love Never Dies” production. However, she added, the two men were committed to her show this season if she is able to land a Broadway theater for it, which she expects.
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The spokesman for “Love Never Dies,” Adrian Bryan-Brown, said that plans to bring the show to Broadway in the spring were still on, and “we’re just waiting for a date.”


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