Australian ‘Love Never Dies’ to Tour UK in 2013

Andrew Lloyd Webber revealed recently that the Australian version of “Love Never Dies” will tour the U.K. next year.

“The Australian production, which was wonderful – the London production wasn’t very good, the Australians got it right – is going out next year,” he told the Scotsman. “The plan is, that will go on the road here, in the autumn of next year.”

The musical details the story of the principal characters from “The Phantom of the Opera” roughly ten years after the Phantom disappeared from the Paris Opera House. The production follows Christine Daae to Coney Island in New York.

The first version of the musical officially opened in London in March 2010 in West End to poor critical reviews. The production eventually closed in August 2011. A Melbourne production opened at the city’s Regent Theatre in May 2011 and featured a different Australian creative team. The reworked production received much more positive reviews than the London version and ran until December 2011. The production then transferred to Sydney where it ran as a limited engagement from January 2012 to April 2012.

No additional official information has yet been released about the forthcoming UK tour.

Webber also spoke in the interview about the newest production he is working on, which is based on the Profumo Affair. This incident occurred in the early 1960s when British Secretary of State for War John Profumo was forced to resign after an affair with Christine Keeler, who was reported to be the mistress of an alleged Soviet spy.

But it is the alleged spy that Webber is most interested in.

“The new musical will be about Dr. Stephen Ward, the most celebrated man in London,” Webber said. “He was the man who was, wrongly in my view, convicted of pimping (although he committed suicide before the court could sentence him) because he introduced Keeler to Profumo.”

Webber hopes the production will be onstage by spring 2014.