Exclusive! Aussie Director Simon Phillips Reveals Plans to 'Beef Up' Phantom Sequel Love Never Dies Down Under

Australian director Simon Phillips is ready to get to work on his Down Under redo of Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, set to premiere in Melbourne in May 2011. In an exclusive chat with Broadway.com, he laid out his plans for the new staging and spoke of his great affection for the show. “I think it’s the best score Andrew’s done,” he said. “I really love it.”

Love Never Dies is currently playing at London’s Adelphi Theatre, where it opened on March 9 to mixed reviews under the direction of Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien. Set in Coney Island, it picks up with the characters of The Phantom of the Opera 10 years after the original, with The Phantom (now called Mr. Y) running a boardwalk entertainment complex known as Phantasma.

“They got the show up in London in a very big way,” Phillips said. “And then Andrew took a step back and looked at it again. When I first met him, I was just thrilled at where he was with the show in terms of realizing how the show could develop further. Everyone knows it’s not without its faults, but there’s so much great material there.”

“The music is just divine,” he continued. “But there are some turns in the story that could play better if they were handled more deftly.” Phillips will also consider what made fans fall in love with the original musical in the first place. “I want to make sure the original Phantom is honored within the production,” he said. “Not shied away from, but celebrated and then taken a step further. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in terms of how the original characters have developed and I think it’s fascinating, but it can really be beefed up a bit more.”

Most importantly, Phillips aims to let the Coney Island setting dictate the look and feel of the show. “I want to heighten how that works in the show,” he revealed. “And try to make Coney Island what the Paris Opera House was to the original. It’s a living, breathing organism, so I want to infuse the entire work with all the opulence and thrills that the setting has to offer."

Phillips will head into rehearsals for Love Never Dies shortly after his production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert opens at Broadway’s Palace Theatre on March 20, 2011.

“I’m very excited to get started,” he said. “And I’m crossing my fingers!”