Love Never Dies is a
romantic musical with music by
Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by
Glenn Slater with additional lyrics by
Charles Hart, and book by Lloyd Webber and
Ben Elton, with additional material by Slater and
Frederick Forsyth. It is a sequel to Lloyd Webber's long-running musical
The Phantom of the Opera. The plot is not based on the storyline in the original book by
Gaston Leroux. Lloyd Webber stated: "I don't regard this as a sequel – it's a stand-alone piece." He later clarified: "Clearly, it is a sequel, but I really do not believe that you have to have seen
Phantom of the Opera to understand
Love Never Dies." The musical is set in 1907, which Lloyd Webber states is "ten years roughly after the end of the original
Phantom", although the events of the original actually took place in 1881. Christine Daaé is invited by an anonymous
impresario to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction on
Coney Island, and, with her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, journeys to
Brooklyn...unaware that it is actually "The Phantom" who has arranged her appearance in the popular beach resort.