Wow...I've never met a person (especially female) who actually dislikes The Phantom of the Opera. I myself was never really thrilled with the whole story (SIDENOTE: I watched the recent movie--not the live musical let alone read the book). Heh, I once tried to write a short-story poking fun at the Phantom of the Opera out of spite, but never really finished. It was set in a dorky play-by-play (or is that turn-by-turn) RPG format.

Um. No. I *love* The Phantom of the Opera (book[s], musicals, early films, to some extent the recent film). Which is why I don't want this horrible, horrible sequel to come out :)

What if it turns out to be a very good sequel?

i remember the 80's satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image mercilessly ripping into Lloyd Webber on a weekly basis:)

The book it's based on is a terrible sequel. It really does not capture the spirit of the character at all, and is terribly written. So, unless it changes dramatically...

I personally didn't care for the story or the concept..I think that it might have been interesting to someone living in a small town if it was their first theatrical production but it is by far from getting a two star rating on a scale of one to five. C'mon, there is some great entertainment out there..this isn't it!!
todd

Heh...I guess this is one of those times where one would hope this production outdoes the original book. However, how often does that happen? (e.g. Eragon; Harry Potter series. Yeah, I understand these are movies produced after the book rather than musicals produced after the book.)