What are they thinking?!

So I heard through the grapevine that Andrew Lloyd Webber is writing a sequel to the Phantom of the Opera. I didn't believe it at first, but then I did some research (I love google =D). Here's what I finally came up with.


Called "Phantom: Love Never Dies", the upcoming musical is loosely based off the novel "The Phantom of Manhattan" by Frederick Forsyth. Webber hopes to release it late 2009 with simultaneous openings in London, New York, and Asia. As far as I could figure, the plot was basically thus (And, for the record, made me want to gag):

After losing Christine, the phantom flees to Coney Island, and starts his own little show business. Still mourning the lost of Christine, etc, etc.
Meanwhile, Christine has become a very famous opera singer, but Raoul has expended the family fortune, through some means or other. Thus, Christine is obliged to except a high paying gig in New York (Coney Island, to be specific). When she goes to meet her new boss, who should it be but - flash of light, crash of cords - the phantom!! Ahem. So Christine has a child and the proverbial "they" in the show are trying to figure out who the father is; Phantom or Raoul.

Ugh.

I believe I heard Katherine Jenkins is starring as Christine. Phantom is either going to be played by Gerard Butler (who was the phantom in the 2004 film adaption) or Hugh Jackman, the star of Baz Luhrmann's film Australia, who has appeared on stage in Sunset Boulevard, Oklahoma! and The Boy from Oz, for which he won Best Actor in a musical Tony Award. "They" know who will be playing phantom, but they aren't saying. *scowl*

So I'm wondering whether to laugh or to cry at the thought. What are they thinking?