The Post's Michael Riedel reports today that the budget for March's London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's just-announced Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies could reach $20 million, with next November's Broadway staging presumably costing even more. That's not as expensive as Julie Taymor's problem-plagued Spider-Man musical ($45 million), but it's still probably more costly than necessary for a show set in Coney freaking Island. Webber has already scrapped and redone half of the show's soundtrack album, says Riedel, calling back a 95-piece orchestra to rerecord their parts. He also wasn't happy with the original sets, making poor Bob Crowley start again from scratch. We would say someone should rein him in, if we weren't completely confident this thing will earn back a thousand times its budget in its first week.

Cash flows to 'Phantom' 2 [NYP]