News of Andrew Lloyd Weber's prostate cancer hit the web yesterday, as David Shirley  cycled through Oregon raising awareness for this disease.  Happily, Weber's cancer is in the early stages and, according to his spokesman, Mr. Lloyd Weber is undergoing treatment and "expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year."

At age 61, Weber has no plans for early retirement.  Love Never Dies, the sequel to his spooky, smash hit musical Phantom of the Opera moves into rehearsals in January, with an expected First Preview in London on Saturday, the 20th of February, 2010 at 7.30pm.  This new musical is an expansion of the original story by Gaston Leroux, which never ventured beyond Paris to Coney Island.

Gaston Leroux also never traveled to the United States, although as a news correspondent for the international paper Le Matin, he traveled to Sweden, Finland, England, Egypt and once to Korea. In Morocco he "disguised himself as an Arab in Fez and Larache to report on the crisis of 1905 and in Russia, he covered the first stages of the revolution." 

His horror story, Phantom of the Opera was introduced to the public via newspaper, serialized in the French newspaper Le Gaulois in 1909.   Imagine, day after day, reading a portion of the chilling Le Fantôme de l'Opéra  in the Denver Post!  This would certainly boost readership-- particularly in the weeks before Halloween.

The Phantom of the Opera combines horror with romance, creating an irresistible story which has become "a cultural icon and one of the most popular horror tales ever told."