ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER - LLOYD WEBBER: 'RICE IS HOLDING UP PHANTOM SEQUEL'

LLOYD WEBBER: 'RICE IS HOLDING UP PHANTOM SEQUEL'

Musical king SIR ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER is begging writing partner SIR TIM RICE to hurry up and finish the lyrics for the pair's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA sequel. Lloyd Webber boasts he's finished the score for the musical already - and claims Rice is holding up plans to get the show on Broadway, New York and London's West End. He says, "Tim is brilliant, but he likes to do whatever comes easily. I'm fond of him, but he's most irritating. Because really he should be doing the lyrics for the new Phantom. He knows he should phone me." Lloyd Webber admits he is anxious about the sequel, claiming it has no hope of emulating the success of the original, which first opened in London in 1986. He adds, "It's a great story and I think I've written a fairly strong score. But this show will be the toughest thing I've ever done. Even if it is the greatest thing ever written, it will never come up to what the first one was commercially."