I hate the idea of a sequel to such a classic. I heard about this over a year ago, and was so disappointed, I stopped listening to my PotO CD for awhile. It seems like such a "the first one made so much $$$, let's see if we can do it again" move.
PS...there is a musical called
Phantom (still based on the same story), so it messes with my head when people just call PotO "Phantom" - I don't know which one they're talking about (although it IS easy to guess in 99% of cases they are referring to the ALW one). Ok, that's my theatre geek rant for today. Carry on.