The long planed sequel to The Phantom of the Opera seems to be gearing up for its West End premiere.

The original Phantom has been doing very well digitally with the engaging vBlog “The Phantom’s Lair”, although sadly it hasn’t been updated in almost a year. What it is a pity, because it such a fantastic channel for a show like Phantom that has been running for so long but it is still well alive and kicking.

But back to the future: A straightforward site was launched recently, for the sequel, Love Never Dies, in conjunction with a twitter feed and a FaceBook widget gearing up to some big announcement for this coming October 8th.

The site has a simple intro that bridges from the original Phantom to the sequel that takes place in NY’s Connie Island. The twitter is, of course, in the voice of the Phantom, and it started with two hilarious tweets in Latin (a first one?).The widget is again a twitter feed with news about the sequel.

Maybe a bit too much twitter, but it’s still early and It would be interesting what other digital strategies the Phantom comes up with. It is a no-brainer for such a global production, as the show is, to take advantage of the digital space.

Careful with what you twit, people will listen.

As a companion to my previous post two more stories about social networking. A happy one and unhappy one.

The Happy One
Next To Normal is a dark and twisted musical about manic depression. Not your everyday topic. With a rock score and a brilliant performance by Alice Ripley it opened Off-Broadway last season and some retooling, opened on Broadway this season (2008-2009) with a discreet success and some Tony nods.

The New York Times, in their Internet section, not their Arts one, presents a great case study of how to use Twitter to promote a show. Instead of simply using the characters voices commenting in current events, the show writer, Brian Yorkey, rewrote the play for the twitter format, managing to enhance the play presenting it in a parallel way.

Congrats to the guys over at Situation Interactive, responsible for the idea!

The Unhappy One
Last week was reported, in something called the TwitterGate (theater types can be very dramatic) of a casting director using twitter during auditions and making comments, mostly nasty comments, about the performers auditioning. Again, personal and private are getting all mixed up here. But obviously in this case, the twitter was being used for business reasons, a promotional tool for the casting agency. But the casting director in question was writing it from a personal perspective. Making some-what-witty comments more appropriated for a sotto-voice between friends.

This article in the New York Times covers the sorry story in detail.

It is not what it used to be

Do we really go fast through things. It seems that the only important, or catchy or attention grabber is the “What is Next?” like that, in capital letters.

Not one but two articles. One study from Harvard discusses some very interesting (and not very auspicious) stats on users and usage.

Other from Media Post Social Media Insider puts the whole sensation in hibernation.

So I guess we have to “kill” Twitter to allow the next Best Thing to be.

Long live the Tweet.