Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Love Never Dies' to close

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Love Never Dies is to close on August 27.

The sequel to The Phantom of the Opera first opened on March 9 last year at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End.

The show had to be relaunched with rewrites nine months later after getting poor reviews from critics. The new version was much more critically acclaimed and was nominated for seven Laurence Olivier Awards. However, the production failed to perform at the box office.

A new version of the musical opened in Melbourne, Australia, to a far more positive reaction.

Lloyd Webber recently blamed his battle with prostate cancer as the reason behind the musical's flop in London, saying that he was unable to give the show his full attention.

He said: "With hindsight we should have said, 'Let's put the whole thing on hold until I'm 100 percent again'. Frankly I wasn't feeling very well."

However, the composer was proud of the Australian production, saying it "cannot be improved upon".

The Australian version is likely to transfer to Broadway after it completes its run in Melbourne.