London, Oct 26 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Phantom composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostrate cancer.This unfortunate announcement came in a statement on Sunday, which said, “the condition is in its very early stages. Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year.”

The sixty-one year old Lloyd Webber was recently in the news for his plans for a sequel to his phenomenally successful musical “Phantom of the Opera.” The sequel is going to be called “Love Never Dies,” and it is scheduled to open in London’s West End in March and follow on Broadway in November. It is still not clear whether the sequel will be on schedule or not in the wake of this new development.

At a media event for the sequel announcement, earlier this month, Lloyd Webber said that while the story picks up where “Phantom” left off, he doesn’t regard it as a sequel — “it’s a standalone piece.”Andrew Lloyd Webber had said the sequel resulted from “unfinished business.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s other musical hits include “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and “Evita.” He was knighted in the year 1992 and also named to Britain’s House of Lords in 1997.