Coney Island Not Sir Andrew's Baby

When you've been knighted by the queen of England, it apparently doesn't give you any class. Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera sequel", called "Love Never Dies," is set in the seaside fantasia of Coney Island in the early 20th Century. But he's none too fond of the modern incarnation.

According to a Daily News report, at a press conference unveiling the show, Webber said, "Of course, Coney Island today is nothing at all." Smooth, Sir Andrew, very smooth. You'd think the man who inflicted "Cats" on the world would be more careful.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is not one to take this sort of abuse laying down and immediately fired off an invite to Webber to tour Coney when his show opens in New York next year, which Sir Andrew accepted. Markowitz, whose deep Brooklynese is familiar to anyone who has ever been to any sort public gathering anywhere in the borough, said "a new heyday is right around the corner."

One hopes he is thinking more along the lines of the hotel built in the shape of an elephant that once welcomed guests to Coney Island and less of the plan for condos and a shopping mall.