LOVE NEVER DIES - US Tour — Page 15

HunterK said: "chernjam said: "Had to laugh realizing that LND is playing tonight in Boston... Obviously theatre people didn't realize this was Super Bowl Sunday and that the Patriots would be in the game. Have to imagine lots of discounts for tonight's performance"

That is why and how I am going!! For me seeing a show is the gay man's Super Bowl!!"

It's certainly where I'd be if I lived in Boston!

Lot666 said: "I loathe critics who write like this. Literally any show can be made to sound ridiculousby reducing the plot to absurdly simplistic phrases like, "one of whom happens to be into masks". A description like that completely removes all traces of the character's motivations and suggests that the mask is merely a fashion accessory."

Agreed. It's lowest common denominator stuff, which to me, reads as an easy article to fluff out and turn in. I'd much rather read a thoughtful take on problematic issues with the story, of which there are several, than the narrative boiled down to a quip that we're supposed to take at face value.

I didn't read this entire thread beforehand, so if I repeat anything that's already been said, then you'll just end up reading it twice and it's really not a big deal anyway.

SO...I saw the show last night. I had seen the London production and watch the DVD of the Australian production and it was my husband who was dying to see it. Still a ridiculous and terrible book, but the production itself is somewhat improved from the original London version. I still hate the show opening with Til I Hear You Sing and The Beauty Underneath is still a total garbage number, but I do think the show does have a handful of good tunes with Coney Island Waltz and Dear Old Friends being right up there among ALW's best. The cast was mostly strong except...Gardar Thor Cortes as the Phantom. I don't know if he was recovering from an illness or because it was his second show that day, but he really struggled with his top notes and didn't seem to have the vocal stamina for the show. At the end of Til I Hear You Sing, he was really straining to hit "I" (B-flat) and for "once more", he had no strength left for vibrato and cut his final note short, sounding more like he was shouting , than singing. My husband knows nothing about singing and commented on it immediately at intermission say, "It's not supposed to sound like that, is it?" Every time Cortes had to sing a G or above, it was forced and was rough. Jake Heston Miller sang beautifully as Gustave, but his acting was the stereotypical child acting and if I had to hear him fake giggle "hee hee hee" one more time, I was going to scream. I was delighted to see Karen Mason as Madame Giry and she delivered in a thankless role. Sean Thompson and Mary Michael Patterson were excellent as Raoul and Meg. Meghan Picerno was a solid Christine. Her acting bordered on melodramatic hysterics at times (which I fault the director more than her), but her singing was flawless, especially in the title song. One thing in particular cannot be denied...the audience LOVED the show. LOVED. IT. It was a full house and the roaring response during the nearly instant standing ovation was far beyond what I had imagined for the show. Flawed as it is, people want to see and people are eating it up.

I also want to make an important comment regarding the merchandise, which is plentiful. They are selling a 2-disc cast recording using the tour artwork for the cover. I noted the song list started with TIl I Hear You Sing, but nowhere on the packaging does it list the cast, but it has a 2018 Really Useful Group release date.



I don't recall there being a release of the Australian cast, so I thought it might be a re-release of the London recording, so I asked the woman working the merch booth. She said, "It's brand new! It's this cast. It's this current cast you saw tonight." So I bought it. Once I opened it, INSIDE THE FRONT COVER (nowhere on the outside) there is a note stating "Album features the original Australian cast recorded at Regents Theatre, Melbourne, 2011."



I was a bit miffed, but I'm a collector, so I'm not attempting to return it. I do think it's a really shady marketing ploy in the packaging and whatever this woman thought or was told, she should never misrepresent the merchandise, especially when it comes to the cast of the recording being sold.

They also have a windowcard, but that artwork of the bedazzled mask is just too hideous.

It was a known thing that they had recorded the Australian cast. They had to in order to release the DVD... so it was all a matter of whether it would be released or not. The reason it wasn't is that they simply wanted to milk as much money out of the original cast recording. (I don't know what all the financials of things are, but for me, I'd love to get new recordings of different casts... I listen to multiple versions of Sunset because I love the score and enjoy different takes of it...)

At any rate, I would seriously doubt that the recording has the new Beauty Underneath. But if they did, perhaps that's why the insert has no cast listed, as the new Beauty Underneath was added I think in Germany - a few years after this was recorded

Did they record an updated version of “Beauty Underneath?”

I just listened to the track and it is indeed the new version, starting with the portion that mirrors the end of the title song from Phantom as well as including the other newly replaced material I heard in the show last night.

Not anything that I could find online, but when ripping the CDs for my audio device using iTunes, the app already recognized the CDs and tracks, tagged with the correct tracks names and performers.

Does it say anywhere in the booklet who recorded the new bits? I assume Ben Lewis was available, but if "Beauty Underneath" is really the updated version I would assume the kid from the DVD is no longer a soprano.

No press release or anything either saying they were releasing an updated(?) Australian cast album.

Well, Anastasia seems to be doing pretty well... It seems the tour is either coming to an end or transferring to Broadway... no new stops have been announced. I can see this selling okay if they market it with Phantom although with pretty consistent bad reviews for the actual text I doubt it would last very long (or at least very long compared to Phantom).

And I agree it's almost like watching The Room. The whole Christine's death sequence is so effing laughable but it's supposed to be taken dead seriously.

According to a friend who saw it in Boston several people were complaining in the bathroom about how this ruins Phantom for them. Seems a bit extreme as I chose to ignore it when I see Phantom (although I think the quality of recent performers on tour and on Broadway has been lacking).

Based on the rest of the booklet, it appears the only replacement from the Australian cast is Casey Lyons as Gustave from the current tour for The Beauty Underneath and Streets of Coney Island, which makes sense. This is the rest of the booklet: