LOVE NEVER DIES will not arrive on broadway this season...uh duh?

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 11:28am

Shocker.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 11:34am

Oh good heavens! I would never have suspected that!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 12:06pm

Having seen the show recently, it's not so much that it's bad, it's just numb-inducingly Boring.
The Phantom can't be a guy who just walks among people, and hangs out at bars singing cliches about the devil.
It will take an entire new book to make this thing work.
It will be interesting to see what director gets saddled with this drudge.
Zambello?
Updated On: 10/1/10 at 12:06 PM

[Tag]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 12:14pm

Craig Revel Horwood will direct the Toronto production.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 1:14pm

Oh good, who dat?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 1:17pm

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Craig+Revel+Horwood

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 1:28pm

WHY GOD??? WHYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

[Proper Villain]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 3:10pm

I, too, have recently watched this (thanks, internet!) and yes, the book and lyrics are the problem.

There is a musical lurking in the piece. Musically, this is Lloyd Webber at his strongest, it's a far better score musically and evocatively. I love the staging for Coney Island Waltz. I hate the prologue. The Phantom of this piece is a jilted ex bf, not someone who raped Christine and therefore gave her a son. I'm all for turn of the century melodrama, but there is no villain to the piece. And Christine, the focus of the original Phantom, is almost a bit player in this. Slater and Elton are completely out of their element here.

However, with the way this season is shaping up to be, I wouldn't want to bring it now either.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 7:01pm

He can bring in the best director and choreographer in the world and try it out in every major city, but unless he tosses the piss pour excuse of a book, this show will not fare well. The Phantom is a psychopathic murdering stalker, not a jilted ex-lover. Yes we sympathize with him in the end, but that doesn't stop the facts. Webber needs to reevaluate his original Phantom, take a look at that book and those lyrics and then give us something a bit more canonical than this tripe.
Perhaps he should start with the Twisted Every Way segment. I do believe that that is repeated in the sequel, and she simply doesn't sing the parts that make the story not work. There are several other moments as well that really make the sequels book fail.

Do I become his prey?
Do I have any choice?
He kills without a thought,
he murders all that's good . . .

[winston89]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 7:08pm

My first thought when I saw this headline on front page of BWW when I logged on to the site. "Well, there's a ****ing surprise."

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 7:23pm

This show is such a mess. They're going to have to completely work it over if they want a chance.

[Proper Villain]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 10:41pm

A chance at what? Satisfying critics? Lloyd Webber's NEVER done that. Satisfying internet message board aficionados? I doubt he cares... He would bring the thing to NY just to piss off the Love Should Die people.

As bad as the book is, it's better than a few of the shows I've seen more recently that have established storylines - I'm talking to YOU, Wicked.

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 11:36pm

A chance to not be ridiculed and skewered by critics, both professional and otherwise? A chance to succeed and not close prematurely? I'm not trying to defend some of the other 'successful' shows that have terrible books or scores, I'm just saying. He's messing around with a 'beloved classic' here. This could either help the show out, regardless of whether the book is fixed, or it could turn against him.

[After Eight]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 1:15am

There are a few nice melodies, but the book is very bad. I didn't even like the set design.

But I think CurtainPullDowner pinpointed the major problem. The Phantom has lost his otherworldly character and is now just an odrinary Joe wearing a mask. And that is disastrous.

[Sally]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 3:12am

You'd think someone connected with the show would have realized that making the Phantom an ordinary Joe with a mask was a mistake.

Maybe one of the "chance at whats" is the chance to finally come up with a version of the show that Broadway producers would put money in.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 4:18am

He isn't worried about producers, he is producing it himself with his Really Useful Group production company... find investors on the other hand may be a different story assuming the money doesn't come from RUG themselves.

[bwayfan45]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 4:29am

...Apparently love does die.

Updated On: 10/2/10 at 04:29 AM

[mallardo]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 4:53am

I saw it two nights ago - on a discount ticket - and agree with what others have said about the book and lyrics. There's no story there. It boils down to which man will Christine choose, the drunken pathetic Raoul (talk about an awful part!) or the brooding ex-bf? Who ultimately cares?

The music still stirs things up in "dramatic" moments but as usual with ALW the lesser songs, the music hall ditties sung by the ridiculously characterized Meg Giry, suck big time.

The shining light of the production is Sierra Boggess who is radiant throughout and sings beautifully. Would that she were in a show worthy of her.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 8:18am

Love never arrives.

Love is on hold.

Love is delayed.

Oh, Andy.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 9:36am

As bad as the book is, it's better than a few of the shows I've seen more recently that have established storylines - I'm talking to YOU, Wicked

But it's the book that is most damaging to the show; not only does it contradict its own internal coherence, it completely misunderstands the charm of the original: the allure of the man of mystery. The original attraction does not come from the fact that the Phantom is a misunderstood nice guy really!

Very few adaptors have so thoroughly failed to grasp the appeal of their own work!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 9:50am

Sierra was out when I saw the show and a (how to put it) more mature actress played the part, which actually made sense.
If the story started with Christine, Raul and Phantom Jr. arriving in Coney Island, still intact as a family and then the spector of the Phantom gradually tears them apart, as a spirit, it might work.
And what's up with the Lady Gaga, Boy George and Adam Lambert characters???
Maybe they should get them to play the parts.
And Raul and Meg should definitely make dirty drunken sex on the beach.

[speedjeans]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 6:39pm

Can anyone recall a sequel to a sung-through (or for that matter any sung-through show) that didn't have major book problems?

[wolfwolf]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 7:24pm

I feel really sorry for Sierra he should put her in the broadway version of Phantom this was meant to be her big break and now it is wasted . Like it is just so silly phantom is supposed to have an enigma to him and this just f###### it

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 8:00pm

"He's messing around with a 'beloved classic' here."

I don't think he is "messing around" with anything. He wrote a sequel to one of HIS shows. Did it have the best turnout? Absolutely not. However, I don't think one musical can "mess around" with another. They are separate shows even if they involve the same characters.
And I agree with ProperVillain about this being one of the only shows with an established storyline. I think this show has potential. While there are many bad things about, I also think there are many good things. The orchestrations are stunning, the cast is stellar, and the storyline is very graceful even if it is not the most exciting story.

Updated On: 10/2/10 at 08:00 PM

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 10/3/10 at 12:03am

I just mean that in the eyes of the masses, he IS messing around with the classic. Yes, it's his material and his right to do what he wishes with it. But I fear that it's going to be looked at the same way the Star Wars prequels were, if you get my nerdy reference. There are some people who will love the 'character developments' and then there are others who will bitch and moan about how he's 'ruined' the characters they know from the original.