LOVE NEVER DIES will tour the US in 2017

http://playbill.com/news/article/lloyd-webbers-reworked-phantom-sequel-love-never-dies-sets-2017-american-premiere-363588

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera sequel, Love Never Dies, will launch a North American tour in 2017, Playbill.com has learned. The tour will reflect the overhauled Australian production that was staged by Simon Phillips.

Now titled Love Never Dies – The Phantom Returns, the story continues ten years after the conclusion of The Phantom of the Opera. It follows soprano Christine Daaé to New York's Coney Island, where she is invited to perform for the mysterious Mr. Y. After Christine, her now-husband Raoul and their young son Gustav arrive in New York City, familiar characters begin to emerge, including one with whom Christine shares a dark secret.

I like how they're titling it "Love Never Dies: The Phantom Returns" as if people don't know what it's about. They know what it's about they just don't want to see it.

I'm actually really excited for this. I will have no problem telling someone around me to shut the hell up already.. if all is complaining. Dont buy a ticket if that's all your going to do. "Oh, I'm going just to complain and talk **** and to see how bad it will be".. SHUT UP. Does anyone understand how annoying complaining sounds? espicially if that's all you hear when a certain topic is spoken about. This show is like Justin Bieber.. to the theatre world..

I agree that LND really gets no love and it truly is one of ALW's most beautiful and melodic scores. If you've ever seen or heard Sierra Boggess or Anna O'Byrne as Christine you'll never forget it.

The freak show/Coney Island setting keeps with the darker theme but it works. When Christine sings Love Never Dies in front of a huge blue peacock that envelopes the whole proscenium it is stunningly gorgeous.

I saw Ben Davis as the Phantom and he was great. I say go see it just expect it not to be the same.

A tragically misguided project. ALW would have been better off pumping some of the better tunes into a new story. He insulted his own creation, suggesting he really never understood the first show at all- clearly Hal Prince made the original what it was.

I hope it sinks so bad financially. ALW deserves a big slice of humble pie

c0113g3b0y said: "I hope it sinks so bad financially. ALW deserves a big slice of humble pie"

Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine?

People will see this. I remember the movie theater I went to to watch the screening of the Australian production was packed with older Phans of the original show who had no idea about LND's history. Most audience members around the U.S. who aren't familiar with the Broadway scene (and even less so with the West End) don't even know that LND was a disaster when it first premiered, so it's not like the show's horrible reputation reaches out much further than the hardcore theatre fans and the Phans. Many will say, "Oh, look, a sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Let's go see it!" If the team behind LND is lucky, it'll be included in many season packages and tickets will also be sold that way.

By the way, it's worth noting that the Australian production was fairly well-received by both critics and audience members when it opened, and since then it's played in other countries more or less to some acclaim. This production is arguably not the disaster that was universally panned over in London.

Well I see that LND is still not getting any love. IMO, we don't all want to see a paint-by-numbers staging of The King And I, and I like Kelli O'Hara. I guess ALW will get some ears opening again with School Of Rock.

(But LND still deserves an open minded listen)

It will be worth the price of admission just to see Gabriela Tylesova's designs.

devonian.t said: "I hope "School of Rock" is successful- I think it stands a good chance: it plays to his strengths and it's about ALW's level of maturity and understanding. I don't mean that snobbishly, but it's a fact that we all have our own level and ALW can do "Joseph", ;"Cats" or "Starlight Express". He was ably guided by Tim Rice on "JCS" and "Evita". Elsewhere he's out of his depth, his material floundering in psychological implausibility.

As Charley Kringas almost says, though, "he does the money thing very well... and nobody does it better".

lmfao..too true

I actually much prefer Love Never Dies to Phantom. It has higher stakes and the characters are more developed as opposed to simply being archetypes in Phantom.

Well, it's not happening, so good luck!

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/North-America-Will-Have-to-Keep-Waiting-for-LOVE-NEVER-DIES-Rep-Reveals-No-Set-Tour-at-Present-20150922

I've gone on about my dislike of the lyrics and book ad nauseum (but really it is bad fanfiction. The first Phantom strips the original book to its basics and kinda works IMHO because of how Prince and Bjornson made it all about atmosphere--this goes the route of many of the worst sequels by making a completely WTF, overly complex story. I mean even "side" elements--Giry has been essentially pimping out her daughter to help support the Phantom and poor abused Meg has been driven murderously insane by that? WHAT? We won't even get into the main Phantom Kid storyline.) I do think much of the music is beautiful--yes it's even by ALW standards ridiculously grandiose but in that one respect he found the right tone. And yeah, the Ozzie production looks purdy.

While I can't see this ever touring--how easy would it be to tour the Australian production affordably anyway? This isn't like Australia or Japan where it made a couple of extended stops--to tour North America I think it would have to play many more cities for a shorter amount of time. And in that respect it makes more sense than going to Broadway--play two weeks in Seattle or wherever and you'll get the hardcore Phantom fans and other curious theatre goers there to probably make it do well those two weeks and then quickly pack up and move on to another city before word of mouth and reviews spread a bit like Mr Dark's Pandemonium Carnival in Something Wicked This Way Comes :P

Updated On: 9/24/15 at 08:20 PM