Love Never Dies -Adelphi Theatre, London 2010 — Page 11

I'll take your ticket for Monday off your hands, Mama, if you want to donate it to a cynical blogger in need. =)

That's exactly what I've been saying.
not since Sunset has he had a cohesive score.

This one has some really nice music, but it does not gell into one unit like Sunset or Phantom1 and somewhat Evita.

The others before Phantom are mostly a collection of songs (JCS, Joseph Cats)

Re-listening to the CD, I prefer act 1 musically over act 2. It almost fells to me like act 2 needs another song or something. The Dressing room scenes are mainly stringing together tunes we've heard already.

I really want this to be a success, they may have to do with it what they did with Sunset (OLC vs LA)

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There is one element of this score that is stronger than Phantom of the Opera. It's not nearly as top-heavy. Phantom of the Opera only introduces three new songs in the second act with Past the Point of No return being the weakest number of the entire show, in my opinion. It's the only song I really can't stand on any level and I tend to doze off during that scene. For me, nothing about the music, staging or lyrics is especially interesting until after an unbearable amount of time, Christine finally exposes him and we can watch something happen. And I've always found Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again effective on stage (though dramatically, it grinds the show to a halt), but I always skip it on the CD.

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Joseph and JCS were not musically cohesive as a score? Really?

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I think those photos are stunning. Sierra and Ramin look great together (although he looks awfully young, and doesn't have any traditional Phantom makeup on it seems).

I also found these:
http://www.ctv.ca/gallery/html/ent_phantom_opera_20100303/index_.html

I was really against this but after hearing a few songs im really starting to love (what im hearing). Ramin is great.

I adore beneath a moonless sky. I hope it does reasonably well at least.

so far how is it selling?

If he's true to his word, then he ought to run the show for a month in the space before opening to the public. Otherwise he has admitted selling something he considers not fit for use.
The man's in dreamland. (And that's being charitable).

PS I bet he wouldn't be bitching if the chatrooms were singing his glories.

Hey Princeton - I'm sure that more than a few people were ticked off by ALW's comments (just reading some of the posts here and elsewhere)

I've kind of gone back and forth on that. On the one hand, I can understand people's frustration to hear that the show isn't "frozen" and still open to alterations during previews when they are paying full throttle.

But then again - no one is forcing people to buy those tickets at those prices.

It's a risk you take with a new show
--- is it good enough that you will tell people you were at the VERY FIRST PREVIEW of something that turns out to be a highly successful thing like the original Phantom (and you can tell how many things were changed from that first preview!!)

--- will the show be such a collossal failure that right after it's opening it closes (and hence you're glad you went to see it in previews and got to see it so you can say you were there -- being in the US,I still kick myself I didn't drive to Washington DC to see the out of town tryout of the Hal Prince directed Whistle Down the Wind)

--- or will it be somewhere in between - a show of mixed success that was hyped to the max, opened to mixed reviews, made some alterations of moderate note and that's it (like Sunset Blvd which cut the "Charlie Chaplin" scene in "The Lady's Paying" re did the finale, etc. - only to get a thorough re-working when it came to the US)

Time will indeed tell what area Love Never Dies falls. But I guess I cannot fault ALW for charging full prices during this pre-opening time or even right after it opens. It's one reason I as a huge ALW fan didn't fly over to London to see this. I'm hopeful it will be a great show and come to NY as planned in the Fall. That's the risk I'm taking.

For "theatre geeks" - whether ALW liked it or not, they have been the "go - to" people for two weeks over a show that there's a lot of international interest in. Cannot blame ALW for getting top dollar out of them...

Just some thoughts...
Jim

hmmm - that's a good point princeton, I get what you're saying on that. I suppose if ALW wasn't complaining about it, it would be a bit different. I'm guessing these PR people are still trying to figure out how best to take all the interest and turn it into good buzz. They clearly were unprepared for some of the obsessed "phans" of the original who hated this from the mere mention of a sequel. So I suppose it's Opening Night jitters with the addition of some negative posts (there have been a lot of positive ones too lest people forget) The ultimate test will if it continues to sell out once it has officially opened

I did see Whistle Down The Wind in DC, twice, it had a few fixable problems but the cast was perfect and you don't get better staging than Hal Prince, it was a thousand times better in London! if I had waited for NY I would never had this rare experience & the U.S. tour died before I got to see it so I would definitely recommend seeing a show as soon as possible or you may never get a chance!

RSrichie, What version of Whistle Down The Wind did you see, did you see the original at The Aldwych or did you see the revival at The Palace?

RS tell us more about the Washington WdtW- I know very little about it. How was the set design?

The London show was one of my least favourite ALWs and the set, though big, was rather clunky.

For me, Hal Prince is the Man- best director of musicals I can think of (though that's an issue for another thread), so I'd love to hear about his production.