Love Never Dies -Adelphi Theatre, London 2010 — Page 4

I just returned from the premiere of Love Never Dies. For those who want to avoid the spoilers - read no further.


With tonight's performance being the first of the previews - the audience was truly buzzing ... all clearly being fans of Lloyd Webber curious to see whether this would be train wreck or smash hit.

In this, the sequel - the Phantom escapes Paris to travel to Coney Island where he setups Phantasmaland - an otherworldly paradise of rides, amusements and freaks ... and invites Christine to New York to sing in his latest creation.

The show gets off to an unusual start with no overture but straight to the drama with an aged Madame Giry returning to the remains of the Coney Island fairground ... setting the scene of what history has gone by.

Projection plays an enormous role in the show - and the system in use is truly world class ... full screen projection the length and width of the entire stage scrim - high definition quality that adds a whole new dimension to modern theatre making.

Clouds billow across the stage in a whirlwind of action - both on projection and on stage - as we go back in time and see the once-defunct Phantasmaland come to life before our eyes. The video sequence is amazing ...

Unfortunately things came to an abrupt halt at this point - 10 minutes in ... curtains fall and technical difficulties stop play. The show's director comes on stage - apologies profusely and so we wait - hoping that they do indeed continue ( Saturday night's performance was cancelled )

Thankfully they fix the problem - and so we continue.

Scott Penrose is the show's magic creator and he has included some true beauties.

Highlights include a full-size horse-pulled carriage made completely of glass - automaton style. You can see completely inside - empty. Instantly the carriage is filled with cast members - a beautiful appearance, unexpected and magical.

Other notable pieces include the walking skeleton - human legs, skeleton torso - last seen in Siegfried & Roy's show at The Mirage in Las Vegas ... and a rock playing guerilla automaton atop a box.

Ramin Karimloo is quite simply INCREDIBLE and he literally owns the stage - without him the show would be no where. Sierra Boggess, too, has the most angelic of voices.

As with any sequel - your audience comes into the show with certain ideas, knowledge & pre-conceptions. And Love Never Dies is no different ... unfortunately - to make this plot work - the creators have been fairly liberal in their creative licence leaving many to scratch their heads wondering if they perhaps missed something in the original Phantom production ... and what possibly happened to their favourite characters.

In this continuation - Raoul is a drunken, wife abuser with gambling debts - Christine has a child - Meg Giry turns kidnapper and murderer - and the Phantom turns family man - after discovering that the child is really his ( "Luke, I am your father") Don't remember them consummating that relationship on stage ?

Phantom lures Christine to Coney Island, Phantom wagers Raoul that he will get Christine to sing for him, Christine sings, Raoul leaves, Meg is jealous, Phantom discovers child is his, Meg kidnaps child - shoots Christine and Phantom becomes a single dad.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Now that's an interesting plot line.

Will this show likely be running in ten years time - no. Will it ever achieve the same success as Phantom - never.

Despite all this - there are some true moments of brilliance that one could only wish they were better able to capture ... closing the first half - the Phantom lures the child to his lair in a scene filled with the gorilla automaton, walking skeleton and a hanging chandelier of 20+ Medusa like skulls that come to life in song. The Phantom is discovering that the boy's love of music & the bizarre mirrors his own life - against a backdrop of symphonic rock that is in a word - breathtaking. The scene is so unlike any other number in the show - sheer "rock opera" - it is eery, scary and brilliant. But over far too soon ...

For musical theatre lovers - Love Never Dies takes the Phantom to where he was never meant to go - out of the mysterious and into the realm of mere mortal normality.

The plot sounds dull, followed by one moment of interest... followed by even more dullness!

Most of the spoilers given sound stupid....a drunk Raoul and a murderess Meg? PUH-LEASE! This is why sequels NEVER work...just ask the people behind ANNIE WARBUCKS, BRING BACK BIRDIE, or the tragic A DOLL'S LIFE.

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I CAN'T EFFING WAIT for the hilarious youtube videos we will no doubt get of sobbing teenage girls ripping ALW a new one over the ending.

There is always a silver lining folks

I'm more than a bit skeptical of some of the reviews I've read here. Some have been sharpenning their knives for months since they heard Love Never Dies was coming. And some of these negative reviews simply say "it's a train wreck" "it's horrible" without saying why -- makes me wonder if they were even in the audience tonight. It's like a week or two ago when people were giving their reviews of the soundtrack when some 30 second clips were on amazon.com. You haters out there really are a bit too eager to bash!

True I'm an ALW fan, and am hoping that it's successful - simply because I'd like to see a good show and hear some new, beautiful music...

All that magic and illusion- sounds like 'The Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee Summer Special' in Bournemouth!

It sounds absolutely horrific. I'm sorry, but ALW must have completely lost his marbles.

Nealb1, I agree with you. I am very much still looking forward to this show and I will have to wait till the fall when it opens in New York.

I don't know how people can be a fan of a performer if they haven't seen them perform. It's like saying that I am a fan of Christopher Walkin's stage work yet I haven't seen a Behanding in Spokane.

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thanks nealb1 -
Like I said, I'm an ALW fan - I even enjoyed Woman in White (it wasn't my favorite, but it was an enjoyable evening at the theatre)

I realize with the Phantom, some "phans" are more "fans" than I am and almost treat it as sacred... so they are definitely hesitant to any touching of this story.

Then you have the ALW haters who dislike everything the man does (and usually put the disclaimer they liked Superstar to try to give them credibility)

For those of us not on either extreme, if "Till I hear you sing" is any indication, I'm thinking we'll be very happy.

Yes, there are indeed people "sharpening their knives" ready to attack any new show of this commercial magnitude..and especially Andrew Lloyd Webber.

BUT...

In this case, a lot of people, myself included, are rightfully skeptical and critical of the decision alone to make a sequel to Phantom. It isn't any different than when Disney starting creating sequels to their animated films based on classic literature. The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time...it comes off as a lazy, cheap and a desperate attempt to sell sell sell.

Of course, I plan on giving the entire cast album a listen. It may in fact be quite good and I will eat my own words if the piece as a whole does feel warranted in existence.

"The Phantom of the Opera" is a fairy tale for adults..plain and simple. It is not some profound thinker's saga that needs to continue in anyway shape or form. It is meant to exist in it's own little magical place and time and leave boat loads to the viewers imagination. Now, for better or for worse, it has been turned into a soap opera and that is why people are and have a right to be at least a little pissed.

Right, BroadwayBenny.

I like Andrew Lloyd Webber's music and have seen several of his shows, all of which I enjoyed except for Starlight Express. When I first heard he was going ahead with a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, I thought it was a bad idea, and now reading what he has done with the LND story and the characters the two shows share, I am a lot more than annoyed. Who needed to be shown this "official" version of what became of the characters after the Phantom sang, "It's over now, the music of the night."

I don't sleep with a white mask under my pillow, but I am something of a Phantom fan, and I wish he had left well enough alone and written music for some other show.

no-one's actually mentioned the score... how was the MUSIC?

As I've mentioned here, ALW didn't want clever/witty lyrics - which is a shame, as that's something Glenn Slater does pretty well.

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One of the biggest flaws of the show, not really mentioned previous, is how it negates the intentions and character plot advancement of the original. SPOILERS AHEAD: At first, when it appeared Raoul had little interest in his boy I thought, ah, the Phantom must have raped Christine when he had her mesmerized, Gustof is his son. Odd but sorta interesting...then they meet in her boudoir in the next scene...and...apparently, sweet naive Raoul-loving Christine, sought out the Phantom the night before her wedding and had sex with him (!). Okay, I know there are those cat ladies who see things oddly, but Christine NEVER loved the Phantom. She loved Raoul. She never sang a love duet with the Phantom. She sang two+ with Raoul. The Phantom was a homicidal sociopath she took pity on and kissed to save her love that the Phantom was about to KILL!!!!!! Yet we are to believe that one kiss had so much in it, on her wedding eve she abandoned her childhood love to crawl under the sewers and schtup the deformed guy? Again, I know there is some revisionist memory that "Phantom" is a love story between the Phantom and Christine...but there is nothing to it. Not a bit. Its beauty is the unrequited love the Phantom has for this girl. She was sweet enough to feel pity, that's it. Now, of course, realistically, Raoul might have become a drunk and their love faded. But please. This is a musical fairy tale. I don't want to think all the sturm and drang from the first musical was all for nought. Among a host of horrible, horrible atrocities in "Love Never Dies" this rewriting of the first show is one of its worst.