Love Never Dies -Adelphi Theatre, London 2010 — Page 8

"What kind of accent do the leads use? I know Sierra and Ramin are from North America, so..."

SIerra does an English accent (very well, actually) but her character hardly has any speaking lines in the entire show. When she sings she sounds American.

Ramin is American through and through.

Meg character is speaks American.

Her mom, Madamme Giry, has more of a german accent (or something like that).

The child and Raoul have English accents both in speaking and in singing.

And all the supporting cast have fake, irritating, American accents. The really nasal "gosh, golly" kind.

BroadwayBenny!
WHY post that post if its going to spoil many peoples enjoyment????

Because I'm a horrible person, Mama

There wont be a souviner brochure until after it opens, March 9th.

Official pictures of productions are traditionally held back until the official opening night of a show. (Most producers will hand these out complimentary to the audience that night- not done as often as it used to be I must admit!)
This publishing sometimes slips and they wont appear until up to a few weeks after the show is open.

Welcome! x

True, to untrained eyes a lot of West End programs could be seen as brochures I suppose and some actually (annoyingly!) are a mix of the two!!!
This production, however, is guaranteed to have a pretty sumptuous one after March 9th.

Mark, you are probably one of the very first (if not the first), people to do the 'Phantom double'!
Today was the shows first public matinee.

Hello All!!

I have just got back to Manchester after seeing this evening's (yesterday evening's) performance of Love Never Dies. Forgive me if the review is somewhat oddly written. I have just had a four hour bus journey, and am knackered!

I am an ALW fan for the most part, so was hugely looking forward to the follow up to what I consider his greatest show. I am still to come to a definite decision about LND, although I am leaning towards a positive reaction!

The score is fantastic. Despite the expected hints from WIW, Sunset etc, ALW really comes up with the goods on this show, especially through the use of repeated themes etc, which are perfectly suited to the show. As has been previously said, 'Til I Hear You Sing is one of the best numbers in the show, and Ramin performs brilliantly, as does Sierra with Love Never Dies itself, which was framed musically by the Devil Takes the Hindmost quartet, which for me, was the musical highlight of the evening. The musical quotations from Phantom of the Opera are wonderful, and you can feel the audience's excitement at recognising strains of Prima Donna, and Little Lotte.

Aspects of the design were equally stunning - the opening set of the pier was fantastic, as was Christine's hotel room. However, the I felt that the design completely lacked a sense of cohesion, and the images seen in the Telegrah (at least I think it was the Telegraph) did not transfer well to the stage. Elements of the design looked cheap and thrown together, particularly the Phantasma curved backdrop panels, which just looked dull and two dimensional. Considering Bob Crowley's other work, I was slightly disappointed.

The Performances are phenomenal, almost without exception.

The opening needs tightening, and work on diction. None of us could understand a word of Niamh Perry's opening lines. It just sounded like mumble, and was completely lost on us. Similarly, the arrival of Christine, Raoul and Gustave needs tightening and a more clear aim for the scene. The use of the three 'freaks' was, in my view, somewhat pointless, as they did not have developed personalities at all, and were just tools of the Phantom. Nice costumes, apart for the one dressed as the Child-Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. God knows.

Meg is dying for an aria, and further character development. **SPOILER** Her main songs in the show are upbeat, cheery fluff, and she seemingly quickly turns into a gun-wielding, child-drowning nutter. If they spent more time on the psychological effect of the Phantom on Meg, it would make more sense, and be more plausible.

The ending is long and drawn out, as they end up playing a game of hug-the-corpse, shortly followed by a game of stroke-the-face. Speed it up. End it sooner. People were getting bored, and waiting for the show to end. When it finally did end, as others have mentioned, there was little signal that the show had reached it's conclusion. Any Ideas?

Raoul at one point dresses almost exactly as Joe Gillis from Sunset. Bizarre.

The oddest part of the show for me was the end of Act 1, and the Beauty Underneath sequence. Musically, I enjoyed it. Visually, it was bizarre, and at points, disturbing. The Automatons are unnecessarily bizarre, and even for the Phantom, probably in very bad taste. There is some kind of skeletal drumming machine, which just looks like a four-armed zombie behind a minibar. Strange.

Gustave needs a personality, please. At the moment, he is just a generic child.

Despite these criticisms, I was far more impressed with the show than I thought I would be, and I think that what I have highlighted, although they are only my personal views, would be easily corrected and tweaked. I think if the creative team made some of these changes, the show would be really fantastic.

I will watch with interest to see what happens. Hopefully, changes will be made, and the show will enjoy a decent run.

Mark and nshreeve enjoyed reading your reviews

Watched the interview with Jonathan Ross with the Lord last night and ALW revealed "he was conscious not to use any material from 'Phantom of the Opera'", do you feel this is right?

I feel he could use a little bit, for instance he could of used a couple of verses from 'The Music of the Night'.

If you had a few thousdand pounds to spare and has the opportunity to invest in the show, would you of?

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