"The Heart Is Slow To Learn"

As far as I know it premiered as “The Heart is Slow to Learn” sung by Kiri Te Kanawa at the Albert Hall Concert. It was originally intended for the Phantom sequel before it had a title. Then when he seemed to abandon the project for a time the melody was recycled and became “Our Kind of Love” in The Beautiful Game, a far superior song with superior lyrics. Then when he picked up the Phantom sequel again “Our Kind of Love” was cut from The Beautiful Game, which was retitled The Boys in the Photograph for a time and now seems to be The Beautiful Game again. The melody then became the title song in Love Never Dies.

The Beautiful Game played for nearly a year in the West End but was not considered a success and did not transfer to Broadway. There is a cast album with a handful of enjoyable songs. “Our Kind of Love” is worth a listen if you like the melody.

David10086 said: "Wow! Thanks for that. I have the recording fromKiri Te Kanawa on the CD compilation "DIVAS" and fell in love with the song. I guess that's when I was familiar with it being in the Phantom sequel.

Did 'The Beautiful Game' ever make it to Broadway? I'm not familiar with that."

I did see The Beautiful Games in its London run. The version I saw focused on the effect of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland on young men who played football ( once dubbed "the beautiful game" by football great Pele, if I am not mistaken) when they were in school. It was the saddest Lloyd Webber musical I have ever seen. There were some beautiful songs, including Our Kind of Love ( aka The Heart is Slow to Learn, etc) but my favorite was God's Own Country .

Here's a choral version of God's Own Country ( the song was sung in the play by one of the female leads) --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwghv69lBKc

EDIT: I think I found a version that might have come from the play itself --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XKN_YKVMqo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKic0giL86I

Updated On: 2/10/18 at 02:42 PM

Nope, just a song title in common. If Webber wasn't gonna use it, Don Black was.

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