Movie/Stage Review: Love Never Dies

Love Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, was not a hit in London, and received mostly negative reviews. When it closed, it was rewritten, reworked, and then restaged in Melbourne, Australia to mostly positive reviews. The stage production was filmed and plays for two nights only at movie theaters. The first night was Tuesday, February 28th. The second is March 7th.

When you walk into the movie theater, you hear the sound of an audience in a theatre. Not a movie theater, but a theatre for live performances. There is a different sound of the audience of a theatre for live performances from a movie theater.

The commercials before the main feature were also different from those before a movie. There were commercials for Sister Act, the musical, and Ghost, the musical, both playing on Broadway. And there was a commercial for a touring show, Memphis.

Then they showed what's coming up next with Fathom Events. The Comedy of Errors, She Stoops to Conquer, and Casablanca. I'm excited that you can see these types of shows/movies on the big screen.

Before the main feature began there was a segment on the filming of the production that featured Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was interesting to hear how they decided to film the production, and what went into it. However, it went a bit long and soon I was just ready to see the show.

I am not the biggest fan of The Phantom of the Opera. My closest friends could tell you how I feel about it. But I have to say that I enjoyed Love Never Dies better than The Phantom of the Opera. Shocker! Like Phantom, it is heavy on spectacle and light on plot. As I once heard Sylvia Fine Kaye (Danny Kaye's wife) say, "the plot was so thin, its slip is showing."

So, here's the plot: Madam Giry helped the Phantom escape from the Paris Opera house ten years before, and they, along with Madam Giry's daughter, Meg, went to America. They found a place for themselves among the artists and freaks at Coney Island. In the ten years they have been there, the Phantom has pined for Christine.

Christine has married Raoul and had a son, and she believes that the Phantom is dead. Christine's marriage to Raoul is not a happy one as Raoul is a drinker and a gambler (sounds a bit like Gaylord Ravenal from Show Boat). The Phantom lures Christine to New York on the pretense that Oscar Hammerstein I (that's the grandfather of the Oscar we are familiar with) wants her to sing in his Opera house in New York City. Once she's there, the Phantom tricks Christine into promising to sing his song in his Coney Island show, Phantasma. Raoul knows that if she sings, he has lost her. I won't say what she does. Oh, and Christine's son is 10 years old and loves to write music. I'll let you guess that surprise on your own.

Andrew Lloyd Webber said in the segment before the show that he thinks this is his best score. There are many songs by Lloyd Webber from other musicals (even The Phantom of the Opera) that I like better than those in this show, but I think it has a decent score. The lyrics are not the best, but no lyrics for ALW shows have ever lived up to those by Tim Rice. Fans of The Phantom of the Opera will be happy to hear some familiar melodies from that musical interspersed through Love Never Dies. The score is very operatic, but one song, "The Beauty Underneath," has more of a rock beat, a little like "The Phantom of the Opera" from the original, and it seems very out of place.

The Phantom of the Opera was all about spectacle: the staircase, the giant candles coming up from the stage, and the chandelier. Love Never Dies has some spectacular sets too, but it's not quite as grand as Phantom, and I liked the set for many scenes. The musical is set at Coney Island, and one set looks like a roller coaster, but theatrical. That set also has a giant warped mask on stage right. It was effective. There was another beautiful set that was a circle of giant peacock feathers. It was my favorite.


The costumes were extremely well done. I love the styles of that period (early 1900s). I especially loved Christine's beautiful gowns, and when she sees the Phantom again, of course she's wearing a white gown. And, so as not to disappoint true fans, she does wear the white dressing gown made famous in The Phantom of the Opera later when she's in her dressing room.

I had a problem with the casting of the Phantom himself. He just seemed too young. His voice was beautiful, and he certainly could sing the score, but he wasn't believable to me as the Phantom. It also annoys me that they make him out to be this great romantic hero, just as they did in The Phantom of the Opera. If you've read the book, you know that he is not a good man. He kills people. He kidnaps people. The book is a detective novel, not a romance novel.

There's one thing I have to say about Christine, I don't know if she ever closes her mouth. Her mouth isn't wide open, but her lips are always apart like she's always under some spell (this is something I noticed in the film of The Phantom of the Opera too). I don't know if it's a specific direction given to every girl who plays Christine, but it bugs me.

My favorite of the cast was Meg Giry. She did an excellent job. I really liked her "Bathing Beauty" number. The costuming in that number was very fun. The little boy who played Gustave, Christine's son also did a very good job.

There are some very melodramatic parts in the musical that made me want to laugh, because the melodrama was so big, but I reminded myself that this is stage acting, not film. In stage acting you have to play to the balcony so they understand the emotion. In film it's close up, and a little goes a long way. In this production sometimes the acting was over the top.

I decided to go into the show with no bias, and judge it solely on its own merits, and I discovered many merits. It's not a perfect musical, but that honor for me only goes to Man of La Mancha. I would love it if they filmed a good stage version of that. The movie version is so bad.

Love Never Dies will be shown again at movie theaters on March 7th in case you want to see it. If you like musicals I recommend that you see it, especially if you like The Phantom of the Opera.