Love Never Dies: The Phantom of the Opera Sequel

[EricMontreal22]

Everyone here knows I love theatre, and musical theatre--and am a big snob (ie Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, Bob Fosse are Gods, British megamusicals are cheezy guilty pleasures, and jukebox musicals are sent from Hell).

But, the first professional musical I saw, was the Canadian tour of the original Hal Prince production of Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera--back when I was 9. I was hooked--and obsessed. Since then I've realize how weak much of the material is (even for Lloyd Webber, the lyrics are amateurish--probably because he hired a student he knew he could take all control and profits over, to write them--the tunes can be repetitive, etc), but I admit, i do get the appeal. The awful Shumacker film just points out how amazing the Hal Prince staging (designed by Maria Bjornson--sadly now dead but who was one of th greatest opera designers of her time) truly is--it's all about atmosphere and distracting and surrounding the audience so that they don't realize the flaws. In all seriousness, I get why it's run continuously for over 20 years (it also is, apparently, the highest grossing artistic production *ever*--yes it's grossed more than Titanic, etc--which has kept Hal Prince able to comfortably continue to stage the more experimental musicals, like Sweeney Todd and Company he made his reputation on).

And like Titanic if you watch it the same way you might a Summer blockbuster--without much thought and just let the visuals and over lush music wash over you it can be a great night out. (The number of just wrong ideas Shumacker had for his film version--down to the very basic fact that on stage they keep the Phantom hidden, in shadows, etc, and on screen he's everywhere--is just shocking)

So I still pull out the CDs when I want a guilty pleasure, nostalgic rush, and I'd probably pay to see the tour again if it came anywhere near... And I *get* why they decided to make a sequel. But, oh boy, I think this might be a spectacular disaster (though, because of the obsessive Phantom "Phanatics" could still run for years!).

First of all, no musical sequel has ever worked. Annie had TWO tries at sequels, both epic Broadway disasters (on the same level as infamous flops like Carrie the Musical), and how many of you have seen or heard Bring Back Birdie?

Even though Phantom ends on an ambiguous note (is he still alive? etc), I don't know anyone who sees Phantom and then wonders whatever could become of these paper thin characters ten years hence. But the fact that the storyline ALW came up with Ben Elton (the clever playwright who has made several awful musicals--including one of ALW's biggest flops, The Beautiful Game, and the flat out bizarre Queen jukebox musical, We Will Rock You), somehow brings ALL the major characters over the New York and Coney Island, and involves an automaton version of Christine that the Phantom has created (and apparently even sleeps with!). So we have a bunch of French characters running around Coney Island freakshows in a story that no one wants to be told--I think this coul dbe a wonderful nigth of great camp theatre (I've already pre ordered the CD!). Yes--I'm DIEING to see it!

It's in previews in London right now, with the opening for critics next week--though early word of mouth isn't good...

Oh and about that music. ALW is working with another young, not very talented lyricist--Garth Slater. Here's the lead single which is ALW adult contemporary love balladry by numbers (and thus pretty enough I admit--it was stuck in my head the other day, yet not very distinctive and try to not cringe at those lyrics).

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(That's Canada's Ramin Karimloo, very non disfigured and non ugly, as the Phantom)

[EricMontreal22]

Among musical theatre snobs like me, ALW has a bad reputation for reusing music from show to show. Usually he only reuses a tune that was from a show of his that flopped, or a song dropped from a show, so it's not that obvious, but it does go against the way composers like Sondheim work, where the music is meant to be wholly unique and organic to the style and story of a show--not just random favorite melodies shoved into the story. Well, for Phantom 2 he's done this even more shamelessly. The story--years ago he announced a Phantom sequel, but it never happened due to no plot they could work out (I guess no one thought about the Christine sex robots)--but Kiri Te Kenawa did premier a song from it--which is one of ALW's lovelier melodies (as many of his best tunes are, like Memory, it's also a dead on Puccini hommage):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWZeWXUFQFk

Well, when Phantom 2 was no longer, this song somehow ended up in the VASTLY different musical he did with Ben Elton--The Beautiful Game. No longer set in the opera world of the 1800s, the song now was sung by a lovelorn Irish girl in the 1960s, in love with a footballer (Beautiful Game is an ambitious, but failed attempt at a serious musical about football/soccer set during the height of the Norther Ireland problems). He even reelased the song as a single where it had minor UK chart success:

(Please try to ignore that this youtube clip sets the song inexplicably to Clay Aitken pics--the only other youtube one I could find was a horrendous Donny Osmond clip)

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Well after having a minor success with it, no one thought the song would work in Phantom 2 anymore--indeed ALW said his musical vision for the show now was vastly different so it wouldn't show up. So go figure, when the title song was premiered by the new Christine on Jonathan Ross the other week!

[EricMontreal22]

The lovely Sierra Boggess, the new Christine (she was Ariel in the stage Little Mermaid) is *great* I think--she can't quite pull off the Kiri notes at the end, but who could. But I think the lyrics may be the worst of the bunch--just a string of useless cliches that surely add nothing to the plot or character.

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Needless to say I wish I was in London to witness this show at least several times, and will be following every moment!

Certainly the creative team is good--Hal Prince declined to direct again (of course), but Jack O'Brien is a great choice. He's most famous for commercial hits like The Full Monty, Hairspray and the new Catch me if You Can (by the hairspray team--has grat word of mouth) which seem far removed from Phantom, but he has also done, dreamy, even nightmarish epics like Stoppars Coast of Utopia trilogy and a popular Magic Flute. And the designs this time are by the brilliant Bob Crowley, who was something of a mentor to Bjornson, so it's fitting (Bjornson's sudden death is still something of a mystery--maybe a Phantom curse). Anyway, I have to say the whole thing fascinates me on every level (I won't even print the song titles which just seem insanely odd).

[EricMontreal22]

Some of Crowley's designs (the early buzz is they're not as good as Maria Bjornson's for the first, and are very inconsistant with a number of awesome set pieces,and then some that just don't work or look very good...) These descriptions are from The Telegraph

1) Inside the Gates of the Phantom's home, Phantasma. Based on the original photographs of Coney Island, but made to look more dream like.

2) This iconic American Figure appears at the gates of Phantasma.

3) The Tattooed face of a character called Squelch, one of the freaks the Phantom has rescued and transformed into a thing of extreme beauty!

4) Costume design for Meg, the leading showgirl known as the "Ooh la la girl"

5) A half bird, half woman aerialist called Fleck. The peacock image was used alot by the Art Nouveau movement, particularly artists like Aubrey Beardsley.

Some pics. I have to say the set, from these pics, seems to have far less atmosphere than the original (the early reviews have all called the lighting very flat, so this may be partly to blame and could be improved by opening...) Also, to be fair, many of the set pieces aren't allowed to be photographed yet for maximum surprise, so these are all from one or two more minor scenes. Funny that both the Phantom and Christine seem to look younger and more attractive "ten years later..."

Loved the description of this beyond bizarre moment, in a mixed/negative review online:

"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, snake haired, 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. "

It sounds like the fact that there really is nowhere else to bring these characters, for a sequel, is the main prob--too much has had to happen between the two musicals to make a story for Love Never Dies--for instance Meg, Christine's dull and super sweet best friend has now become bitter, world wise and jealous. Why? Who knows, except for the plot... Similarly Raoul is now a drunkard, the Phantom seems to be much gentler than the whacked out jealous murderer from the first, etc...

[Sylph]

This reminded me... Do Lloyd Webber's musicals employ the largest orchestras in musical theatre?

[Sylph]

The Phantom seuqel debuts but proves a mere shadow of the original

Lloyd Webber sequel incurs scorn of online ‘phans’