10 Things I Actually Liked About Phantom Love Never Dies

After ranting about just a few  of the things that sent me into a furious frenzy concerning Phantom Love Never Dies, here are ten things which I actually didn’t mind. Yes, there are ten things Webber managed to get right, believe it or not.

1. For the most part, the casting was decent. Sierra Boggess is a beautiful woman and she has a spectacular voice, making her an ideal Christine. Even through my distaste for the musical itself, I remember feeling rapturous whenever Christine sang. Although Ramin Kerimloo is definitely not my favourite phantom, he still has a very pleasant voice which deserves credit, and he and Sierra have very good chemistry together both vocally and dramatically.
2.  “Beneath A Moonless Sky” though completely devoid of any attempt at subtlety, does make my pulse beat just a little more quickly if I stop to listen to it. It’s also one of the best songs in the show, sadly there aren’t too many fabulous musical moments in “Love Never Dies” but there are a few.
3.  Another crowning moment of musical awesomeness for me is the little section called “Ah, Christine”. Ramin sounds perfect, Sierra sounds exultant, and the music is actually quite beautiful at this point. It’s like a glimpse into the old days…you know, back when Phantom music was glorious all the way through. Good times, good times.
4.  Christine’s main aria “Love Never Dies” (go figure) is actually quite good. Though the song is lyrically challenged and incredibly repetitive, Sierra sings it beautifully, and although the top notes are a bit odd-sounding, she pulls it off very gracefully. It’s a nice enough song, if you allow it to grow on you, even if Webber has used the melody before in a couple of different places. Is that cheating? I’m still not sure.
5.  “Till I Hear You Sing” is another crowning jewel in this musical. Okay, so it’s no “Music of the Night” but that’s just the point, isn’t it? Besides, “Music of the Night” is on its own in a realm which makes it impossible to compare it  with anything else. It’s just too good to be messed with. Still, the words and melody make me tearful when I hear “Till I Hear You Sing” and it’s one of the few times Ramin doesn’t sound like a senior member of the Jonas Brothers. Sorry, Ramin, I love ya, but this musical doesn’t do you justice.
6.  Gustave. Gustave has a difficult part—a difficult part for a ten-year-old anyway—and whoever it is on the cast recording does a terrific job of it. His voice is almost angelic in its purity…puts me in mind of how Christine must have sounded when she was that age. In fact, Christine agrees with me. After all, in the middle of a completely romantic and triumphant moment with her phantom, she takes a moment to acknowledge her amazing son by yelling: “Gustave! Gustave! Gustave!”
7.  Speaking of Gustave, “The Beauty Underneath” is a song that I both liked and hated. The song itself is pretty decent, (although we are treated to another Jonas Brothers moment from Ramin at some point) and I just really, really try to look past Gustave’s series of yeses at the end. Know what, let’s not even go there!
8.  “What A Dreadful Town” was something I originally hated, and then  progressed to making fun of. I like anything which provides me with a good, hearty laugh, thus Raoul’s many outbursts make it onto this list of the things I thought were pleasant in this musical,  though if we want to get technical Raoul should not have been a drunken bastard to begin with. But, what can you do? Still, “What a Dreadful Town” is fairly epic.
9.  There is a certain pathetic beauty in “Why Does She Love Me” even though it is sung by a complete and utter lunatic. Something about the melody grabs my heart strings every time. Too bad Raoul was completely wrong, but how was he to know that Christine was secretly in love with his worst enemy and that his son was not his own? If you can look past his alcohol and gambling addictions and overall abusive tendencies, you have to feel kind of sorry for Raoul. I think he deserved that little moment all to himself to tell the audience his side of the story.
10.  I loved the fact that they inserted “Twisted Every Way” into this musical. Not only did it fit, but it was another one of those moments of the good old days returning. It helps that “Twisted Every Way” is one of my favourite parts of “Phantom of the Opera” and Sierra sings it very emotionally.

There we are, my take on “Love Never Dies” compressed tightly into a tiny little nutshell. I’m sure I’ll have more to write on the subject, but at present I will revert to other topics. My next post will likely be a comparison of Twilight and Phantom of the Opera, just because I realize how blasphemous it is to compare our Erik to Edward, but there are quite a few similarities once you get right down to it! Until next time!

--Annabel Lee

Just another phantom phan

10 Things That Bothered Me About Phantom Love Never Dies

So…here we are. Andrew Lloyd Webber has really done it—he’s written an official sequel to the wildly successful “Phantom of the Opera” which has enthralled audiences around the world for over twenty years…and with good reason. It’s a fabulous musical, one of my personal favourites in fact. Naturally, I had doubts about a sequel; I was under the impression that Phantom was over and done with. I’m not denying that I’ve listened to the cast recording, each time hoping that it will end differently with an Erik/Christine pairing…but it never does. Still, I found the ending fitting and…well…final. A sequel I felt, would simply ruin the entire story, unless it was really, really good.

One of my dearest friends and fellow phantom phans called me on skype sounding urgent. She had just purchased the cast recording of “Love Never Dies” and was torn between exasperation, horror, and intrigue. I immediately laid my hands on a copy and listened to the entire thing as quickly as possible in order to judge for myself how truly terrible or wonderful it was. Sadly, I was most disappointed in most areas, though the musical is not without merit. Here are 10 things that bothered me about the Love Never Dies cast recording. Much of it is outdated as Webber made some changes to the musical since it opened on the West End in March, but the basic gist remains the same. Though this musical isn’t all bad (some parts have grown on me) it is still nothing compared with its predecessor, and I think many phans would be more contented if it had never existed. They should have left the poor Phantom to die with dignity of his broken heart, and let Christine be happy with her dear Raoul. But no…the story had to continue. So here’s my take on it.
Note: None of these items listed are in any particular order.

1. The phantom has gone soft in the ten years which elapsed between the original musical and its sequel. He went from terrifying, wicked, deliciously evil, to a complete sissy.
2. Christine is still as dim as she was when the Strange Affair began ten years ago. Apparently, marriage and motherhood have not increased her brain cell count any.
3. Meg is now a trashy fangirl. She is a graceful and beautiful ballerina turned insane prostitute.
4. Madame Giry has turned from a motherly ballet mistress, to a crazy, greedy, villainous and terrifying harpy who scared the crap out of me multiple times throughout the course of the musical.
5. The Americans in this thing are so stereotypical and far, far ahead of their time. They’ve got New Yorker accents in 1907…very, very unlikely. The kind of entertainment they seek is cheap, trashy and fairly shameful—I guess some things never change as far as what appeals to the masses. Opera just disguised it better, I suppose.
6. Christine goes from feeling compassion for the phantom at the end of the original musical, to returning to him on the eve of her wedding night, where they share a night of passion. Um…since when did Christine have any sexual feelings for the phantom? Oh yeah…and after the phantom—who has loved Christine so fiercely and chased after her for so long—finally has her love, he leaves on account of his shame and embarrassment, leaving her pregnant and alone! Any sympathy I may have had for the phantom vanished at that point.
7. The setting is partly why I think this musical could not reach its full potential. An amusement park in New York is not nearly as glamorous or enchanting as an opera house in nineteenth-century Paris, and so this musical fell flat on its face as far as romantic setting and charm.
8. Though Sierra Boggess makes a great Christine, (hardly changing her character from the original musical) Ramin Kerimloo comes off soft, irritating and very anticlimactic as the phantom. Though is performance is good and his voice is pleasing, his Canadianness shines through just a little too brightly in Love Never Dies. Not that I have anything against Canadians (I’m one myself) but the phantom is supposed to be European, and so his way of speaking and singing should be much less modernized. At some points Ramin sounds like a member of the Backstreet Boys. It makes me long for Michael Crawford, with his open vowels and regal manner of speech and song.
9. There are some truly terrible pieces in this musical. Phantom of the Opera did not have one unlovely piece of music in it, but Love Never Dies is peppered with spots of terrible music which are not justified in any way. Meg’s song “Bathing Beauty”, all of Madame Giry’s vocal performance, and “Heaven By The Sea” are just a few of the dark spots in the score. The music just isn’t as good as the music in the original, and I can’t listen to it obsessively as I go about my daily activities the way I can with Phantom of the Opera. It’s just…not that great.
10. The plot. The entire horrible thing just makes me want to punch the three men responsible for this musical abomination in their faces and burn the score! Though Sierra Boggess and Ramin Kerimloo insist that they believe in the story line too much to listen to anything negative about it, even they have to understand that the plot is seriously unconvincing, and lacking in romance. There are just so many terrible, terrible points in this plot and it would be tedious for me to sit here and list them all to you. Here are just a few:
–after all Christine and the phantom have been through, the phantom still has no name! Christine has slept with the man and borne his son, left her husband for him, and died in his arms and she still doesn’t know his real name! Or if she does, it never ever comes up.
–None of the character changes are very realistic; they are too drastic. Not even “ten long years” can change people the way the characters in this musical were altered. Basically, each character in the musical with the exception of the phantom and Christine were changed for the worse to make the phantom look more appealing. It’s lazy and it lacks credibility.
–the fact that the phantom was cowed by an insane Meg holding a gun is so ludicrous it’s laughable. In the good old days, he’d have had the lasso around her neck before she could have had time to pull the trigger. The phantom we all knew and loved would never have tried to talk his way out of anything; kill first, ask questions later. And, even if it was an accident, the phantom should never have let Meg go without even berating her for killing his love. The phantom—to be very frank—is completely unappealing in this musical, for the most part at least. He’s just so irritating and idiotic that I don’t even care what happens to him by the end.
–The ending is just so…well…unsatisfactory. Christine dies, the phantom goes off with his son, and Raoul walks away to go sort out his gambling debts presumably. There is no climactic ending, with the great glorious “It’s over now…the music of the night!” No mirror smashing, no “I love you!” hardly any tears, it’s all very matter-of-fact, actually.

Don’t worry, I’m not all cynicism; after this post will come the ten things about Love Never Dies that I truly liked. Feel free to comment if you see something you like, or that you don’t like! I’m up for a good debate or two!

--Annabel Lee
Just another phantom phan