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 Much of it is outdated as Webber made some changes to the musical since it opened on the West End in March, but the basic gist remains the same.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
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