From Andrew Lloyd Webber’s cat deleting the music, to multiple creative changes, to £20,000 fines for painting a theatre, the issues getting Love Never Dies to the West End in 2010 started long before anyone saw it.
My relationship with the sequel to my all time favourite musical hasn’t been the best. I saw the 2.0 West End production starring Ramin Karimloo and Celia Graham along with the 2011 retooled Australian proshot, which spawned several iterations including in Denmark, Tokyo, Austria, Hamburg and a US tour. Despite critics panning it and often drawing low box office numbers, it seems Andrew Lloyd Webber’s determination to make Love Never Dies a hit persists as it made its big London return in concert form.
While it was a surprise to hear one of Webber’s most infamous shows was getting the concert treatment, what caught my attention was A) this specific concert was a Fourth Wall Live production and B) The Phantom would be played by Broadway heavyweight Norm Lewis in his big UK return. I shall explain more about my reservations below, but was this concert enough to save Love Never Dies from its…problems?
Love Never Dies In Concert
Cast
- The Phantom: Norm Lewis
- Christine: Celinde Schoenmaker
- Raoul: Matthew Seadon-Young
- Madame Giry: Sally Dexter
- Meg Giry: Courtney Stapleton
- Gustave: Cian Eagle-Service
- Fleck: Lucie-Mae Sumner
- Gangle: Charles Brunton
- Squelch: Nic Greenshields
Rating: ★★1/2
What is Love Never Dies about?
Set ten years after the events of The Phantom Of The Opera, the Phantom now runs an amusement park in Coney Island with the help of Madame Giry and Meg. Still yearning for his long lost love, he invites Christine, her now alcoholic gambler husband Raoul and son Gustave to Phantasma to perform one song at his show. Once the two reunite, it’s revealed what happened in the including a night of passion. Craziness ensues as the love triangle is reignited, making you question whether this love should die.
What are my thoughts on Love Never Dies?
It’s been difficult to keep track of what the definitive version of Love Never Dies is, but with each one that’s passed, there’s been one thing that’s remained: No matter who they cast and how much they rehaul the aesthetic or make slight alterations to the score/book, nothing can change the plot’s fundamental problems: the derailing of character arcs, the paper thin premise with so many loose ends and the catering towards a certain portion of the The Phantom of the Opera fanbase to the point of undoing the entire point of the first show.
Working neither as a sequel or standalone show, Love Never Dies feels misguided in its attempts to get the Phantom and Christine back together that all continuity is pushed aside in what feels like a bad fanfiction that demonises everyone else to get to the ending it wants. All jokes aside about a ten-minute song dedicated to them singing about getting dirty, any emotional investment in their relationship is lost as it ignores/downplays the Phantom’s murderous actions from its predecessor, creating even bigger problems when he threatens Christine to win her back and she ends up being treated like a prize to be won with no agency.
With that TED talk over, how do my general thoughts on Love Never Dies affect my feelings on this specific concert version? Plot issues, character assassinations and questionable gender dynamics aside, what Fourth Wall Live managed to do in its staging was amazing. While the show’s score doesn’t reach the stratospheric heights of The Phantom of the Opera with a few exceptions, the London Musical Theatre Orchestra’s gorgeous orchestrations and Freddie Tapner’s musical direction were my highlights and gave the underscore the grandiose in a way I didn’t see in previous versions.
The look of the concert also felt completely different from any version before it (hence why I’ve used images from them – that and there weren’t any from the concert I could find). Rebecca Bower’s sets and costumes using carousel horses and some props borrowed from Frozen embraced Coney Island’s circus aesthetic with reds, whites and golds.
What was the cast like?
The biggest casting surprise was the return of Broadway star Norm Lewis (Les Miserables) as The Phantom, who as expected gave a phenomenal performance. The applause erupting when he entered for Til I Hear You Sing, this felt like an extension of his performance in his stint of Phantom as a brooding loner yearning for affection. Did that also give him creepy stalker vibes? Yes, yes it did. While the equally as amazing Celinde Schoenmaker brought warmth and a gorgeous voice to a more mature Christine, the lack of chemistry between her and Lewis plus the script meant I found it difficult to be invested in the romance the show was supposed to focus on.
Making a surprise return to Love Never Dies was Sally Dexter as Madame Giry, finally playing the role onstage after singing for the show’s concept album. Alongside her was my personal highlight, Courtney Stapleton (Beauty and the Beast) as Meg. At first overjoyed at the thought of reuniting with her best friend while pining for validation from the Phantom, her jealousy eventually gets the better of her once it’s revealed how she contributed to the Phantom’s newfound riches. Regardless of her arc not making sense, Stapleton made Meg’s downward spiral heartbreaking unlike previous iterations that tried to make her the show’s real villain.
Matthew Seadon-Young does a great job as a tired and withered Raoul, admittedly a now thankless role whose struggles with gambling and addiction could’ve been given more nuance instead of the pseudo-villain we got to make the Phantom look like the better suitor for Christine. Playing the child caught between this messy love triangle was the terrific Cian Eagle-Service, who brought innocence and wonder to Gustave. In supporting roles I must also praise were Charles Brunton, Lucy Mae Sumner and Nic Greenshields as Gangle, Fleck and Squlech respectively, the former also reprising his role from the West End production.
What are my overall thoughts?
There’s only so much that a team can work with in a show featuring inherent story, character and script problems, but there’s no doubt the cast and creatives gave their all that it’s impossible to ignore their hard work on and offstage. I can’t say I “hate” Love Never Dies either because it feels like there is an earnest attempt to create something for The Phantom of the Opera fans in spite of all the issues. Also, being entertained by the show’s sheer cheesiness and melodrama is much better than being bored by it.
Would I be up to see the retooled production of Love Never Dies finally brought to the UK? In a very bizarre way, yes.
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