Love Never Dies

Also known as "Andrew Lloyd Webbers' Love Never Dies", this is the Australian version of the second part of Andrews Lloyd Webbers' famous musical The Phantom of the Opera. It tells the story of The Phantom [Erik] who lures Christine de Chagny [former Christine Daae] to America, where he has made fortune and created an freak show. 

It was directed by Brett Sullivan and Simon Phillips and it stars Ben Lewis as The Phantom, Anna O'Byrne as Christine de Chagny, Simon Gleeson as Raoul de Chagny [Christine's husband] and Sharon Millerchip as Meg Giry. 

Well, I'm afraid that this one could be a rather long review for it has a lot of points to be singled out. I'll try very hard not to make any spoilers, which will be rather hard. So please excuse me for the vagueness of some descriptions. 

First of all I'd love to make a special mention: Jack Lyall, who plays 10-year-old Gustave, Christine's son. He has one hell of a long role for a child. He's present in a good half of the action. And has some rather long songs.  And he does really good. 

Now, let's get into the musical. 

I had listened to the soundtrack ever since the CD came out, plus I had watched as much footage as I could get. The story is based on the much hated novel "Phantom of Manhattan", which doesn't have a lot to do with the original novel by Gaston Leroux, but is completely based on A.Lloyd Webbers' Phantom of the Opera.

For what I had heard of the soundtrack, the original characters had been perverted and turned into some caricature of themselves. The Phantom - famous for his murderous and selfish ways - had turned into some sort of loving puppy. Raoul - the French gentleman - was a drunken gambler who mistreated his wife and son. The only character that didn't change a lot was Christine. 

Well the DVD has had some mayor changes, which leave the characters a little bit - not a lot - closer to themselves. Some songs have vanished from the movie - among those two of my favourites: 'Heaven by the Sea' and 'Heaven by the Sea Reprise'. The whole prologue has gone, replaced by the song 'Till I hear you sing once more', sung by Erik. A very good change has been done to 'Madame Giry confronts the Phantom'. In this version Madame Giry does not confront the Phantom but his daughter, who defends both his former friend and his Master. With this small change - Meg uses the Phantoms lines and says exactly the same things the Phantom said - the Phanom's character is spared, for anyone who knows the Phantom knows he'd never put up with Madame Giry - or anybody for that matter - talk to him in that fashion.

But no amount of tinkering with the lines could cover all the holes in this plot, so the ending is held completely upon Madame Giry's evilness. Yet the DVD helps alot in creating the new character of - lets call her - Evil Madame Giry. The woman manipulates completely his daughter into falling for a hideous, psychopath who's in love with another woman and can only think of her - the other woman. And Evil Madame Giry does so only to ensure that once the Phantom dies she will inherit it all. 

[Evil Madame Giry, Australia]

That from the woman who raises an orphan and helps a wretched, mistreated freak, giving him a place to stay and servicing him as good as she possibly can.... Good Work Folks!

Anyway, we should be getting to the wretched, mistreated freak: the Phantom. Let's not pay much attention to the fact that the guy should be around 60 years - if we take Lerouxes novel as  a starting point. Let's believe that the good Erik is actually 30 or 40 years old, why not? But, guys, this man has been treated as a freak. He was displayed publicly, called 'the Devil's Child', beaten up and laughed at. The man despises human beings and has no regard for human life, no pity and no tolerance for ugliness - specially in music. 

Now that was the Phantom. 

Let's take a look at Phantasma: a freak-show, with bad light music, full of stupid ugly people. 

Do you see the problem?

Come on Andrew Lloyd Webber! You've worked with the character. You should know! Plus it's common sense: why would Erik make a freak show. Why would he write bad music? The very same guy who wrote criticising the ballet of the Opera Populair saying: "the chorus was entrancing but the dancing was a lamentable mess". One that doesn't allow anything but the very best creates an abomination like "Bathing Beauty". COME ON! 

Another important point that marks Eriks character is the fact that he loathes himself. He's like glued to that mask of his. The unmasking scene in this movie has no sort of logic and somehow looks like the Phantom trying to traumatise Christine's child for the rest of his life. The whole development after that is rather difficult to understand and doesn't make sense at all. 

On the other hand we have the fact that Erik's a freaking genius. "He's a magician and a composer. A  genius, Mosieur"[words of Madame Giry in the Phantom of the Opera]. Let's think about this point and then look at the ending of Love Never Dies,  shall we?: Meg Giry is completely maddened by the fact that the Phantom is still in love with Christine and pays her no attention. Erik sings to her making her believe that he understands her and calming her. He sings until he's by her side and at that point this genius says "we can all be like Christine" - after that she snaps and the thing goes pear shaped. 

OK that he's a psychopath but, the guy's supposed to be a GENIUS. 

The whole ending has no sense at all. Every character goes 'OoC' and it is all a "lamentable mess". 

**********************CAUTION SPOILER IN THE NEXT LINE***********************

The best thing of the ending is Christine forgetting that she's wounded. I laughed myself sick 

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OK, I think it's not necessary for me to keep bitching about the characters inexplicable multiple personalities. We talked about the story and the characters. So let's compensate with something. 

The staging of this is awesome. The atrezzo and dresses are very beautiful. The changes in the scenery are very good and Phantasma is really interesting. From what I've seen from the footage of London's Love Never Dies, the strange labyrinth in which Gustave and the Phantom sing "Beauty Underneath" is different in this version. This one gives a sensation of great danger and is full of freaks, whereas the one in London is dominated by a huge automaton monkey. All the sets are really cool and the atrezzo pieces interesting: among them the carriage with which the De Chagny trio is picked up from the pier. 

The dresses, as I said before very beautiful, yet I prefer the dress Sierra Boggess wears in London's version of Love Never Dies in the aria she sings for the Phantom ["Love Never Dies"] than the one worn by Anna O'Byrne. The rest are very nice indeed and I can't say anything bad about it. 

Another positive point before we go back to criticise: The acting of  Fleck, Squelch and Gangle played by Emma J. Hawkins, Paul Tabone and Dean Vince respectively. Their acting is impeccable and they do a very good job. I specially liked Emma J. Hawkins' voice. 

[Ben Lewis, Australia]

[Ramin Karimloo, London]

Let's get back to the negative: which is the filming of the movie. I can understand that this was thought to go directly to the TV screen. But after seeing the filming of other musicals I'm afraid that this one is the worst by far. Even the MTV did it better! The shots are mostly medium shots, too close to the characters to take the setting in, which makes the viewer miss a lot [of details] of the stage. The long shots are very few. The camera movements make the viewer loose the feeling of viewing a staged representation. I think they should have put fewer cameras, play less with the editing and relay more on the acting and spectacularity of their stage. For example the final cut of "Beauty Underneath" is really confusing and the viewer can't really take all the details in.

[Sierra Boggess, London]

[Anna O'Byrne, Australia]

Finally I'll talk about the cast [of the main characters] and I'm afraid I won't be very impartial in it. OK, my problem is probably that I've listened to the soundtrack which was made by Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo as Christine and the Phantom respectively. And then I watched the DVD 'The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall', with both Ramin and Sierra. And I think those two are the best Phantom and Christine [with the exception of Sarah Brightman, who's the very best Christine ever]. Don't get me wrong, Ben Lewis and Anna O'Byrne are very good singers. I liked him better than her, but that's only because I don't really like sopranos. They both do it very good. But... why, if they where going to film it, and had filmed the Phantom of the Opera the year before, couldn't they film the London version too? With the original cast? I really missed these two actors.

Yet I didn't miss Mamadame Girys french accent! It sounds a lot more natural. Meg is just adorable and I really despise what they've done to her in this plot. And Raoul sings very nicely too. He could have been Hadley Fraser, but OK.

Well I think we have arrived at the end of this my longest review. I hope those who followed 'till the end are satisfied. I tried to be as objective as possible with this and I think that, all in all, if you're a phan you will check it up no matter what I say. If you're not, then, don't bother and go directly to "The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall", which is so much better in every aspect.

If you find yourselves in need of more I leave you here a link to one of the best Phantom-Related-Things-Reviewer the Internet has to Offer and his Review to Love Never Dies: The Phantom reviwer reviews Love Never Dies.
Enjoy