Love Never Dies in Concert - Theatre Royal Drury Lane

[david]

First time seeing LND tonight and really enjoyed it (despite the weak book). A really lovely ALW score combined with some great sets, costumes and vocals made for a nice evenings tv theatre viewing. I’m glad I’ve booked for the Manc run so hopefully we will get some rearranged dates soon for the UK.

[sleepflower]

Watched the screening last night and wasn't very keen! I'd probably still go and see a production if it was in town, but I didn't rate the songs or story at all. All the characters were completely different!

[vickyg]

I really liked seeing this again as I have never seen the Australian recording so I haven't seen it since it closed in London. I love the score, although I'll concede it's not quite up there with the perfection of Phantom, and am more than willing to look past some slightly unlikely happenings, not least the ending, to enjoy it. The thing that struck me most when watching last night was how short it seemed! I was really happy to see it again though.

[vabbian]

[vabbian]

Fun fact - ALW considers Love Never Dies (title track) the best song he's ever done

If you are new to LND, I suggest Til I Hear You Sing / Love Never Dies

YES the story is iffy but the music is faaaab

Truly epic and romantic, the Sierra and Ramin recording has
been a favourite of mine since it came out 10 years ago.
Although I must admit I only ever listen to the songs below! 

[emsworthian]

I enjoyed it. I thought some of the music was lovely. Although at times there did seem to be a bit of a jar between the Christine/Raoul/Phantom scenes and the circus scenes.

[andromedadench]

Just watched it and it's somehow even weirder that I thought it would be - the plot is mind-boggling, the lyrics are beyond terrible, but I'm so pleasantly surprised by the score, it's really lovely.
Yet I can't get over how bizarre the book is - it's part Mexican TV soap, part kitchen-sink drama and part bad fan-fiction.

[jaqs]

I just couldn’t watch it. I got through Til I hear you sing and then gave up. I do love the score and enjoyed it in London despite the book, just felt too weird to watch on tv.

[theoracle]

Assuming the tour is going ahead, can we have Ben Lewis reprise the Phantom in this. Would love to see him do this live in person. Such an underrated voice, barely used in Company and The Bodyguard tour, it would be great to hear him sing this score in a theatre with the lovely acoustics and be a part of the cheering crowd after each number.

[Deleted]

Apr 25, 2020 14:33:20 GMT vabbian said:

Fun fact - ALW considers Love Never Dies (title track) the best song he's ever done

I would have bet money on his best song being 'Our Kind Of Love'

Hang on a minute....

[edi]

What an annoying story. Shame because I enjoyed the score and visually it was beautiful.

[danb]

It looks a bit too sumptuous to tour the uk tbh. If they could do it with a bit of mdf and some poster paints it might do ok. That Australian set is pretty fab isn’t it? I only watched my dvd once but listen to the cd often. So many gorgeous motifs. I’d definitely give it a go with a decent non-shrieky Christine.

[chernjam]

I have the DVD and somehow ended up watching the whole thing on YouTube again last night. Was pleasantly surprised again by how much I love the score. I've had "look with your heart" in my head for over 20 hours now (It's amazing the songs of ALW that I love and stick with me from each of his shows are the underrated ones of those scores: Woman in White - Trying not to notice; Aspects - There is more to Love; Sunset - well I love almost every minute of that, but Girl meets boy's melody can become an ear worm; Phantom - Twisted every way)

Anyway its funny just my sharing it on facebook and I got 20 comments saying they never knew there was a sequel to Phantom. I laughed to myself thinking how around the World Premiere that this was something they were almost denying trying to say it's a stand alone piece.

The story is a bit weaker but in this production it flows better. I've tried to watch bootlegs of the Original production (especially when people ask why that wasn't recorded) and while it was kind of cool to see the prologue with Coney Island come to life, after that, wow does it drag. I hated all the coney island stuff in the original, but in the Australia production it works. Perfect example Meg and Madame Gyrie's "Mother did you see" in the original was lost to me - but in Australia - musically and dramatically is beautiful.

BTW - the Meg and Gustave in Australia are really fantastic -

[westendboy]

Just finished watching this for the first time. Honestly, I'm conflicted on how I feel about it...

As a sequel to 'Phantom', it doesn't really work. But if you take the fact that it's a sequel to one of the most successful and longest-running musicals out of the equation and see it as it's own entity, then it's not half bad.

There were moments that I really liked and the score is nice to listen to. Also both Ben Lewis and Anna O'Byrne were brilliant in their performances. But some of the character decisions made were just off-putting. I didn't like how they made Raoul a snobbish arsehole compared to how he was in 'Phantom' and I don't really like the idea of Christine having real feelings for the Phantom. I like to think that she did care for him, but can't forgive him for all the horrible things he has done, when referring to 'Phantom'. I'm not sure if the messy book/libretto is either Lloyd Webber or Ben Elton's fault, but I wouldn't be surprised if they both had a hand in this.

I'm not trying to seem like I'm bashing the show. I went in with an open mind, despite being aware of the fact that it doesn't have the kindest of reputations. I was also aware that the one on YouTube was the Australian version, so I'm not sure how bad the original West End version was.

So overall, I didn't think it was as bad as a lot of people have called it (I'd hardly go so far as to call it "bad"), but I wouldn't call it an "underrated gem". I will probably go and see it when it returns for the tour sometime whenever, just to see if my opinions change when watching it live. For anyone going into this for the first time, I'd say go in with an open mind and see how you feel.

[andromedadench]

Apr 25, 2020 21:29:26 GMT chernjam said:

I have the DVD and somehow ended up watching the whole thing on YouTube again last night. Was pleasantly surprised again by how much I love the score. I've had "look with your heart" in my head for over 20 hours now (It's amazing the songs of ALW that I love and stick with me from each of his shows are the underrated ones of those scores: Woman in White - Trying not to notice; Aspects - There is more to Love; Sunset - well I love almost every minute of that, but Girl meets boy's melody can become an ear worm; Phantom - Twisted every way)

Anyway its funny just my sharing it on facebook and I got 20 comments saying they never knew there was a sequel to Phantom. I laughed to myself thinking how around the World Premiere that this was something they were almost denying trying to say it's a stand alone piece.

The story is a bit weaker but in this production it flows better. I've tried to watch bootlegs of the Original production (especially when people ask why that wasn't recorded) and while it was kind of cool to see the prologue with Coney Island come to life, after that, wow does it drag. I hated all the coney island stuff in the original, but in the Australia production it works. Perfect example Meg and Madame Gyrie's "Mother did you see" in the original was lost to me - but in Australia - musically and dramatically is beautiful.

BTW - the Meg and Gustave in Australia are really fantastic -

This is the only production I've seen so can't compare, but I do agree it's really well staged as it does flow smoothly and I easily watched it in one sitting despite the nonsensical story, and the actors do an excellent job considering what they have to work with. I also loved the little boy and Meg here.

[johartuk]

After watching it on youtube, I've come to the conclusion that, whilst there are a few musical highlights* and the staging is really good, the book is like a bad piece of fan fiction. None of the returning characters bare any resemblence to their POTO incarnations. Christine has forgotten that the Phantom killed two people and stalked her (in fact, she apparently forgot that pretty quickly judging by the events described in 'Under A Moonless Sky'!). Raoul is a total git (except we don't see much evidence of that - even when he's drunk in the bar there's no real evidence of nastiness, just a man who realises his faults and asks "Why does she still love me?"). The Phantom is suddenly a Sex God, desired by two women (both of whom are aware of his stalkerish and homicidal tendencies).

*I can't take 'Under A Moonless Sky' seriously since I saw a video which pointed out that the lyrics of the song were a badly written description of a sexual encounter! As for 'Love Never Dies' - I don't think the song works in a higher key. Christine sounded screechy on the higher notes, and the song didn't really feel like the 'big moment' song.

[westendboy]

Apr 26, 2020 11:12:00 GMT johartuk said:

the book is like a bad piece of fan fiction. 

That's pretty much the story summed up. 

[danb]

I much preferred this Christines voice to Sierra Bogies’. Much less piercing and my wine glass didn’t shatter, however the Phantom didn’t quite match up to Ramin Karimloo for me. I just think that the score is quite glorious. Yes it is repetitive, but those great big ‘smash you in the face’ sweeping melodies more than make up for the terrible story. There are lots of real ‘songs’ in there too which is why I was surprised that people didn’t take to it.

Edit: Mrs B sat visibly wincing through most of the running time, and when I told her it was ‘Cats’ next she said that it would be my turn to do the same next week. Send help.

[longinthetooth]

I too watched this on Friday. I hadn't seen this version before - I enjoyed it, but wouldn't say I loved it. I absolutely do love the music, though, and saw the show several times in the West End, both original and 'amended' versions.

I don't have a problem with the character assassination of Raoul - I never liked him in Phantom anyway. Don't forget he was willing to sacrifice Christine to the wolves in order to trap the Phantom, despite her initial unwillingness to participate. So much for being in love with her.

Despite him being a mass murderer, I think most people have a bit of a 'thing' for the Phantom (especially if played by Ramin!). Also, the story has moved on ten years, so people and circumstances will have changed. I'm not mad on the Coney Island setting, but hey, why not? It's as good as anywhere else!

[andromedadench]

Apr 26, 2020 11:12:00 GMT johartuk said:

*I can't take 'Under A Moonless Sky' seriously since I saw a video which pointed out that the lyrics of the song were a badly written description of a sexual encounter! As for 'Love Never Dies' - I don't think the song works in a higher key. Christine sounded screechy on the higher notes, and the song didn't really feel like the 'big moment' song.

Under A Moonless Sky is so catchy, I can't stop listening to it even though I do wish I couldn't hear the lyrics, they're really 'Springtime for Hitler' bad I especially lose it at '..I was no longer SHY'

[duncan]

As I've said many a time its a wonderful score let down by everything else - as one of the (un)fortunate who saw the original London production I was glad to see they have finally sorted out the beginning of the show, removing the Madame Giry prologue where the ending was spelt out in LARGE LETTERS was a bonus but I still hate the ending even though I think

SPOILER: Click to show

from being shot to dying

has been tightened up timewise, dear goodness it seemed to take about 10 minutes in London.

It looked and flowed better than London although I did miss the mechanical horse that picked them up from the boat, the carriage contraption just didn't cut it for me.

[Scswp]

Apr 26, 2020 11:12:00 GMT johartuk said:

After watching it on youtube, I've come to the conclusion that, whilst there are a few musical highlights* and the staging is really good, the book is like a bad piece of fan fiction. None of the returning characters bare any resemblence to their POTO incarnations. Christine has forgotten that the Phantom killed two people and stalked her (in fact, she apparently forgot that pretty quickly judging by the events described in 'Under A Moonless Sky'!). Raoul is a total git (except we don't see much evidence of that - even when he's drunk in the bar there's no real evidence of nastiness, just a man who realises his faults and asks "Why does she still love me?"). The Phantom is suddenly a Sex God, desired by two women (both of whom are aware of his stalkerish and homicidal tendencies).

*I can't take 'Under A Moonless Sky' seriously since I saw a video which pointed out that the lyrics of the song were a badly written description of a sexual encounter! As for 'Love Never Dies' - I don't think the song works in a higher key. Christine sounded screechy on the higher notes, and the song didn't really feel like the 'big moment' song.

I agree about the ‘Love Never Dies’ moment - it felt very anti-climactic! I remember feeling the same way when I saw Sierra singing it in London. The number is problematic for many reasons.

I think the fact that it’s a song we’ve heard before is the first part of the problem (as well as the song itself!) I agree that the song does not work as well in a higher key. When you hear Hannah Waddingham sing it in ‘The Beautiful Game’ as a ‘build and belt number’, it has much greater impact as a theatrical moment. Maybe I feel let down by the LND version because I heard Waddingham’s version first and so I’m used to hearing it this way.

The lyrics, at times, are astonishingly bad, especially considering it is the ‘big moment’ to which the whole plot has been building. There are some good moments in it (e.g. I quite like ‘it infiltrates your soul , it takes you by surprise, then seizes for control’), but lyrics like ‘Love will continue’ and ‘Love never dies once it is in you’ are laughably awful. How on earth did nobody insist on a rewrite?

Sadly, the song (just like the whole show generally and, in particular, at the very end) just ‘fizzles out’ at the end. Maybe a bigger ending to the song (a ‘money note’, as it were) may have saved it, but the whole moment does not at all ‘bring the house down’ as the production team may have anticipated.

Visually, the production looked stunning (better than in London) and there are some fantastic songs and passages of music (the Coney Island songs remind me somewhat of the ‘vaudeville-style’ songs in Gypsy), but on the whole, it doesn’t all coalesce into an engaging experience for me.

[horton]

How desperate are we that a show can be considered good DESPITE it's story?

I feel sorry for all those mugs who worked hard to make score, book and lyrics as incredible as possible for other shows, when apparently there's no need.

[viserys]

Apr 27, 2020 7:23:23 GMT Scswp said:

I think the fact that it’s a song we’ve heard before is the first part of the problem (as well as the song itself!) I agree that the song does not work as well in a higher key. When you hear Hannah Waddingham sing it in ‘The Beautiful Game’ as a ‘build and belt number’, it has much greater impact as a theatrical moment. Maybe I feel let down by the LND version because I heard Waddingham’s version first and so I’m used to hearing it this way.

But wasn't that song aimed for "Phantom II" even BEFORE it became a song for The Beautiful Game? I seem to remember that once upon a time it was sung by Kiri te Kanawa (thus as operatic as it gets) and was called "The heart is slow to learn"? Then it became "Our kind of love" in TBG and finally "Love never dies".

That said, I prefer Hannah Waddingham's version, too, although I also always felt that the song itself was a bit too... let's say opulent, for a rather small show set among teenagers during the Troubles. Maybe it's just one of these theatrical songs that work well as standalone songs but don't really fit into a show.

Otherwise I echo the sentiments here - it's a good score overall with many beautiful moments, a gorgeous setting in Coney Island... badly let down by the abysmal story. How I wish all that creative energy had gone into a new story or some other book/movie adaptation, it could have been a fabulous show. 

[danb]

Is the bulk of the story from the Frederick Forsyth book?