Love Never Dies is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, and a book by Lloyd Webber, Ben Elton, Frederick Forsyth, and Slater. It is a sequel to the long-running 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera and was loosely adapted from Forsyth's 1999 novel The Phantom of Manhattan.
The plot is not based on the storyline in the original 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux. Lloyd Webber stated, "I don't regard this as a sequel—it's a stand-alone piece."see Lloyd Webber launches Phantom 2, BBC News, 8 October 2009 He later clarified, "Clearly, it is a sequel, but I really do not believe that you have to have seen Phantom of the Opera to understand Love Never Dies."see Andrew Lloyd Webber responds to critics, talks 'Phantom' at 25, 'Love Never Dies' Glenn Slater subsequently explained that Lloyd Webber "didn’t view it as a sequel as much as 'a second story with these characters'". The musical is set in 1907,"Phantom Sequel, Love Never Dies, Now Due in London and on Broadway in March 2010" . Playbill.com. 18 May 2009. which Lloyd Webber states is "ten years roughly after the end of the original Phantom", although the events of the original actually took place in 1881.Phantom Las Vegas: Synopsis of scenes and musical numbers.
In the show, Christine Daaé is invited by Oscar Hammerstein I for her American debut, until an anonymous impresario under the pseudonym of Mr. Y contracts her to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction on Coney Island. With her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, she journeys to Brooklyn, apparently unaware it is actually the Phantom who has arranged her appearance in the popular beach resort.
Although Lloyd Webber began working on Love Never Dies in 1990, it was not until 2007 that he began writing the music. The show opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End on 9 March 2010, with previews from 22 February 2010. It was originally directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, starring Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess. However, the show closed for four days in November 2010 for substantial re-writes, which were overseen by Lloyd Webber, and it re-opened with new direction from Bill Kenwright. Set and costume designs were by Bob Crowley.LoveNeverDies.com The Show: Creative Team The original London production received mostly negative reviews. A subsequent Australian production starring Ben Lewis and Anna O'Byrne, featuring an entirely new design team and heavy revisions was generally better received, although the show finally closed with heavy discounting to tickets.The Sydney Morning Herald: 'Coney Island lights start dimming "Sydney Morning Herald", 10 November 2011. A planned Broadway production, which was to have opened simultaneously with the West End run, was cancelled,The Australian: 'Moonshadow – musical testing ground gets tough. "The Australian", 16 June 2012. the amount of negative press having deterred potential backers. In 2023, the revised Australian version of the show made its West End premiere in a concert run starring Norm Lewis and Celinde Schoenmaker.
Background
Andrew Lloyd Webber first began plans for a sequel to his 1986 hit musical, The Phantom of the Opera, in 1990. Following a conversation with Maria Björnson, the designer of The Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber decided that, were a sequel to come about, it would be set in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. One of his ideas was to have the Phantom live above ground in Manhattan's first penthouse, but he rejected this when he saw a TV documentary about the Coney Island fairground. Lloyd Webber began collaborating with author Frederick Forsyth on the project, but it soon fell apart as Lloyd Webber felt the ideas they were developing would be difficult to adapt for a stage musical. For Webber's 50th birthday concert in 1998, Kiri Te Kanawa performed the song, The Heart Is Slow To Learn which was written for the Forsyth version of the musical, the song would be reworked into the titular song Love Never Dies. Forsyth went on to publish some of the ideas he had worked on with Lloyd Webber in 1999 as a novel entitled The Phantom of Manhattan.
Lloyd Webber returned to the project in 2006, collaborating with a number of writers and directors. However, he still did not feel the ideas he had were adaptable into a piece of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber, Andrew. A Note From The Composer LoveNeverDies.com. Finally, in early 2007, Lloyd Webber approached Ben Elton (who had served as the librettist for Lloyd Webber's The Beautiful Game) to help shape a synopsis for a sequel, based on Lloyd Webber's initial ideas. Elton's treatment of the story focused more on the original characters of The Phantom of the Opera and omitted new characters that Lloyd Webber and Forsyth had developed. Lloyd Webber was pleased with Elton's treatment and began work on the sequel. In March 2007, he announced he would be moving forward with the project. When Lloyd Webber approached the lyricist Glenn Slater to join the project, Slater's initial thought was that "it just sounded like a terrible idea".
The sequel was delayed because Lloyd Webber's six-month-old kitten Otto, a rare-breed Turkish Van, climbed onto Lloyd Webber's Clavinova digital piano and managed to delete the entire score. Lloyd Webber was unable to recover any of it from the instrument, but was eventually able to reconstruct the score. In 2008, Lloyd Webber first announced that the sequel would likely be called Phantom: Once Upon Another Time,"Lloyd Webber 'names' Opera sequel", BBC Newsbeat, 30 May 2008, retrieved 18 July 2008 and the first act was performed at his annual Sydmonton Festival. The Phantom was played by Ramin Karimloo and Raoul was played by Alistair Robbins.Riedel, Michael."A Really Wine Time: 'Phantom' sequel is unmasked at UK bash". The New York Post. 16 July 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008. However, in September 2008, during the BBC's Birthday in the Park concert celebrating his 60th birthday, Lloyd Webber announced that the title would be Love Never Dies.Lloyd Webber plans Phantom sequel LondonNet. 15 September 2008. Retrieved 29 December 2008. In other workshop readings, Raoul and Christine were played by Aaron Lazar and Elena Shaddow.
On 3 July 2009, Lloyd Webber announced that Karimloo (who had played the Phantom in the West End) and Sierra Boggess (who had originated the role of Christine in Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular) had been cast as the Phantom and Christine and that the role of Meg Giry would be played by Summer Strallen, Madame Giry by Liz Robertson, and Raoul by Joseph Millson. I'd Do Anything finalist Niamh Perry was given the role of Fleck.
Lloyd Webber originally intended for Love Never Dies to open simultaneously in London, New York, and Shanghai in the autumn of 2009.Chatter, Rialto. RIALTO CHATTER: Will the PHANTOM 'Sing Once Again' with...Sierra? Broadway World. 6 February 2009. By March 2009, he had decided to open the show at London's Adelphi Theatre, followed by Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre (before transferring to Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre in 2010) and Shanghai. The three casts would rehearse simultaneously in London for three months beginning August 2009. Opening dates were soon announced as 26 October 2009 in London, November in Toronto and February 2010 in Shanghai, with a later transfer to Melbourne, Australia. Plans were then announced for a separate Broadway production to run concurrently with the Toronto show if Toronto proved successful. In May, the debut of the London production was delayed until March 2010 due to Lloyd Webber re-orchestrating the score and re-recording the album.Chatter, Rialto. "Rialto Chatter: Love Never Dies Set to 'Haunt' Stages in March 2010". Broadway World. 17 May 2009, accessed 13 August 2010 Technical issues with special effects and an automaton version of Christine, and the casting of multiple simultaneous productions also contributed to the postponement. By October 2009, Shanghai plans had been dropped in favour of an Australian production.Adam Hetrick and Mark Shenton. "Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies to Premiere in London in March 2010; New York, Australia to Follow" . Playbill. 8 October 2009.
On 8 October 2009, Lloyd Webber held a press conference at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986, confirming the casting of Boggess as Christine and Karimloo as the Phantom. Karimloo sang "Til I Hear You Sing" and the instrumental "The Coney Island Waltz" was performed by an orchestra for the journalists, industry insiders, and fans who had assembled for the presentation. Lloyd Webber announced that Love Never Dies would begin previews in London on 20 February 2010 and anticipated that the Broadway production would open on 11 November 2010 (this was later postponed and then indefinitely and to date has not come to fruition). Rehearsals began in January 2010.
Score
Instead of the operatic passages for fictional "operas", the "stage" music at Phantasma is based on the companion pieces to the Savoy Operas, which were often burlesques and were also sometimes performed at the Opéra Comique. Many of these kinds of burlesques were based on existing French operas. During the Victorian age, nearly every popular opera was turned into a burlesque.Marvin, Roberta Montemorra. "Verdian Opera Burlesqued: A Glimpse into Mid-Victorian Theatrical Culture", Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1 (March 2003), pp. 33–66, Cambridge University Press, accessed 2 February 2011
Productions West End (2010–2011)
The first preview of Love Never Dies was delayed from 20 to 22 February 2010 due to a last-minute brief illness of Boggess and technical demands.Love Never Dies understudy forced to step in uktheatretickets.co.uk 22 February 2010. The show had its official opening on 9 March 2010. It was directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, with set and costume designs by Bob Crowley. The cast included Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Christine, Joseph Millson as Raoul, Liz Robertson as Madame Giry, Summer Strallen as Meg Giry, and Niamh Perry as Fleck. In April 2010, Lloyd Webber was threatened with a £20,000 fine for illegally painting the Grade II-listed Adelphi Theatre black to promote the show.
In November 2010, Lloyd Webber closed the London production for a few days to rework the show after a poor critical response. The musical was reviewed again (at Lloyd Webber's invitationShenton, Mark. "Lloyd Webber's 'Love Never Dies' Invites London Critics Back to Review West End Revamp" playbill.com, 21 December 2010), with critic Henry Hitchings noting that "Some of the most obvious alterations stem from the recruitment of lyricist Charles Hart to adjust the cadences of the original clunky lines written by Glenn Slater." He further pointed out that "There are also lots of bracing directorial touches; the show is credited to Jack O’Brien, but it is new choreographer Bill Deamer and producer Bill Kenwright who have added the zest."Hitchings, Henry. "Phantom still lacks spirit in Love Never Dies" , thisislondon.co.uk, 22 December 2010 The London production closed on 27 August 2011 after a disappointing run of fewer than eighteen months.Razzle Dazzle Dimmed: West End's Love Never Dies and Chicago Close Aug. 27 , Playbill.com In 2012, Lloyd Webber stated that although he was, "very, very proud" of the London production, it did not completely work and also said, "something just went slightly wrong; I had cancer just before the production, and it was just that crucial 5% off-beam".