Love Never Dies

Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the most well known composers of stage musicals.  His claim to fame includes such titles as "Cats", "Jesus the Superstar", and my personal favorite, "Phantom of the Opera".  Recently he has written a new musical, a sequel (although Webber refers to it as a stand alone piece) to The Phantom of the Opera entitled "Love Never Dies".  It opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End.

Plans for this particualr musical began in 1990, although it didn't open until early 2010.  In "Love Never Dies", the Phantom is in New York ten years after the original "Phantom of the Opera" took place.  He created an attraction at Coney Island called Phantasma, but only really wants to hear Christine sing again.  Christine, Raoul and their son, Gustave, arrive at Coney Island, and shortly after the Phantom threaten Christine.  He tells her if she doesn't sing at Phantasma she will have to return home without her son.  With a dramatic twist at the end, Meg attempts to drown Gustave and holds a gun to the Phantom's head.  She accidentally shoots Christine, who then goes on to tell Gustave that the Phantom is his real father.  Christine then tells the Phantom that her love for him "will never die" and dies in his arms.  When Raoul returns, Christine is dead and his supposed son has left him to live with his real father.

As can be expected, the musical did not achieve good ratings.  In fact, on October 22 it was revealed the show would be closing and going through substancial rewrites.  Many of the musical numbers were to be changed.  Charles Hart, one of the lyricists, revealed the ending may even be completely rewritten.  The New York opening of "Love Never Dies" has been postponed and no clear date has been set for when the show will actually open.

This news may be positive to Phantom fans like myself, because the ending of "Love Never Dies" did sound quite disappointing.  I don't know if I would want to see a "sequel" with a sub-standard ending.  So for now I'll just stick to watching Gerard Butler play Phantom over and over again on Joel Schumacher's 2004 film adaptation of the originial musical.

But I'm optimistic that when Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical is done going through re-writes, it will be a worth sequel to the original "Phantom of the Opera".