Love Never Dies Deluxe Edition [Cast Recording]

Andrew Lloyd Webber | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 9, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Verve
• ASIN: B002S0OBN2
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (166 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,268 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Prologue

2. The Coney Island Waltz

3. That's the place you ruined, you fool

4. A Little Slice of Heaven

5. Only For Him / Only For You

6. The Aerie

7. `Til I Hear You Sing

8. Giry Confronts The Phantom / Are you Ready to Begin

9. Christine Disembarks

10. Arrival of the Trio / Are You Ready to Begin

See all 19 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Entr'acte

2. Why Does She Love Me

3. Devil Take The Hindmost

4. A Little Slice of Heaven (Reprise)

5. Ladies... / The Coney Island Waltz (Reprise)

6. Bathing Beauty

7. Mother, did you watch?

8. Before The Performance

9. Devil Take The Hindmost (Quartet)

10. Love Never Dies

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

From the Artist

"Love Never Dies"
Question and Answer with Andrew Lloyd Webber

Tell us about the story of "Love Never Dies"
I have to be careful about what I say about this story because it has so many twists and I don‟t want to give it away. But, what I can say is it‟s set in America 10 years roughly after the original "Phantom" and is set in Coney Island. Coney Island is a fantastic place - Sigmund Freud once described it as the "only reason to go to the United States.‟ It was beyond anything that anybody had ever seen - the great eighth wonder of the world and it was the place where all the freaks and oddities went and of course the "Phantom‟ could be absorbed in there. Now, our story finds him 10 years afterwards and he‟s gone to Coney Island. He‟s gone with Madame Gieru, his old friend, he‟s gone with Meg, her daughter, and he‟s now the big mogul of Coney and is now running the whole place and that‟s where our story starts.

Why did you decide to follow "The Phantom of the Opera" and why now?
I‟ve often thought that we left the original "Phantom" with a little bit of a cliff hanger and I thought, well, why not to do a sequel to it at one point. It took a very long time coming. I mean quite frankly, I thought about it 15 years ago, perhaps a little bit more. At that time I‟d come up with the idea about the "Phantom‟ going to America and I talked about it with Freddy Forsyth, the novelist who obviously wrote things like "The Day of the Jackal‟ - a very very successful and fine writer. We talked about it and we came up with a plot which he subsequently published as a little book called "The Phantom of Manhattan‟ but it just simply didn‟t gel for me and I couldn‟t find a way through it and it was left alone. The only one thing that I took away from the book would be this time the "Phantom‟ would live above everything and he shouldn‟t live below like he did underneath the opera house. So, I abandoned it frankly and I forgot about it. But, about three years ago I thought about it and came back and I thought "you know, there is the germ of an idea here‟ and I worked on it again with a couple of writers and again it didn‟t happen. But, I then worked with Ben Elton on a project and Ben who is a very very clever story teller said "you know what - this whole thing is really all cuckoo - you‟ve got a fantastic basis this idea of him going to America, the idea of him perhaps going to Coney Island, it‟s wonderful but you‟re not developing all of the original characters, you‟re not taking them with you, you‟re putting in new characters and I‟m going to do a plot which comes up with the original characters transported.‟ So, we have all of the five: "Raoul‟ and "Christine‟, "Meg‟, "Madam Giry‟ and "The Phantom.‟ They all appear in our piece and there‟s only one new character who‟s a 10-year old child of Christine and Raoul‟s called Gustave and that‟s what we came up with. Now, I‟m not going to give the story away but Ben unlocked it. I‟m very story driven and anybody who writes for musical theatre has to be very story driven and I couldn‟t write it when the story wasn‟t right. But the moment I had this outline, which was about just over 18 months ago, I was away and so the first thought

was "who‟d be a really great lyricist for this?‟ Everyone had been telling me about Glenn Slater, who wrote the notes for the "Little Mermaid" and who‟s written "Sister Act" now, and we clicked immediately so we got started.

Tell us about the two leads you have cast
Our lead is the present "Phantom‟ in London who‟s been playing it for a long time and has been a really popular and very sexy "Phantom,‟ I have to say, called Ramin Karimloo and he‟s just great. We‟ve just finished the recording of the complete album and it‟s all done now, unusually for a show. Our other principal, Sierra Boggess, who played the "Little Mermaid‟ in New York, I‟ve known for a while. She also played Christine as a young girl - well, she‟s very young now - but she was only 21 when she played "Christine‟ in Vegas for me in the Las Vegas version of "Phantom." She‟s a terrific actress and having just now recorded the whole thing and finished it I know they are an incredible fit. The passion that there is between the two of them, it‟s almost unbearable at sometimes -- it‟s so strong.

How will "Love Never Dies" roll out internationally?
Originally we thought that we‟d roll out "Love Never Dies" internationally very quickly and in fact we thought about doing three production at the same time. We drew back from that because I wasn‟t absolutely certain that we could cast it sufficiently well immediately like that. I thought that we must get the initial cast completely right which is why we‟ve got this unique thing of an album already recorded which contains our original cast and I don‟t think that‟s ever been done before. We are going to open in London in March, then in New York in November. All the plans now are pretty advanced for certainly the Far East, Canada is way on slate already and we hope that it will roll out around the world rather quicker than usual. But, it all depends on the cast.

Are you more excited or nervous about how "Love Never Dies" will be received?
Well, of course I‟m nervous - I‟m following up my own biggest success and there‟s no question about it. I mean "The Phantom of the Opera," really, is the biggest thing I‟ve ever done - even bigger than "Cats‟ which in itself I never thought we‟d top it. This is a piece I‟m very proud of I have to say. I think it‟s maybe more three-dimensional in terms of the characterization than the original piece was which really is a version of "Beauty and the Beast" with a bit of a twist. But, this one really does develop the characters in a way that I didn‟t have the opportunity to do in the old one and therefore it was a very exciting thing for me to write musically. So, yes, of course I‟m nervous about it but I‟m very proud of it and I‟m very, very much looking forward to seeing it on stage.

When you look at the phenomenon that is "The Phantom of the Opera" did you ever have any idea that it would be so successful?
Well, I must say when I wrote "Cats" and "Cats" became the longest running musical on Broadway I thought I‟ll never ever succeed in getting near this one and then nobody thought "Phantom" was going to be quite what it was. I remember when it opened in London it wasn‟t the favourite of the season in the sense that it was "Chess" the musical that everyone thought would be the absolute huge one that year. We came in as the sort of slight underdog and it just took off. I mean, I remember the first preview we knew we had something which was special but we didn‟t know that we had anything that would quite do this. We didn‟t know that we were going to have people changing their name to Christen Daae by deed poll and the whole thing that went with it. I mean it was way before the internet of course and you begin to wonder when we had these fan clubs that grew up all over the world. Every single performance at one point they reviewed you begin to wonder what on Earth would have happened if the Net had been around.

Anyway, yes it‟s a very tough act to follow and nobody ever thinks that the work they‟re going to do could ever be bigger than the one they do before, especially if you‟re lucky enough like I had to have such a huge thing as "Phantom" was.

What are your plans for the release of the album?
Although the album is completely finished and recorded, we‟re going to issue a couple of songs from it before the show opens but I want to keep the album until the show is finally on and we know exactly what it is. But, it will be out and available I think within days of the opening which is somewhat unusual I know, but it‟s all there, all done and we‟re keeping it under wraps at the moment.

Would you like to tell us about the international creative team you have brought together for "Love Never Dies"?
Well, as I said the story was unlocked by Ben Elton who did a wonderful synopsis which is the reason I‟m sitting here. Glenn Slater is my lyricist who I suppose is of the new young lyricists coming along, I mean, the most exciting I think. In fact, we‟re going to be working together again on the "Wizard of Oz‟ but that‟s another story. Our director is Jack O‟Brien, who of course is one of sort of America‟s legendary Broadway names. I was incredibly impressed by the fact that he managed to come up with "Hairspray," came up with his version of "Il trittico" by Puccini at the Metropolitan Opera House which is one of the most difficult operatic evenings to stage and Tom Stoppard‟s "The Coast of Utopia." In fact, it was through a friend of Tom Stoppard‟s that I came to him because Tom was so pleased with what he did. He‟s been fantastic joy, great fun and has been a rock in pulling it all together. We have Bob Crowley designing who is probably, I suppose, our foremost designer at the moment. One of the sadnesses about whole thing is that Maria Bjornson, who designed the original "Phantom," died very strangely and mysteriously very young only a few years ago. Of course, I did talk about the idea of the new "Phantom" with Maria but Bob was a very, very close friend of Maria‟s and in fact was a little of a mentor to her and I think, that in a way, we all feel the production is dedicated to her.

Product Description

Limited deluxe three disc (2CD/DVD) edition comes housed in a nicely bound 40 page book and includes bonus DVD that contains interviews with the cast and filmed footage. 2010 release, the original cast recording of the long-awaited sequel to Phantom Of The Opera. Set 10 years after the mysterious disappearance of 'The Phantom' from Paris, this show is a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue, as the 'The Phantom' sets out to prove that, indeed, Love Never Dies.

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Continuation March 14, 2010

By Meredith L. Burton

Format:Audio CD

"The Phantom of the Opera" is a musical that holds a special place in my heart. It was my first introduction to musical theater, so I am of course biased. Andrew Lloyd Webber has revisited his most famous musical and created an interesting sequel.

The sequel takes place ten years after the events of the first musical. The show is set in New York on Coney Island. Mr. Y, an aloof masked man, owns Phantasma, the most famous amusement park around. Mr. Y is actually "The Phantom." He has been spirited away from Paris by Madam Giry and her daughter, Meg. The Phantom engages his love, Christine Daae, to sing at a performance given at the park. He longs to hear her "sing once more." Christine comes with her husband Raoul and her ten-year-old son, Gustav. What follows is a plot of surprising revelations and a climactic and unexpected conclusion.

The cast on this album is excellent! Ramin Koomiloo has a soaring voice that brought me to tears. I would love to hear his rendition of songs from the original Phantom show. Sierra Boggis is a superb Christine. Her voice is gentle and soaring. The other cast members are equally good, particularly the boy that portrays Gustav.

So, why only 3 stars? I simply think the story is implausible. The characters are more developed in this sequel, which is a good point. However, their roles seem so reversed as to be unbelievable. I am referring particularly to the character of Raoul, who has undergone a complete turnaround. He is a vastly different man from the one who sang "All I Ask of You". However, his song, "Why Does She Love Me?" redeems him somewhat. The Phantom is now kind and none of his inegmatic and dangerous personality seems to remain. Christine is still kind, but I miss her original innocent spirit. I suppose we must all grow up. I cannot say much more without revealing crucial points of the plot, but I will say that Meg Giry is excellently developed. I love the twist that Webber incorporates with this character.

The songs on this recording are good. They do not have the memorability of the first show, but they do stand on their own. I appreciate that Webber did not merely rehash old songs, although I question why "Music of the Night" was not alluded too. I particularly enjoyed: "Only for Him," "Till I Hear You Sing," "Bathing Beauty," "Once Upon Another Time," "The Beauty Underneath," "Devil Take the Hindmost," and "Love Never Dies." I think fans of the original show will enjoy this one simply because questions will be answered, but I do not think the original will ever be surpassed. Anyway, happy listening, and God bless.

57 of 64 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Phantom" sequel sails over it's rough spots March 9, 2010

By Byron Kolln HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

Twenty years after the original smash-hit "Phantom of the Opera" (which knocked "Cats" off it's scratching post in 2006 as the longest-running musical in Broadway history), Andrew Lloyd Webber has finally come through with the long-awaited sequel, LOVE NEVER DIES.

LOVE NEVER DIES picks up the story ten years after the events of the original "Phantom". Following his mysterious disappearance in the underground lair, the Phantom was quickly spirited away to America by Madame Giry and her daughter Meg; and has now established himself as the most successful, albeit mysterious, impresario of New York's bustling Coney Island fairground. For his latest venture at "Phantasma", the Phantom--using the new alias of Mr Y.--finally manages to lure his beloved opera singer Christine Daaé, her husband Raoul and their young son Gustave, to perform in America for the first time...and the scene looks set for a dramatic confrontation...

Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn't had a hit new musical in years ("The Beautiful Game" was a forgettable mess, and "The Woman in White" failed spectacularly on Broadway despite a respectable, two-year London run); so the stakes were high for Lloyd Webber to extend the story for his most successful, beloved and most personal work. Does it succeed? Well, yes and no. Ben Elton's plot (loosely adapted from Frederick Forsyth's "Phantom of Manhattan") has enraged longtime "Phans", who have denounced it as nothing more than illogical, worst case-scenario fan-fiction, the characters bear little resemblance to how they were seen or portrayed in the original "Phantom"; and the score swings, almost wildly in places, from inspired to mundane.

Despite it all, though, Andrew Lloyd Webber has beautifully furnished the world premiere cast of his LOVE NEVER DIES with two performers who have also played their roles in productions of the original "Phantom". Ramin Karimloo is a particularly romantic Phantom with a voice direct from heaven; Sierra Boggess--who most recently originated the title role in Broadway's "The Little Mermaid"--is delightful as Christine. If there is one thing that slightly worries me about Karimloo and Boggess, it is the issue of their relative youth, which definitely plays against the reality of their characters being ten years older! As such, it would have been a dream come true to see Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman back in their trademark roles, but in light of the incredibly demanding score (and indeed, Brightman's reluctance to re-enter the musical theatre scene), I understand completely why this was perhaps never even possible in the first place.

All of the characters make quite dramatic transformations in LOVE NEVER DIES, but perhaps the biggest is Raoul. Ten years after winning the hand of Christine, Raoul (played by Joseph Millson) is now an embittered, drunken mess, resentful of Christine and Gustave, still haunted by his past battles with the Phantom (and, to top it all off, suspicious of Gustave's true parentage!). A far cry from the bright-eyed lad who once professed his undying love to Christine on the Paris Opera rooftop by singing "All I Ask of You". Summer Strallen is Meg, who has given up ballet to become the Phantom's headlining "Ooh-La-La Girl"; and Sally Dexter plays the ever-mysterious Madame Giry.

The best numbers in the show are those that Andrew Lloyd Webber wisely used in the official LOVE NEVER DIES press launch, namely "The Coney Island Waltz" (an eerie melody with shades of "Sunset Boulevard" in it's opening strains), and the Phantom's soaring ballad "'Til I Hear You Sing". Raoul and the Phantom's "Devil Take the Hindmost" duet harks back to their stormy vocal tauntings in the original "Phantom" score. The title song ("Love Never Dies", sung by Christine at the climax of the second act) is merely a re-tread of a piece that ALW previously slotted into "The Beautiful Game", entitled "Our Kind of Love", but apparently it always meant for the eventual Phantom sequel, according to the composer at least. Glenn Slater's lyrics serve their purpose.

The storyline will forever shatter the romantic dreams of diehard "Phans", the score is brilliant in some places but sketchy in others, and the overall tone of the piece wildly shifts during the course of events. It's never going to achieve the same level of success or adoration as the original "Phantom", let alone threat it's position as the longest-running musical Broadway has ever seen, but it's fine footnote if nothing else.

70 of 80 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hello Erik, goodby Phantom March 9, 2010

By Antonio Acuna

Format:Audio CD

I saw the first ever public performance of the show (lucky me, but not for others, the first one was canceled, mine turned out to be THE first one)How to start addressing this show...with tact:

Let me start by saying that the story is not as strong as the original, none of the Gothic gore implied by The Phantom, this is a more human one. The phantom is not below anymore, but towers above, in a penthouse overlooking Coney Island. He can now 'walk amongst man' another freak in a permanent freak show. Hence, the phantom we meet here is less mysterious, his torment more complex, not just obsession, but vulnerability. The story falters at times, I must admit it, yet the show is beautifully done and manages to move you and close the chapter.

The music

1. Prologue
2. The Coney Island Waltz
3. That's the place that you ruined, you fool!

---A terrible opening for a show, akin to the dreadful opening to the woman in white (a show that should not have existed and has been mercifully musically remade into Love never dies). The saving grace is the Waltz and its marvelous projections (on the show) a lovely piece, truly pure Webber. That's the place you ruined, fool and prologue could go amiss and no one will notice.

4. Heaven By The Sea
---- nice song, a touch out of place with the darker more romantic music, but attempting to capture the banality and lightheartedness of the time and the society in NY at the time. It serves its purpose, the core musical theme being lifted mainly from a repetitive melodic phrase used to death in woman in white, still, nice.

5. Only For Him / Only For You
-----A nice song with a less forthcoming orchestration, lovely melodic tilt, intended to show Meg's love for the Phantom. It appears Webber tried to make a clear distinction between the deep love the phantom has for Christine with the 'cheap' and brassy tolerance he shows Meg, one (Christine's) is for sustenance, the other (Meg) is for survival. I like this song, maybe the distinction marked by the styles is rather too wide, making it two dimensional and one sided (leaning towards Christine)It achieves that.

6. The Aerie
----A lovely, haunting, beautiful instrumental, right from the bowels of the Phantom of the opera. Thick, serene, moving

7. Til I Hear You Sing
---Now we are talking, this is a magnificent song, a true descendant from the original Phantom. A pure display of the best Lloyd Webber can produce. Ramin is absolutely brilliant in it, This song makes the whole show worth it, really.

8. Giry Confronts The Phantom / 'Til I Hear You Sing
---A nice excuse for listening to Ramin again. Giry's bit is typical of the sung through melodic style in Phantom. Very well done by Giry.

9. Christine Disembarks
---mostly spoken, snippets of melodies in the background, mainly themes that will develop later

10. Arrival Of The Trio / Are You Ready To Begin?
I don't care for the three new characters..the Phantom's henchman. Their a-melodic and tense musical themes grind me, not good voices, neither great lyrics, they just add to the oddness that is the phantom, but are never developed enough to matter or to add any depth to the phantom, They are cliches that fill in space. I wish a judge would give Webber a court restraining order so he cannot get near electric guitars, he seems to think that by using them he is 'edgy', wrong! Lovely melodic bit at the end for Gustav, again, lots from woman in white.

11. What A Dreadful Town!...
---I like this song. A lovely string punctuation quite different from Webber's style. Mature, efficient.

12. Look With Your Heart
---Beautiful waltz, sweet, with surprising melodic changes that slide into one another. Fresh and tender.

13. Beneath A Moonless Sky
--This is the heavy bit! the first few notes and chords are straight from the beginning of the song 'the phantom of the opera', as the phantom enters Christine's room and sees her for the first time in ten years. Although the refrain in this song will remind you of the cell block tango from Chicago (I mean it)it is a powerful, beautiful ballad (kind of a tango as well) here we get the whole story of what happened in the last ten years, a bit of a rush, but such a powerful song, the phantom has entered the room...really a triumph

14. Once Upon Another Time
---Less of a song than above, but still sweet and lovely with a great melodic surge, dense with meaning and very much an aria in the opera style.

15. "Mother Please, I'm Scared!"
--Incidental stuff, the phantom meets Gustav...we get the electric guitar...bearable...it works, just enough, the right balance.
16. Dear Old Friend
---Great song a la notes in Phantom. cleverly worded, with touches of the original show and to great effect. It does have the same rhythmic style as Prima Donna , and the scene calls for it, as Meg is a Prima Donna in her work at Coney and Christine is a Prima Donna in her own right, with the trick from 'notes' of shifting between conversations.
17. Beautiful
---Haunting, sweet melody for Gustav.
18. The Beauty Underneath
---Loved by some, hated by almost every single soul that saw the show when I saw it. Too much guitar, too far off the musical style for the show, too modern. Honestly, I hated at the moment. One can imagine Elton John playing a set with AC/DC...it has its moments and many will like it...I found it a low point in the show, uncomfortable.
19. The Phantom Confronts Christine
---Nice, a mix of themes previously heard

Disc 2

1. Entr'acte
---Just that, but I love it.
2. Why Does She Love Me?
--A brooding song, quite different from the Webber stock, although in the same vein as his musical foundation for Sunset. Really nice and very well performed.
3. Devil Take The Hindmost
---Brilliant, brilliant...all I can say is 'Javert and Valjean's dialogue at Fantine's deathbed'...as powerful and as sublime.
4. Heaven By The Sea (Reprise)
---well..it is there...this being a not so great song and rather flat in its texture, i would have preferred another song to fill this slot instead of a rehash , almost feels as if Webber did not have enough time to come up with much musical vartiety and stuck to a couple of musical themes.
5. Ladies...Gents! / The Coney Island Waltz (Reprise)
---More of the same...I must admit I was bored by this point in the plot....
6. Bathing Beauty
---cute, very much a Webber song, catchy.
7. "Mother, Did You Watch?"
---Incidental, no new musical themes, just the same: mix and match. Still effective.
8. Before The Performance
Lovely, if because of the reprise of till I hear you sing. No new musical themes, again, reprises put together.
9. Devil Take The Hindmost
---A reprise but with a lot of pressure in it, a critical point in the plot, quite effective, really nice.
10. Love Never Dies
---This one is not new to us, heard it in the beautiful game and heard it by dame Kiri, yet it works well here, after all it was conceived years ago for this show. Sierra B has a wonderful voice, but the high notes are a push in her range, we can still say it is a breathless performance, a thousand times better than Katerine Jenkins and her catastrophic attempt at this song.
11. "Ah, Christine!..."
---more of the same,nice mix of earlier themes
12. "Gustave! Gustave!..."
---As above, more incidental music and earlier musical themes intertwined.
13. "Please Miss Giry, I want to go back..."
---climatic yet melodic-less ending. The final musical theme reprises the aeria and remind me of the very ending of Superstar, John Nineteen Forty-One. Maybe too weak for an ending (for this show)

So, do I like it? yes, overall a great musical that deserves many years on stage. I wish it had more original numbers and less reprises and that it did not have 'the beauty underneath' but hey, overall, a different show, this is not the phantom times 2, this is its own original show, with it's own personality. This show contains some of Webber's best ballads and melodies. Does it copy from his previous musical stock? yes, there is lots of Aspects of love, Woman in white and some Whistle down the wind...is it bad? well if we assume absolute originality as the definition of creativity, Sondheim has not been creative since Company, so there....