Customer Reviews

Love Never Dies Deluxe Edition

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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....

It's not a bad album. Let me say that right off the bat. Honestly a lot of the first act reminded me of the musical Side Show with it's carnival music and female harmonies. There are ballads and rock inspired tunes. If the story was completely new, this might be a show many people could take interest in.

The problem, though, is that this isn't a new musical about new characters. This is the much talked about sequel to the most successful musical of all time, and that's the very reason this piece of musical theater falls apart.

If you buy this because you love Phantom of the Opera and it's dark gothic pop-opera sound, then you'll be sadly disheartened. Loyd Webber has aged more than 20 years since writing Phantom, and it seems he can't repeat the shows hypnotic soundscape. Instead this show sounds like it could easily be a sequel to the Yestin/Koppit show simply titled "Phantom"... and that is not at all what fans buying this CD will be expecting.

Neither the Phantom nor Christine ever get a test of their vocal skills remotely comparable to their pieces in the original show and seem more content to just stay bouncy and fun. There is little angst in even the most dramatic piece on the CD, and you're so hard pressed to find something that fits what you're looking for that the little snippets of "Angel of Music" and "Little Lottie" that pop up will instantly give Phantom fans infinitesimal moments of happiness, but they are few and far between.

As with the Cast Recording of the original show, this CD covers so much of the show that it is easy to follow the story, which is also to the CD's detriment. Frankly it seems that the story is just ill conceived. Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all against another show about The Phantom, but this script makes characters like The Phantom, Christine and especially Raoul, one dimensional caricatures of their counterparts in the original show (Raoul who was once the dashing prince charming, is now a hard drinking broke gambler). Similarly, while the climax of the original felt completely natural given the characters and story of the original, the climax of the show (presented in the last track of the second disc) feels completely tacked on to get a shock value out of a story that really felt telegraphed from the beginning.

Again, perhaps if this show was about original characters and the audience didn't bring in notions and memories from the original musical, this show could be seen in a completely different light. Unfortunately, as it is, this show will live an die in the shadow of The Phantom of the Opera.

Ok, so this is the first time I've ever reviewed anything on Amazon - however, I've really valued the reviews I find.
Let me preface by saying, like many other that will post/review here, that I am a LONG time Phantom fan. I have seen the show 26 times (on Broadway and a variety of road shows). I'm probably the only person that can actually claim to have stolen a Phantom Mask (it was Jeff Keller's first mask - one that I returned to Kevin Gray back in the early 90's).

I enjoyed the movie remake of the show - but was very dissapointed with Gerald Butler. He wasn't awful - but God, he trashed the end of the title track IMO. Music of the Night, my favorite song from that show, well - sigh, wish they would have picked a singer that could act rather than an actor that could sing.

But, alas, this is a review of Love Never Dies.

Overall, I "enjoyed" it (hesitant to say "like" yet). After listening to about 3/4 of disc 1 and listening to the "rock" track of "The Beauty Underneath" I had to walk away from it and was extremely dissapointed. However, after sitting down and listening to it through, I found myself enjoying it a little more.

The two issues I had with it was:

a) The Coney Island stuff in the beginning (albeit good and catchy) made me feel like I was listening to a Disney flick (ie Beauty and the Beast or Hunchback of Notre Dame) where they have their beginning "crowd" pieces. It didn't have the "feeling" at all of what I thought would be a sequel to Phantom - but, again, it seems to be wearing on me.
b) THIS IS HUGE. I have a VERY hard time with Gustav in "The Beauty Underneath" I mean, in Phantom, the title track - where the Phantom and Christine are descending into the depths - they are entranced with one another. In "The Beauty Underneath" it felt like ... I hate to say it ... (PLEASE tell me if I'm the only one) .. it felt like the Phantom had a thing for Gustav - and vice versa. The moaning of "YES" by Gustav - .... it just felt very weird and odd - very out of place. I realize Gustav is his son - and think I feel where he was going with this - but it just is SO hard to get over Gustav's moaning - as they sing "The Beauty Underneath".

I wanted/want SO badly to love this - but have a VERY hard time right now - mainly because of my second point above. Also, unlike others perhaps, I really wish there were more undertones from the original in this piece. I mean, in ALW's commentary, he states that the problem he had in developing the story is that he found he needed to go back to the original characters that we knew and loved. Why didn't he pay attention to his own advice with the music. I'm not looking for a rehash of the old - but, man - I just wish there was more of a trek down memory lane.

I, also, believe the Raoul in this production has changed TOO much!! No more to say about that.

I don't know - perhaps after another week or two - I might feel obliged to rate this higher. Perhaps if I ever get to see the show - it might also help - but, with Phantom, I feel in love with the music well before I saw the show.

My last point I'll make, is that, with Phantom - and many other shows, there are many catchy songs I find myself really loving and enjoying. I really only find myself falling for "Til I hear you sing," those songs that revolve around the Coney Island Waltz - and then the one where they sing with Meg (can't remember the song) - where it is very similar to Prima Dona.

Overall, like I said, I enjoy it - but need to listen to it a few more times. I realize that my review keeps pointing to Phantom - but, come on - this is a Phantom "sequel" -

Sincerely,
Rob

Just finished enjoying the two hours thirteen minutes of "Love Never Dies". As a sequel , it has many great moments , however one must be familiar with the original (and who isn't) to truly enjoy it's splendor.
I won't rehash what other reviewers have said , but there is one point I want to bring up. In the notes about the recording , Webber states that he only "with one short exception" uses a melody famous from "Phantom". Whereas it is true that several snippets of the original appear throughout "Love Never Dies" from a few bars , to several passages. This enhances the whole work , and is a welcome addition.
It would be unfair to compare this cast to the original , it is 20 years later , and each has it's merits.
All in all a very beautiful follow-up. Never short of a pretty melody , Webber has once again crafted a fine work of art.

I got this cast recording the day it came out, hoping to recreate at the earliest moment the unbelievable thrill I derived from listening to The Phantom of the Opera for the very first time. Well, "Love Never Dies" is just OK. The only memorable melody it seems is "Love Never Dies", which was first introduced at the ALW Royal Albert Hall Celebration (Dame Kiri's unforgettable "The Heart is Slow to Learn") and later loaned to "The Beautiful Game" ("Our Kind Of Love"). Did anyone notice some melodies were recycled from "Sunset Boulevard"? Try finding them.
I read they're already expecting rewrites for the Broadway version.

Reviewed By: Natasha Tripney · Mar 10, 2010 · London

Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess
in Love Never Dies
(© Catherine Ashmore)
Sequels are always potentially dangerous ground, and this has certainly proved to be the case with Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber's follow-up to his most popular musical, The Phantom of the Opera, now at the Adelphi Theatre. The new show, directed by Jack O'Brien, turns out to be muddled and baffling, and full of moments of unintentional humor. It is also unlikely to satisfy existing Phantom fans nor attract new ones.

The story is set 10 years after the events of the original. The Phantom (Ramin Karimloo) has fled to America -- specifically to Coney Island, where surrounded by freaks and circus folk he has created his own Barnum-style attraction, Phantasma. Meg Giry (Summer Strallen) and Madame Giry (Liz Robertson) have accompanied him across the Atlantic and Meg is now topping the bill there nightly, desperately seeking his approval.

Without revealing his identity, the Phantom invites his former object of affection, the soprano Christine Daae (Sierra Boggess) to perform an aria he has written for her. Not surprisingly, she accepts, arriving with husband Raoul (Joseph Millson) and young son Gustave in tow. She needs the money, as Raoul is now a drunk with heavy gambling debts. Once more, she ends up caught between the two men, and the lack of suspense in who will win out is one of its most problematic elements: Christine's mind seems made up from the start.

Despite the contributions of four different people to the book -- Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton, as well as the lyricist Glenn Slater and the novelist Frederick Forsyth -- the dialogue is peppered with clunky exposition. As a stream of Vanderbilts and Astors spill off an ocean liner, a well-informed crowd member points out Christine and remarks that though she is still pitch-perfect, it's like "the flame has gone out or something." Later, much is made of the significance of little Gustave being 10 years old in case the slower members of the audience have failed to make the connection.

Musically, it's a mixed affair in every sense. There are rock numbers and music hall pastiches as well as the obligatory ballads. "Devil Take The Hindmost," the Phantom's showdown with Raoul, is suitably peppy, and the Phantom's first duet with Christine, "Beneath a Moonless Sky," is fairly powerful, although more for the strength of their joint vocals then for the song itself. Christine's big emotive number, "Love Never Dies" (which is partly recycled from an earlier Lloyd Webber/Elton collaboration, The Beautiful Game), is rather limp in comparison. Worst of all, hardly any of the music digs its way under your skin.

Karimloo has an impressive voice and a measure of stage presence, yet he comes across as more eccentric than menacing. Boggess has a lovely voice, as well, but her Christine never seems particularly conflicted or troubled by the situation she finds herself in. She seems most comfortable in her scenes with Gustave (the role is split between seven young actors; at the performance I saw he was played, with a strong sense of timing and considerable vocal skill, by Harry Child). Saddled with a sliver of a role as Raoul, Millson has little to do but look cross and slink off.

Bob Crowley's projection-heavy design veers from the effective and elegant, in the moon-lit prologue and a later bar scene, to the ridiculous. The Phantom's tower-top aerie is truly a sight to behold; it's a cross between a Bond villain's lair and the Addams Family's attic.

In reading some of the chatter about Love Never Dies in its preview performances, people were being misled to believe that this was going to be a disaster, yet, as a long time Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, I believe we see the composer returning to the Phantom of the Opera - one of his greatest artistic triumphs and approaching it not with reverence but with great maturity as a composer and as a human being.

In Love Never Dies, the characters have moved forward 10 years. Time has passed since the Phantom cried at the end of the original "...it's over now, the Music of the night" - but his love for Christine hasn't passed as he longs for her. Anyone who loved the original wouldn't find that unfathomable, and see how it's fully expressed in the soaring new anthem "Till I Hear You Sing", just one gem in a score filled with some of ALW's most romantic and beautiful tunes.

That's one example of how this show succeeds on multiple levels. Fans might be saddened by the twists and turns the story line takes, but it does what a good sequel should do - moves the story further. Musically though, there's no argument. With just a few brief quotes from the original Phantom sprinkled in, you can hear and feel the emotions of the characters that they've experienced since we last met them. It's been a fascinating experience for me as a fan of the original who first saw the Phantom in 1991 to hear the development of the characters, the music and the story.

I suppose people have grown attached to the original characters in the 20+ years Phantom has been playing in London and NY, yet for those who've dealt with tragedy among love in their lives, the honesty of Love Never Dies speaks on that deeper more mature level.

I recently had the occasion to be in London. My priority was to go see Love Never Dies. After finding the theater, and purchasing my tickets ( at a better rate than the tickets booths!) the show began.. The play beautifully tells the tale of what happened to the Phantom and the other principals. I was unsure for a long while that Andrew Lloyd Weber would be able to recreate the magic of Phantom, but slowly and surely he did. While Love Never Dies is not the wonderful song, after song, after song that Phantom of the Opera is. the wonderful songs are there. Until I Hear You Sing, is the money song in my opinion. I can listen to it for hours, and Rami who sings the role is a quintiessential Phantom. After I returned home, and listened to the CD, it was able to bring back all the feelings that seeing the show
did. For this reason, I recommend anyone with interest, to add Love Never Dies to their collection.

This is a very hard piece to evaluate, as much I am against this work, the music within it is incredible. You cannot deny that this is one of Andrews best works showing vast eclectic talent for writing music.

However, the poor and prosaic lyrics (please- can you not rhyme every other rhyme with simple rhymes like goodbye and sky all the time)really bring down the beauty of the score. Also, the abysmal book does not help matters either!

Love Never Dies! Really? Let's see what love dies in this story: Meg and Christine's friendship, Mme Giry's motherly love for Christine, Meg, and the Phantom, and Raoul's love for Christine (in essence)! Only the Phantom and Christine's love does not dies in this soap opera.

In conclusion, we are once again graced by Webber's talents, but disappointed in his severe lack of choice in a lyricist and librettist.

In a word, I love this musical - that's four words, I cheated. Can't wait to see the theater production but based on the soundtrack and a few youtube videos I expect to love it in theater even more.

Those who read reviews will notice that this musical got savaged by the critics - it's okay, that's their job. And one can understand why some folks are not pleased. Some of the old, beloved, revered characters from Phantom come to bad ends. Without putting too fine a point on it this story is a tragedy. Remember tragedies? Shakespeare wrote about 10 of them and they still get read & performed. But some modern critics seem to think they're illegal in this century.

If you like Lloyd Webber music I don't see how you couldn't like the music in Love Never Dies. The music is lovely and mezmerizing. The story is brilliant in my opinion. Tragic, but brilliant. For my part, I've little patience for those who complain that the story is implausable or that the characters behave out-of-character - nonsense.

Phans looking for a rerun of Phantom shouldn't bother with LND. If you expect that the characters have remained frozen in time you'll be disappointed. If you demand a story that's plausable LND is every bit as plausable as Phantom even though in real life & on the stage love often dies. I think the musical is faithful to the personalities & motivations of the characters. If you're up for superlative Lloyd Webber music, masterful telling of a well though out, albeit tragic, story you may like Love Never Dies.