Michael Patterson News

Your knees won't buckle when you enter Belk Theater to see LOVE NEVER DIES, Anthony Lloyd Webber's long-awaited sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. There's no gleaming chandelier looming ominously over ticketholders in the front rows, nor will you see any nooks or gargoyles spanning the stage proscenium. Until the curtain rose, about the only aspect of the new Lloyd Webber melodrama that reminded me of its predecessor on opening night was the size of the crowd who had come to see it. A near sellout - not too shabby for a musical that has never played on Broadway.

As Memphis theatergoers pile into the Orpheum to kick off a record-breaking 2018-2019 season for ticket sales at the much beloved venue, they are confronted with a familiar, albeit masked face. Indeed, while Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera continues its remarkable 30-year run as Broadway's most enduring production, its sequel, Love Never Dies, has opened in the bluff city. Like all other sequels, Love Never Dies faces the initial challenge of justifying its mere existence. That challenge is further amplified when the first installment is, like The Phantom of the Opera, so woven into the fabric of our cultural iconography. Grumbling devotees of the original Phantom will no doubt ask why the story necessitates a sequel at all, let alone one in which the Phantom is transplanted from the Paris Opera House to (gasp) the underbelly of New York's Coney Island. To those skeptics in the audience (of which this reviewer was one), rest assured that Troika Entertainment's magically beautiful production of Love Never Dies, with direction by Simon Phillips, answers that question rather quickly. Why does The Phantom of the Opera require a sequel? Well, why not? That is particularly the case when the sequel is such an eye catching showcase for its talented cast of performers.

'Love Never Dies' is absolutely worth seeing.  It is lush.  The voices are beyond exceptional.  Sets, costumes, and effects are haunting. The direction by Australians Simon Phillips and choreography by Graeme Murphy AO completely envelop the space allowed.  The traveling pit orchestra conducted by Dale Rieling is as good as it gets.  There are several, new, show stopping songs and lots of achingly beautiful echoes of the original Phantom score.

Casting has been announced for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, for the premiere St. Louis engagement at The Fabulous Fox Theatre.

BRING BACK BIRDIE, THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE GOES PUBLIC, and both ANNIE II and ANNIE WARBUCKS all famously failed at recreating the success of the musicals for which they produced sequels. And now, riding on the coat tails of mega-musical THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, LOVE NEVER DIES is touring the world, eying a hopeful Broadway run. But, is this sequel what theatre Phans are asking for? I think the jury is still out.

LOVE NEVER DIES is an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions. The show is a study of what happens when someone in power values consumerism over content. It is a production propelled by run-amuck theatrical vanity, seemingly produced with the single intention of filling seats, backed by a marquee name. LOVE NEVER DIES is nearly unwatchable, and absolutely unworthy of your time and money.

All new photos have been released from the North American production of Love Never Dies, starring Bronson Norris Murphy as the Phantom and Meghan Picerno as Christine Daae.

If you're surprised the Phantom is still playing Broadway and touring, you'll be more surprised that there's a sequel. This tale fails to resurrect that love that carries the original with a hard-to-believe story and much less spark.

We cannot help but wonder: Do peacock feathers foretell of something far more sinister and portentous than what we've seen already in both Love Never Dies and The Phantom of the Opera await our heroine in the moments to follow? We won't spoil the outcome for you, of course, but suffice it to say that those pesky peacock feathers continue to work their devilment in the intriguing production now onstage at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center through Sunday, June 24.

Complete 2018-2019 schedule has been announced for the North American tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. The tour launched in Fall 2018, and continues this week in Nashville, TN at TPAC June 19-24, followed by the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, MN next week, June 26-July 1. A complete touring schedule is below.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, continues its North American tour (currently at South Carolina's Peace Center), and BroadwayWorld has just learned that Bronson Norris Murphy as officially taken over the role of The Phantom.

'It's a very emotional show and it ends in a every delicate, sad way and it really touches people. I don't think they're expecting that.'

The Phantom of the Opera has returned to town, but there will be no familiar 'Music of the Night.' Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has been penning a sequel to his blockbuster for years, and it has been performed in many versions, as LOVE NEVER DIES. Buffalonians may remember being titillated with the announced world premiere in Toronto years ago, but alas that announcement, as well as one of a Broadway production never occurred. London got dibs on it's premiere, then a reworked version went to Australia and now a new American tour is on the road letting the US decide what they think of the story.

I'll admit that I've never been what you would call a fan of 'Phantom of the Opera'. I appreciate it for what it is, and I find it tolerable with some interesting melodies but largely it's all flash and no substance. But now comes the (gulp) sequel to 'Phantom', 'Love Never Dies' currently playing at the Paramount, and this overblown pile of musical theater Ambien not only stretches out the story to a ridiculous effect but also by doing so exposes the original to what it really is, a desperate need for therapy and a restraining order.

There are many, very obvious spectacular things that stand out while watching LOVE NEVER DIES, Andrew Lloyd Webber's infamously, uh, troubled 2010 musical follow-up to his long-running global hit THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, now continuing its two-week engagement at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 5, 2018. While, sure, the show is stunning in its visual artistry and musical performances, the rest is repetitively frustrating. Unless you're a huge PHANTOM fan already or are perhaps maybe morbidly curious as to what the fuss is all about---LOVE NEVER DIES, sadly, doesn't offer much else to audiences beyond its superficial surface beauty.

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature LOVE NEVER DIES, FINDING NEVERLAND, FUN HOME, and More!

Let's make one thing perfectly clear from the start. If you are expecting a sequel to Phantom of the Opera in Love Never Dies, you may be let down. This new show that is making its American premiere in the tour across North America, after a dismal opening in London in 2010, has been rewritten and reworked many times over, and is based on Frederick Forsyth's The Phantom of Manhattan, not on Gaston Leroux's Le Phantome de l'Opera upon which the first Phantom was based. Even Lloyd Webber stated emphatically that it is not a sequel, but a different story with the same characters. If you open your imagination and find it in your heart to believe that the Phantom and Christine consummated their love for one another by having sex and producing a son, you will enjoy much of the show. If not, and you want this production to follow the original from 1986, it will most likely not suit you.

Last night, the stars were in alignment as multi-platinum recording artist Nicole Scherzinger attended the opening night of Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera; April 5 - 22, 2018.