Sean Seamus Thompson 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.

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of  AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, September 17th   at The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.

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.

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of  AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, August  20th at The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.

'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.

7-Eleven stores are bringing back a popular promotion at the perfect time for friends to share a back-to-school beverage. The world's largest convenience retailer kicks off Share-a-Slurpee drink fun with a five-dayBuy One-Get One Free (BOGO) Slurpee drink event beginning 12:01 a.m. local time Monday, Aug. 13, and running through 11:59 p.m. local time Sunday, Aug. 19.

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.

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of  AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, July 16th  at The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to his smash hit THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, entitled LOVE NEVER DIES is currently touring across the United States. The staging of the production is inspired by the reworked 2011 Australian premiere of the musical. To give Houston audiences an inside look into the show sure to leave them spellbound, we sat down with Sean Thompson who plays hero turned flawed husband and father, Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny.

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.

AT THIS PERFORMANCE… featuring Standbys and Understudies from AVENUE Q, BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL, CAROUSEL, ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE and SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL returns to THE GREEN ROOM 42, Monday, June 11th.

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.