***The following post contains endless spoilers and is incredibly long. Consider yourself warned.***
I had a dream. That one day, some pig-faced big budget musical composer would look at his most famous, deliciously ludicrous and heavily synthesized smash hit about strange goings on in an 1880's Parisian opera house and say, "This needs a sequel." I dreamt that he would choose a hilarious setting for said sequel—an amusement park, perhaps—and pen a new slew of epic songs with terrible lyrics, that the production team would react the the innovations of stage effects like an alcoholic at an open bar wedding.
Yesterday, I saw that dream realized.
Oh, 'Love Never Dies.' How you were everything I wanted to be and so much more.
For those of you unfamiliar with the plot of the Phantom of the Opera sequel, here is the press release from Playbill:
"The Phantom has slipped away to New York and has set up a fairground world on Coney Island, along with Madame Giry and her daughter, Meg. He organizes a concert in Manhattan for Christine, the object of his desire. Christine travels to the U.S. with her husband Raoul and their teenage son, who happens to be a musical genius...just like the Phantom."
The show opens with a shivering Mme. Giry on a desolate Coney Island pier, singing in anguish over those terrible things she vaguely remembers having once happened here. Soon enough she is angrily confronted by writhing human remainders from the glory days of the freak show, accusing of her of being the cause of these horrible things.
"I get it!" you say, "Introduction of new and important characters! Mme. Giry as the Phantom-like orchestrator of great and terrible things!"
You see what you did there? You gave the book writer the benefit of the doubt. You made the assumption the plot would follow some kind of understandable and clear frame work. You foolishly assumed that, giving a character the responsibility of opening the show would imbue them with some kind of inherent importance and presence in the ensuing narrative.
You have so much to learn!
None of this really turns out to be true. Mme. Giry is around, sure, but does little more than play a kind of prim Mama Rose to her blossoming showgirl daughter, Meg. Remember when Meg was the shy little Parisian ballet dancer who worshipped Christine? Well, somewhere on the boat trip to America she lost all of that, replacing ballet with burlesque and her soft French mannerisms with a kind of bizarre if-Mary-Martin-was-from-New-Jersey cheekiness. Meg is the one who actually causes all the havoc in the end, though what should have been a show's worth of character build-up gets crammed into a ten line speech about what she did for love. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
As the "..." in the press release might suggest, the son (named Gustave, because God wants me to be happy/endlessly amused) turns out to be the Phantom's child. How do we know this? We know this because a) the Phantom and Christine had sex, once, ten years ago, and b) the kid if ten years old, c) can play at least ten notes on a piano and d) likes weird, bizarre and somewhat grotesque things (we will ignore the fact that so do all ten year old boys).
The scenes that reveal Gustave's true lineage are incredibly subtle and nuanced, as you might imagine from such a show. Let's look at them.
The Phantom:
And Raoul:
As the "..." in the press release might suggest, the son (named Gustave, because God wants me to be happy/endlessly amused) turns out to be the Phantom's child. How do we know this? We know this because a) the Phantom and Christine had sex, once, ten years ago, and b) the kid if ten years old, c) can play at least ten notes on a piano and d) likes weird, bizarre and somewhat grotesque things (we will ignore the fact that so do all ten year old boys).
The scenes that reveal Gustave's true lineage are incredibly subtle and nuanced, as you might imagine from such a show. Let's look at them.
The Phantom:
Phantom [referencing the piano playing]: What is that song?
Gustave: Something in my head.
Phantom: He plays piano just like me....TEN YEARS OLD!
And Raoul:
Phantom: [something about Gustave I can't remember]So just keep that in mind, fellas. If your child at any point in their young lives reads a letter, sums a series of number or enjoys a walk in the woods, then your wife clearly was cheating on you with the postman, accountant or local forest ranger (respectively) and that kid ain't yours.
Raoul: What do you mean about my son?
Phantom: Ask yourself—is he more like you....or me?
Raoul:...MY GOD!
As for the songs, let's play a game. See if you can match the final version of the tune with what I assume must have been it's working title*:
1. Beneath a Moonless Sky2. Devil Take the Hindmost3. Bathing Beauties
4. The Beauty Underneath
5. 'Til I Hear You Sing
a. Mine Is Bigger Than Yours
b. What Are We Going to Do With These Leftover Synthesizers?
c. That Song that Didn't Make It Into 'Guys and Dolls'
d. Music of the Night 2.0
e. Remember That Time We Had a Really Great One Night Stand (Because We Couldn't See Each Other)
The songs were, as you can imagine, pretty over-the top and the lyrics universally dreadful (I have been by Meg's room/It's as empty as a tomb**) and yet...I have been singing them non-stop ever since. Especially "Til I Hear You Sing," which satisfies everything I require in a piece of bombastic musical theater. It's the kind of song that physically compels you to furrow your brow and reach out, as if for Yorick's skull, in an epic motion of EMOTION. Not wanting to deny my loyal readers anything, I urge you now to experience it for yourself:
Admit it, it's kind of glorious.
Also glorious? The vocal talent of the two leads. My. God. Most everything I liked about the show comes from a so-bad-it's-wonderful point of view, but there is no denying Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess are some seriously talented people. Karimloo, especially, kind of took my breath away when he sag the above song...it just filled every corner of the theater. True, he is guilty of the paper cut inhale, but that is a small detraction from a pretty phenomenal talent.
There was also some use of musical themes from the first Phantom, which I actually thought worked well. Chi and I agreed that there was one entrance that could have greatly benefit from a brief "BUUUUUM....bum bum ba dah DAAAAAAAAAAH", but otherwise...well played.
Design wise, it delivered, though it lacked a 'Masquerade'-like group number (much to Chi's chagrin). The beginning especially relied heavily on scrim and projection effects, building off what was done in 'The Woman in White' but used to better effect. I thought they got a little overwhelming, and were used inconsistently, but generally I really enjoyed the technology. They also reminded me of the sweeping CGI city shots used to open 'Moulin Rouge' and 'Sweeney Todd,' which I adore.
There is so much more I want to say about the design, but this post is a book already and I have a paper to finish, so we truck ahead!
The costumes ranged from 1890's to 1930's***, so, you know....that's special. Made the whole timeline really confusing, particularly in light of Meg's bizarre re-characterization. Which reminds me that Meg wasn't the only one who had a psychological rebirth on the boat—the Phantom did as well. In the first musical, he was a mysterious-never-seen-believed-by-some-to-not-be-real-Svengali-composer-ghost with obsessive tendencies and weird possessive/paternal/lust feeling towards Christine. In 'Love Never Dies,' he's kind of...just a dude. A dude with a mask, sure. A dude who can't move on from the girl he likes, definitely. But still...just kind of a dude. He has a Coney Island alter ego named Mr. White, and, though he remains reclusive, there isn't the same sense that people don't know he's there, writing sad poems in his journal in between banging out catchy little ditties for Meg to sing while half-naked.
Chi said she felt like it was a musical realization of a piece of Phantom fan fiction, and really, I can't think of a better way to phrase it. The characters were caricatures of what were already pretty broad personae from the original and the plot structure**** flimsy and kind of framework. The music was what you would expect and the design extravagant, but it all came together in a glorious concoction of musical brain candy. There is no real merit to 'Love Never Dies,' but I cannot tell you how much I genuinely enjoyed to empty calorie quality of it all. It felt like all of my most treasured guilty pleasure were being expressed through the sweeping majesty of song, aided by the help of some impressive scrimwork.
Not everyone enjoys the camp like I do, and I accept that. But I do. And this was that, and by God, didn't I love it. I even anticipate seeing it again at some point in the next year.
And, to the haters, I have just one thing to say—
Devil take the hindmost.
*Answers: 1e, 2a, 3c, 4b, 5d
** Actual lyrics
***Many of the opinions in this post were formulated through discussion with Chi.Roomie, and she was the one who first pointed out the costume descrepencies, the need for 'Masquerade' number and the ridiculous nature of the Phantom/Raoul conversation. If I have failed to credit her at any point in this post, I expect she will tell me and edits will follow!
****I realize I started out like I was going to sketch out the whole plot and then dropped it. For anyone who wants to know, I'm happy to elaborate. Suffice it to say, one should never try to build tension around whether or not a character will sing a song if they then list said character singing said song in the program. Also? If you're going to shoot someone, having the bullet go off because of an emplhatic gesture instead of actual intent is just....not the way to go.
Admit it, it's kind of glorious.
Also glorious? The vocal talent of the two leads. My. God. Most everything I liked about the show comes from a so-bad-it's-wonderful point of view, but there is no denying Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess are some seriously talented people. Karimloo, especially, kind of took my breath away when he sag the above song...it just filled every corner of the theater. True, he is guilty of the paper cut inhale, but that is a small detraction from a pretty phenomenal talent.
There was also some use of musical themes from the first Phantom, which I actually thought worked well. Chi and I agreed that there was one entrance that could have greatly benefit from a brief "BUUUUUM....bum bum ba dah DAAAAAAAAAAH", but otherwise...well played.
Design wise, it delivered, though it lacked a 'Masquerade'-like group number (much to Chi's chagrin). The beginning especially relied heavily on scrim and projection effects, building off what was done in 'The Woman in White' but used to better effect. I thought they got a little overwhelming, and were used inconsistently, but generally I really enjoyed the technology. They also reminded me of the sweeping CGI city shots used to open 'Moulin Rouge' and 'Sweeney Todd,' which I adore.
There is so much more I want to say about the design, but this post is a book already and I have a paper to finish, so we truck ahead!
The costumes ranged from 1890's to 1930's***, so, you know....that's special. Made the whole timeline really confusing, particularly in light of Meg's bizarre re-characterization. Which reminds me that Meg wasn't the only one who had a psychological rebirth on the boat—the Phantom did as well. In the first musical, he was a mysterious-never-seen-believed-by-some-to-not-be-real-Svengali-composer-ghost with obsessive tendencies and weird possessive/paternal/lust feeling towards Christine. In 'Love Never Dies,' he's kind of...just a dude. A dude with a mask, sure. A dude who can't move on from the girl he likes, definitely. But still...just kind of a dude. He has a Coney Island alter ego named Mr. White, and, though he remains reclusive, there isn't the same sense that people don't know he's there, writing sad poems in his journal in between banging out catchy little ditties for Meg to sing while half-naked.
Chi said she felt like it was a musical realization of a piece of Phantom fan fiction, and really, I can't think of a better way to phrase it. The characters were caricatures of what were already pretty broad personae from the original and the plot structure**** flimsy and kind of framework. The music was what you would expect and the design extravagant, but it all came together in a glorious concoction of musical brain candy. There is no real merit to 'Love Never Dies,' but I cannot tell you how much I genuinely enjoyed to empty calorie quality of it all. It felt like all of my most treasured guilty pleasure were being expressed through the sweeping majesty of song, aided by the help of some impressive scrimwork.
Not everyone enjoys the camp like I do, and I accept that. But I do. And this was that, and by God, didn't I love it. I even anticipate seeing it again at some point in the next year.
And, to the haters, I have just one thing to say—
Devil take the hindmost.
*Answers: 1e, 2a, 3c, 4b, 5d
** Actual lyrics
***Many of the opinions in this post were formulated through discussion with Chi.Roomie, and she was the one who first pointed out the costume descrepencies, the need for 'Masquerade' number and the ridiculous nature of the Phantom/Raoul conversation. If I have failed to credit her at any point in this post, I expect she will tell me and edits will follow!
****I realize I started out like I was going to sketch out the whole plot and then dropped it. For anyone who wants to know, I'm happy to elaborate. Suffice it to say, one should never try to build tension around whether or not a character will sing a song if they then list said character singing said song in the program. Also? If you're going to shoot someone, having the bullet go off because of an emplhatic gesture instead of actual intent is just....not the way to go.
