LOVE NEVER DIES

UK, 2012, 121 minutes, Colour.
Ben Lewis, Anna O’ Byrne, Simon Gleeson, Maria Mercedes, Sharon Millerchip, Jack Lyall.
Theatre director, Simon Philips. Film director, Brett Sullivan.

With the extraordinary success of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, on stage in the US and London for many years, a film version in 2004 with Gerard Butler as the Phantom, there was some anticipation for a sequel.

This version was filmed in 2011 in Melbourne, at the city’s Regent Theatre, a lavish production, sets and stagecraft of the highest order, costumes and decor. There are also strong performances by Ben Lewis as the Phantom and Anna O’ Byrne as Christine. Maria Mercedes is the haughty Madame Giry, Simon Gleason is Raoul and there is a telling performance, acting and singing, by Jack Lyall as the young boy, Gustave.

The stage version was directed by Simon Phillips, a director with a significant theatre CV. The film version was by Brett Sullivan who directed a number of similar projects including Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon 25 Years.

The response to Love Never Dies was not particularly strong.

The score does not have the sweep and melodies of the original. There are some songs which have their moments, the focus on Beautiful and the range of cast singing Devil take the Hindmost. At times the lyrics are very plain, sometimes a touch banal.

Perhaps some of this is inevitable given the plot, 10 years after the action of the original, a transfer to the United States (with the invitation from Oscar Hammerstein who does not appear), the Phantom himself taking up residence, Christine and her husband, Raoul, and her little boy, Gutave, coming for a performance in the US. However, one of the locations is Coney Island at the turn-of-the-century, which brings a touch of the gaudy and cheap, the fairground, the dwarves and the acrobats, the bathing beauties…

Christine wants to sing, is in love with Raoul, mothering her son – and the audience fairly quickly realising that he is the son of the Phantom. Raoul is drinking, some self-loathing, ultimately confronting the Phantom with a wager about Christine singing – if she sings, he will leave her forever. There are some further complications with Madame Giri and her influence, memories of the past, as well as Meg Giri wanting to make a name of herself but confined to the vaudeville shows.

The scenario is quite melodramatic, Meg abducting the little boy, the Phantom confronting her as she leans him over a pier and he cannot swim. There is a gun, a shot, Christine wounded and dying, the Phantom tending her.

While the music and lyrics and some of the melodramatic and voidable aspects of the plot may be difficult for many audiences, there is still admiration for the sets and costumes, the movement on stage and the stagecraft, the singing - both individual and combinations with various members of the cast.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has made other more successful musicals.