Reflection or Curiosity?

Many, many months back, whats seems like nearly a lifetime ago, we had to write about something in three different writing styles. If you remember my chosen subject was Andrew LLoyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. My academic piece touched on Phantom's sequel Love Never Dies and if a sequel would ruin Phantoms reputation?

Well, as it was something I was genuinely interested in, I have took upon myself to continue and complete what I started by reading some reviews of the sequel to possibly summarise the publics thoughts.

I personally haven't seen it as time is always against me, however I would love to hear from anyone who has seen it to share your views.

Love Never Dies, The Papers v The Fans

So what did the papers say?

There is no doubt that Love Never Dies seems like a relic of another age. Gloomy-doomy, largely through-sung musicals like this have in recent years been superseded in public affection by a welcome return to musical comedy in such shows as Hairspray, Sister Act and the latest hit, Legally Blonde. In the midst of a recession, will audiences fork out top dollar for two-and-a half hours of dark Gothic imaginings, seething passion, and in the final scene, sudden violent death?

I haven’t got the answer to that, and only time will tell. What I have no doubt about whatever is that this is Lloyd Webber’s finest show since the original Phantom, with a score blessed with superbly haunting melodies and a yearning romanticism that sent shivers racing down my spine.

Charles Spencer from the Telegraph 9th March 2010

There is much to enjoy in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical. The score is one of the composer's most seductive. Bob Crowley's design and Jack O'Brien's direction have a beautiful kaleidoscopic fluidity. And the performances are good. The problems lie within the book, chiefly credited to Lloyd Webber himself and Ben Elton, which lacks the weight to support the imaginative superstructure.

In short, the show has much to commend it and the staging is a constant source of iridescent pleasure. But, as one of the lyrics reminds us, "diamonds never sparkle bright unless they are set just right". Although Lloyd Webber's score is full of gems, in the end a musical is only as good as its book. With a libretto to match the melodies, this might have been a stunner rather than simply a good night out.

Michael Billington from The guardian 10th March 2010

Love may never die but West End shows will come perilously close to disaster unless they have some oompf and bongo — and preferably a decent tune — in the first 15 minutes.

Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to Phantom Of The Opera, is as slow to motor as a lawnmower at spring’s first cut.

It doesn’t really smoke into life until the 20th minute and even then it splutters for a while. Finally, the singing and the ingenious staging combine to show the Lloyd Webber orchestration to its full glory, but, boy, it takes an age.

Quentin Letts from The Daily Mail 10th March 2010

So what did the fans say?

http://www.loveneverdies.com/members-area/phan-reviews/

What do you think?

Academic Writing Style draft 3

Could a sequel potentially ruin the reputation of the longest running musical on Broadway?

“Phantom of the Opera is based on a 1911 novel, Le Fantome de l'Opera, written by French author Gaston Leroux. Leroux based the novel on his own research into strange events that occurred at the Paris Opera House in the 1880s. Though the novel was not widely read or well reviewed in its own time, the adaptation of Phantom to both screen and stage has familiarised the public with this haunting love story” (Anon, By eHow Contributing Writer)


It is believed that reliable facts and figures from (The Really Useful Group LTD) shows that "It is estimated that Phantom has been seen by more than 100 million people worldwide having been played in no fewer than 14 languages. The show has won over 50 major theatre awards including three Olivier Awards, the most recent being the 2002 Oliver Audience Award for Most Popular Show, an Evening Standard Award, seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, seven Drama Desk Awards and three Outer Critic Circle Awards".

Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948) one of the wealthiest and most successful composers today, yet again the man behind the most successful musical in history and “The Oscar-winning composer of some of the most successful British musicals of all time” (Kunal and Peck 2009)

Phantoms success is yet to be topped, but for how long now that the landmark musical is faced by its sequel “Love never dies” which opens at the Adelphi Theatre on 9th March 2010.
The production is set 10 years from Phantom and far away from the Paris Opera House, Christine and Raoul are now in living in Coney Island where Webber based the story on all of the original characters after taking some advice from Ben Elton (1959).

Sequels have played an important part in the history of Hollywood during their Golden Age in the 1930's. Broadway however has had less luck. It is apparent that successful plays and musicals have often spawned unsuccessful sequels.

“In a move that some theatre experts have described as "risky". Lloyd Webber will also attempt to make history by staging the first successful sequel to a musical anywhere in the world. All previous bids to repeat the triumph of original productions have failed miserably” (Nikkhah 2009)


Maybe the sequel will celebrate the life and success of Phantom and only time will tell, and with Phantoms track record we could be in for the long, however, it could be hard to convince you that this time a sequel will actually be successful after reading “Much of the chatter I've been hearing about Love Never Dies seems to be assuming that the show will be a guaranteed disaster, a bad idea from its very conception. Part of this comes from the fact that no musical sequel has ever been successful Let 'Em Eat Cake (sequel to Of Thee I Sing), Bring Back Birdie (Bye Bye Birdie), Annie Warbucks (Annie), Divorce Me, Darling (The Boy Friend), The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) Well, that doesn't mean that no musical sequel could ever be successful, just that it hasn't happened yet” (Caggiano, 2009) Enough to argue that this sequel isn’t what the public are craving?

“Musical sequels are a very risky business. The 1960 smash Bye Bye Birdie was a thinly veiled satire of Elvis Presley. It ran for 607 performances. In 1981 the creative team behind the show produced a sequel called Bring Back Birdie. Nobody wanted him back, and the musical folded after four performances” (Botto, 2006)

So enough said? Made your mind up yet? It could be decided that there are a lot of sequels on record that have failed to be successful, so you can understand the negative critism towards “Love never Dies”. In a recent online video Andrew Lloyd Webber admits to saying that “Love Never Dies has been in the making for seventeen years” and that “The story of Christine and the Phantom didn’t really end” (The Really Useful Group LTD, 2009). Let’s not forget, this has been in the making for seventeen years and Webber has proved to be more than capable of producing fantastic, successful musicals. Maybe this time it will change the opinions of audiences worldwide and be the only successful sequel in Broadway history.



References

1) Anon, eHow Contributing Writer http://www.ehow.co.uk/about_4569129_facts-phantom-opera.html?cr=1 [accessed 24th November 2009]

2) The Really Useful Group Limited, http://www.thephantomoftheopera.com/ [accessed 26th November 2009]

3) Kunal, D, and Peck, T, 2009, “I have cancer says Lloyd Webber”, The Independent, [online] 26 October, Available from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/i-have-cancer-says-lloyd-webber-1809423.html [accessed 24th November 2009]

4) Nikkhah, R, 2009, “Andrew Lloyd Webber attempts to make history with Phantom of the Opera sequel” The Telegraph [online], 04 October, available from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/6257769/Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-attempts-to-make-history-with-Phantom-of-the-Opera-sequel.html [accessed date 25th November 2009]

5) Chris Caggiano,
http://ccaggiano.typepad.com/everything_i_know_i_learn/2009/05/phantom-sequel-to-have-march-2010-premiere-.html [accessed 17th December 2009]

6) Louis Botto, http://www.playbill.com/features/article/101485-The-Broadway-Sequel [accessed 16th December 2009]

7) The Really Useful Group LTD, http://www.loveneverdies.com/?video=lnd-launch-edit#video [accessed 15th October 2009]