Love Never Dies but Phantom sequel may do so
Source: Agencies |
March 11, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
COMPARISONS with the original were inevitable when Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to write a sequel to his record-breaking musical "Phantom of the Opera."
After Tuesday night's world premiere at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End, the consensus among critics was "Love Never Dies" was a shadow of the show seen by over 100 million people around the world since 1986.
The new musical continues the story of The Phantom, who has left his lair at the Paris Opera House and, 10 years later, is haunting the fairgrounds of New York's Coney Island.
Not all reviews were bad, but several prominent critics savaged the sequel, including the New York Times' Ben Brantley who called it a "poor sap of a show (which) feels as eager to be walloped as a clown in a carnival dunking booth." Brantley was not alone in questioning the storyline, which reviewers said was implausible and confusing.
Four people are credited with the book: Lloyd Webber, theatrical writer Glenn Slater, novelist Frederick Forsyth and comedian Ben Elton.
"If you don't know the first Phantom, you will be very confused; if you do know the first Phantom, you will also be very confused," wrote Brantley.
Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail was less dismissive, but concluded: "So: a hit? Not quite. It is too much an also-ran to the prequel and its opening is too stodgy. But if it is a miss, it is ... a noble miss, noble because Lloyd Webber's increasingly operatic music tries to lift us to a higher plane."
After Tuesday night's world premiere at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End, the consensus among critics was "Love Never Dies" was a shadow of the show seen by over 100 million people around the world since 1986.
The new musical continues the story of The Phantom, who has left his lair at the Paris Opera House and, 10 years later, is haunting the fairgrounds of New York's Coney Island.
Not all reviews were bad, but several prominent critics savaged the sequel, including the New York Times' Ben Brantley who called it a "poor sap of a show (which) feels as eager to be walloped as a clown in a carnival dunking booth." Brantley was not alone in questioning the storyline, which reviewers said was implausible and confusing.
Four people are credited with the book: Lloyd Webber, theatrical writer Glenn Slater, novelist Frederick Forsyth and comedian Ben Elton.
"If you don't know the first Phantom, you will be very confused; if you do know the first Phantom, you will also be very confused," wrote Brantley.
Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail was less dismissive, but concluded: "So: a hit? Not quite. It is too much an also-ran to the prequel and its opening is too stodgy. But if it is a miss, it is ... a noble miss, noble because Lloyd Webber's increasingly operatic music tries to lift us to a higher plane."
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