Mozart probably wrote Cosi fan tutti with a quill. Andrew Lloyd Webber appears to have written Love Never Dies with a broad-tipped Magic Marker.
It’s a sequel to Phantom of the Opera, and in many ways, “opera” is the key word here. It’s as broadly played as any grand opera, certainly, capes flourishing and arms flying up in horror. (It’s based on the book The Phantom of Manhattan, by Frederick Forsyth.) The story is tricky to follow unless you saw and remember Phantom itself, but continues the eternal triangle theme, the Phantom, Christine the soprano and Raoul, now her husband. The Phantom, in another man-of-mystery guise, has slipped out of Paris and set up shop in Coney Island running what seems to be a combination vaudeville and side show. He’s mainly behind the scenes; Madame Giry, from the Paris Opera, is the director, and her daughter Meg the leading lady. Christine, now famous, married and a mother, is coming to New York with her family, having signed a contract to sing at Oscar Hammerstein’s opera house. (No, not Oscar “Some Enchanted Evening” Hammerstein. This was his grandfather, a noted impressario.)
Our friend the Phan is, of course, still throbbing with passion for Christine. What will he do? What will she do? And why is it set in Coney Island?
One of the reasons that it must have been set there is that it could make for interesting sets. As in so many Lloyd Webber shows, boy, are they, fascinating stuff, often quite beautiful, with references to Art Noveau here and there. No one needs falling chandeliers with this onstage. Pay attention to how well the lighting works, by the way, especially if this isn’t normally something you’d notice.
Overplayed roles are just the way the script leads, but the audience should just give up and lean in. The voices are excellent. Bronson Norris Murphy, playing the Phantom, sounds glorious and gives us a far more human sort of man than the near-monster often portrayed in the original, as well as its predecessor, the novel of the same name. He’s even more overwhelmed with emotion now. Meghan Picerno’s Christine is well acted, repeatedly torn between the men in her life, growing from delicate, protected flower into a woman who steps up to the plate when forced to do so. Her husband, Raoul, has turned out to be a ne’er-do-well despite his titled family, and he’s brought to annoying life by Sean Thompson. Another stunner was Jake Heston Miller, who played Gustave, their son, on opening night. He was, in a word, impeccable. The role alternates between him and Christian Harmston.
This is another of those shows where the wits trot out the old line about no one ever walking out of a theater humming the set. In the score, there are a few bars here and there that are throwbacks to Phantom, but it seems relatively formless overall. Some references talk about Lloyd Webber using music of the era as reference points, but if true,it’s impossible to tell whether that has hurt or helped. Mostly the sound system at the Fox was in good shape, but some of the explanatory lyrics – for instance, from Mme. Giry – were blurry enough that someone who didn’t know the story would be floundering about who she was and how she got to New York too, for instance.
Simon Phillips directed, and can take a great deal of the credit for what’s positive about the show. Set and costume design are from Gabriela Tylesova, and the lighting design is that of Nick Schlieper.
Beautiful and well sung, with some very good acting. Oh, and if you’re going – please don’t talk during the overture and entre’acte. That’s not background music in a grocery store.
Love Never Dies
through September 30, 2018
Fox Theatre
527 N. Grand
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