Broadway with Me

I have respect for Andrew Lloyd Webber. He gave us classics like Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Sunset Boulevard (though special kudos to Jaime Lloyd for his fantastic revival). Webber took a risk on Cats. And of course, he gave us Phantom. Where Webber loses me is with Love Never Dies. Why does it need to exist? (It shouldn’t). Was it just a cash grab to capitalize off the love for Phantom of the Opera? (Probably). Did Webber truly love this story he helped write? (Maybe?). Why is it set in NYC? (IDK).

Love Never Dies is the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. It’s set 10 years after the musical. The Phantom has run away to Coney Island and Christine, Raoul and their son Gustave are invited to his new amusement park (Called Phantasma…seriously?). Does that premise sound as wild to you as it sounds to me? Well – it gets wilder. Gustave isn’t Raoul’s son at all; he’s the Phantom’s son. The Phantom discovers this because Gustave has a beautiful voice, which obviously he could only get from the Phantom, and not his Professional Opera Singer Mom…

I wish I could tell you that’s the most insane plot point. It’s not. The Phantom begins to taunt Raoul that Christine has never loved him and that Gustave is not his. Then they place a bet that if Christine sings the Phantom’s aria then Raoul will depart back to France alone, leaving his wife and child in the Phantom’s care. Why are they placing bets as if this is a baseball game and not their actual lives? The Phantom, who haunted an Opera House for years and is an expert in stagecraft, is reduced to a lowly bet? French Aristocrat Raoul is lowering himself to this too? He’s a Vicomte! While it’s not out of character for these men to completely disregard Christine’s own opinions and autonomy, a bet is definitely out of left field.

And on top of that, Raoul loses this bet and disappears! He’s just going to hobble on off the France to be destitute! This isn’t the same Raoul who ran through the tunnels under that Opera House in Paris to save Christine. The retconning of Raoul’s character to be cruel, weak, drunken fool doesn’t match the man that sang “All I Ask of You”. Something will harm me with this Raoul around. On top of that, they retcon the Phantom into a sauve man whom Christine regrets ever letting go. Are we talking about the same Phantom that stalked and manipulated Christine since she was a child? The one whom, while she believed he deserved kindness, she didn’t love? And now he’s her long lost love? And the father of her child? What are we doing here?

While all this craziness is happening, Christine’s friend from the Opera House, Meg, has been performing at Phantasma. Yes that’s right, the entire Phantom gang is here, even Meg’s mother Madame Giry. I guess she’s the Phantom’s groupie since she follows him from place to place. The reason I mention Meg is because through all this baby-daddy drama, she’s been jealous Christine is to be the new star of Phantasma. This isn’t really retconning as in original musical Meg doesn’t do much, she’s sorta just there. Meg is so jealous in Love Never Dies that she kidnaps Gustave and plans to drown him. It happens to be the same night Raoul departs back to France – probably to be tried for murder at returning without his wife and child, unable to provide a good explanation. I’m not sure “she sang an aria therefore indicating she secretly loved and wanted to stay with the phantom” will cut it in a 1907 French court.

Don’t worry, Gustave lives. His parents (yuck) get to him just in time to save him. Meg pulls her gun, intent on shooting herself but in the end she shots Christine. Who dies in the Phantom’s arms, claiming she that “her love for him will never die.” The show ends with Gustave unmasking the Phantom, reminiscent of Christine doing that in Phantom of the Opera. And that’s it, the fever dream is done. I’m sure we’re expected to assume that Gustave just lives with the Phantom now?

Surprisingly, the show ran for a whole 17 months on the West End before closing in 2011. They planned a Broadway transfer later that year but it was canceled. My theory for why it ran so long is two-fold. The first part is that most of the songs are pretty good. They shouldn’t be punished because the plot is all over the place. I could play the “The Beauty Underneath” for hours on repeat. Webber’s orchestrations are amazing. They’re just the right balance of haunting and beautiful. It activates your memories of the Phantom score while being completely new. Webber’s music never falls flat and this show is not exception. The show opened with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess, both of whom are fantastic performers. The production did their best to set up this show for success.

The second part of my theory is a little harsher. I think part of its success comes from how ridiculous it is. It’s like a car crash you can’t look away from. With every plot point that’s revealed, you need to know what’s going to happen next. Not because it’s captivating or in any way good. But because, what in the world could possibly happen next. The story is as bumpy as the Cyclone and I think we’re expected to suspend our disbelief way too much. We’re left with too many questions, and not enough answers.

We walk into this show thinking we know these characters. After all, for decades we’ve been watching and listening to them. We know Phantom of the Opera, we know these characters. But then we’re presented with upside down versions of them. I know that Christine’s relationship with the Phantom is complicated. She was manipulated by him for years; she thought he was the ghost of her dead father; she thought he was an angel sent to her. She was kidnapped by him over and over but didn’t want anyone to hurt him. She was scared of him but wanted to be kind at the same time. I know it’s complicated. But the Phantom of the Opera leaves us confident Christine isn’t in love with him. She cares for him, has a semblance of love for him, but he’s not the one that got away. And the implications that he’s the father of her child, with everything they go through in Phantom, truly does not sit right. Raoul is not perfect and he wants to run the show, but Phantom worked hard to convince us he and Christine were meant to be. Which is why it’s jarring that Love Never Dies does a lot to convince us that it’s actually the Phantom who’s her destiny. When really, Christine needs to be allowed to make her own choices and be on her own. Ridiculous plot aside, we’ve now seen her in two musicals where these two men are making the choices for her. And then she dies. Her only autonomy was her heart’s choice, and Love Never Dies changed it for her.