Saturday, March 13, 2010
'Love' faces 'Phantom' expectations
Variety: "The Main Stem transfer of new musical 'Love Never Dies,' which opened on the West End Tuesday, isn't just likely; it's already been set. The London preem is the first step in an ambitious global rollout for Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to his enduring global smash, 'The Phantom of the Opera.'"
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8 comments:
I've been mainly reading the poorer reviews for this show and it's definitely been a very entertaining read. It seems all in all that this show is technically breathtaking. A production design in Victorian France was a wonderful setting, and I'm sure Art Nouveau New York was yet another new but still luscious setting create around. I have no idea the show is breathtaking in its technical capabilities, just as Phantom was. I still have a hard time believing a sequel to that story can't help but being forced. I of course can't say without seeing the show, but I think it would be quite easy to agree with critics that the story is lacking.
I think there is going to be a lot of bias with this show, not only from expectations but from Phantom fans themselves. Most will likely see it as a continuation of the masterpiece, while those that are not phantom fans, will see the problems the critics here see. I wonder though if changes will be made before opening on Broadway. Obviously there is a problem with the climax, but will reviews, and critics opinions be enough to change it. Probably not. This thing is going to be rolled out, stamped, pressed and punched into Broadway the way it is now. It is making the money, why change things now?
I can't wait till the show comes to broadway. I've read so many articles and have heard so may reviews and opinions about it and I want to see it and decide for myself.
I don't think they are going to change the shows climax or ending because, like Bryce said, it is making money.
I think in order to appreciate this show, audiences need to remind themselves that it is not Phantom of the Opera. So many people feel that it is not living up to its potential, but they also are not viewing it as its own show. I honestly don't think anyone expects it to do better than Phantom, but it is sad to see mostly bad reviews about it so early in its run.
This article does a good job to illustrate the fairly common dissconnect between audience and critic that so often seems to happen in any performance medium. Love Never Dies is bringing in big money, which means whether the critics like it or not, people are seeing the show. I think frequently that critics forget that while the average audience may care about all the various possible shortcomings of a play, they really just want to be entertained and not feel ripped off at the end of the night. Whether critics like it or not, Love seems to be for now at least capable of delivering this.
As much as I like Phantom, I'm always pretty skeptical of sequels, which rarly, if ever, live up to the reputations of the original story. In the case of Phantom, I can't imagine that this sequel will even come slightly close to the popularity and success of the original musical. For people who love Phantom, they will either love the sequel because they like that the story has been continued, or they will hate the sequel because it doesn't measure up to the original. Personally, I would love to see it just to formulate my own opinion, but I highly doubt it will be an extraordinary piece of theatre.
The varied reviews of this show seem to be pretty representative of how various people will probably view this show. There will be the Phantom fans who believe that this is a masterpiece just like the original, and then they're will be the people who didn't quite like the original as much and perhaps not as biased. While it seems that the story is lacking according to most of the reviews, I would be interested to hear the musical score, since there is more of a general consensus that the music is good, just doesn't have the story to back it up. It's still a sequel to Phantom though, which means that despite it being good or bad (depending on your opinion) a lot of people will go out and see it.
Commenting on this is reviewing a review of reviews, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Regardless of the reviews (well, short of one that mentions something truly offensive) I imagine that the show will have a long and successful run for no reason other than being a part of the Phantom franchise. If the show is actually done well then the run might be deserved, but even without that there will be enough people who buy tickets based on the name and hype alone that the rest won't matter.
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