Thursday, October 31, 2013

Love Never Dies (Australia version) review


Last year, the Australian version of “Love Never Dies” came to DVD and cinemas. It has the same title and most of the same songs as the original London cast, but with some changes such as the lyrics, the set, the costumes and of course, the cast.
The story of “Love Never Dies” takes place 10 years after “The Phantom of the Opera” and takes place in America in a park called Coney Island, where the Phantom, who goes by Mr. Y, is running his own park called Phantasma. Christine is married to Raoul and they have a son named Gustave, who has a mysterious parentage.
The cast had Ben Lewis as the Phantom, Anna O’Byrne as Christine and Simon Gleeson as Raoul. While the set was better than the London set, Lewis and O’Byrne were not. Ben Lewis‘ voice was too deep and his eyes were always wide and creepy, he was scary and the Phantom is supposed to have somewhat calmed down by this play. He also did not sing “The Beauty Underneath” like a rock song, but rather sang it just to sing it. Anna O’Byrne has a beautiful voice, but her acting was not the best. As Christine, she acted like she was still afraid of the Phantom, though Christine is actually still in love with him.  Christine is wearing a peacock dress in the song “Love Never Dies” which made no sense. The ending was disappointing because there was no blood when Christine got shot, and the Phantom’s deformity is not shown anytime throughout the entire play.
I for the most part agree with the “Phantom Reviewer” in his part one review and somewhat in his part two review. I do not like the trashing of the song “Love Never Dies” or a few others, but I do agree like most “Phans” that the story line is somewhat out there, but I like it. I also agree with what was said about using Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess instead.

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