Andrew Lloyd Webber has created quite a mystique regarding his new musical. It was first reported that the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, would premiere in London, New York and Shanghai at the same time. That didn’t pan out and last October it was announced that it would premiere in London first and then on Broadway.
The show is now due to preview this week at London’s Adelphi Theatre, but now again, this may not happen.Ticket holders have officially been told that the preview, scheduled for Saturday is cancelled. Press night is also not confirmed. Producer Andre Ptaszynski recently wrote to critics to suggesting they might be invited to previews before the first night. Again, that might not happen. The producers won’t be able to confirm what’s going on until the first two or three previews have happened.
This has not stopped the publicity in any way and last week’s Sunday Telegraph saw Lloyd Webber presiding over its Seven magazine as guest editor, which basically meant writing a foreword, granting a three-page interview and seeing six extra pages of editorial devoted to his show.
The Independent’s David Lister told readers that Lloyd Webber had allowed him to hear his new musical “and be the first journalist to write about it,” which he did, stating the composer was back in top form and the score “one of the most dramatic he has written”. The critics were not entirely left out. Each was sent a personally watermarked copy of the double CD. Ramin Karimloo held a press conference and a preview of the Phantom love ballad was performed.
Still, some fans are not impressed. A Facebook group calling themselves Love Must Die made their feelings clear by stating: “We feel strongly that Love Never Dies is a completely misguided venture that is a detriment to the story of the original The Phantom of the Opera novel and musical of the same name and that, contrary to the information being reported by the Really Useful Group and perpetuated by the ill-informed media, is not in the interest of nor desired by the story’s many fans. Virtually everything about the show strikes us as illogical, irrational, offensive and frankly stupid.” Time will tell whether they’re right.
