Starry Night Thoughts

Hi. "Love Never Dies" is a dumpster fire "sequel" to POTO that shouldn't exist

...in my opinion, of course.

I've looked up reviews and they agree with me. It's basically a bad fanfiction that became a real thing.

I'll admit it, I've tried to find retellings of the Phantom of the Opera story on here and wound up skimming a fanfiction or two because I thought they'd be closer to a retelling than a fanfic. I think one was, but the other is a reason I haven't looked up that story as a retelling recently.

They were both better written than this.

Spoilers involved, but like, is it really worth it to worry about spoilers for this one?

This takes place after the events of Phantom of the Opera. It's a direct sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, and apparently based on a book called "Phantom Takes Manhattan" or something. Now, ALW has bounced back and forth with the whole "sequel" thing. One time he says it is, then he says it's not, then he says it's jsyfa story with the same characters, the  he says itsy a cash grab-- wait no, he's never admitted to the last one.

It's ten years after the events of the first play, where the Phantom has presumably died, but we never see a body (as is with all beginnings to sequels), and Christine and Raoul have gotten married. Apparently Christine has become a huge opera singer during these last ten years and is well known through Europe. She, Raoul, and their son, Gustave (he's ten), go to America for her debut there. When they're there, they run into Meg and Madame Giry, who pretty much run a circus type of thing called "Phantasma."

Y'all should know where this is going.

Turns out, that the Phantom is with them, having graduated from running a well known opera house in France to running a freakshow on Coney Island. The Giry's got him and they all skedaddled away from the angry mob, running all the way to USA.

To which, I have to ask how they smuggled a grown man onto a ship, I guess, when he couldn't even smuggle himself around an opera house with costumes and outfits he technically could've blended in with, but y'know. Sure. Fine.

Play opens with the Phantom pining for Christine. As you do after ten years of having kidnapped a "lover" and tried to murder her fiance.

*Sighs*

You get this song. A lot of people consider it the best song in the play, but I was bored. It's been ten years dude, let it go.

"The day starts, the day ends/ Time crawls by/ Night steals in, pacing the floor/ The moments creep,/Yet I can't bear to sleep/ Till I hear you sing

And weeks pass, and months pass/ Seasons fly/ Still you don't walk through the door/ And in a haze/ I count the silent days/ Till I hear you sing once more.

And sometimes at night time/ I dream that you are there/ But wake holding nothing but the cold night air

That's basically the song. There's more, but you get the jist.

To which, I guess it wouldn't be a bad song with the context removed. It kind of seems like a love song, of someone wanting to see someone who's been away for a little bit.

But ten years ago? And sung by a nutcase who's evidently obsessed?

What makes this even better-- okay. So there are two versions of this play I've found and seen. One is the professionally recorded one from 2012 with the Melbourne cast. In that, the Phantom is somewhere that looks underground, and he's singing to a life size portrait of Christine. I have no clue where that came from, but it's no where near are freaky as the other version.