The story and music from the musical, The Phantom of
the Opera, brought me to tears about 20 years ago. The new musical, Love Never Dies, is a
sequel to that show and continues the
story of the Paris Opera Phantom who now
in 1907 orchestrates the music
behind a burlesque/freak show, Phantasma, on Coney Island in New York
City. He continues to long for his love and to hear his protegee opera soprano,
Christine Daae', sing again. I was
excited to experience my first sequel to a beloved musical and hear Andrew
Lloyd Webber’s new composition telling the unique story of love between two
people bonded by the beauty of music and not physical aesthetics.
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| Wonders of Phantasma |
Reflection
The overtone of the play was dark. This show was a cross
between a beautifully sung operatic tragedy and the fourth season of the
television series American Horror Stories:
Freak Show. From the beginning the
play’s visual set had a gray cast that gave you the feeling of a time long ago.
Then it popped with the bright lights of the roller-coasters on Coney Island with a trio of freak show
performers introducing the wonders of Phantasma
in the song “The Coney Island Waltz”. This was a little creepy but an intriguing
start to a love story.
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| Christine, Raoul her husband and Gustave her son |
The Phantom (Carder Thor Cortes) using an alias, lured Christine (Meghan Picerno) from Europe to NYC with an invitation to
sing. Needing the money to pay off her husband’s (Sean Thompson) drinking and
gambling debts she arrived with her husband
and son (Casey Lyons), who we later discover is the love child from her one night of passion with the Phantom 10
years ago. There is that familiar love triangle
between Christine, her husband, and the Phantom who draws in Christine with his
music. The show also had a jealous want
to be Phantasma star, Meg (Mary Michael
Patterson), who is pushed aside as the Phantom
now is focused on Christine and composes the aria,“Love Never
Dies” for her.
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| Christine sings "Love Never Dies" |
Love Never Dies is really an opera with some
wonderful vocal moments even though no one song resonated with me. Megan Picerno as Christine is a powerful soprano
and her duet “Once Upon Another Time” with Gardar Thor Cortes as the Phantom was
beautifully sung. When Casey Lyons as
the son, Gustave, opened his mouth he produced a pure high crisp sound like an
angel in “ Look With Your Heart”. The operatic aria "Love Never Dies” was both visually and acoustically beautiful.
Love Never Dies was an unusual love story which
at times seemed a little creepy. I think a small dose of the macabre was appropriate when the story is
asking us to love with what we know and not what we see or look past the external ugly
to the beauty within.
(Tickets available for Love Never Dies and the PNC Broadway Series at trustarts.org)
Spiritual Source
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23)
Other Sources