Love Never Dies « Zoë Ann Baker

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of going to see ‘Love Never Dies’ at the Adelphi Theatre.

The play is the sequel to ‘Phantom of the Opera’. I was concerned before we arrived at the theatre that I would not understand the plot as I never saw the first instalment. However, that was not the case at all. Having no background knowledge was zero problem – I still found the story interesting.

Predominantly, ‘Love Never Dies’ is a love story (the name’s a bit of a give away isn’t it), but there are also underlying themes of fantasy and mild horror. The musical centres around a show run by the phantom. There’s plenty going on with the Phantom and his old flame, Catherine who has a jealous drunk husband, Raoul, and their little boy, Gustave. Throw in the lead performer of the show, Meg, who has an infatuation with the phantom and her scheming mother into the mix alongside showgirls, dramatic music and fancy graphical backgrounds and ‘Love Never Dies’ is a whirlwind of action before your very eyes.

I don’t want to give it all away, so I’m not going to run through what happens. As for the ending, you kind of see it coming but it still made me jump out of my skin – one of those moments when the entirety of the audience takes a sharp intake of breath.

The weird and wonderful world of Coney Island was captured brilliantly through fantastic costumes, props and backdrops. The music was just delightful – Andrew Lloyd Webber at his best. We’re talking hairs on the back on your neck standing up. No matter who you are or what your opinion of musical theatre is, you wouldn’t be able to stop that crescendo of emotion that beautiful music creates inside you.

My favourite bits included trapeze artists, a piano playing skeleton type octopus machine, a drinks trolley with a skeleton top half and real legs walking across the stage and having a nice little pot of strawberry Haagen-daas during the interval.

It could just be my overwhelming love of Tim Burton’s version of ‘Sweeney Todd’ but the main melody running through ‘Love Never Dies’ REALLY reminded me of the ‘Joanna’ song. Also the opening scene of LND reminded me of the dark and intriguing world of London that Johnny Depp arrives in.

All the way through I knew I recognised the actress playing Meg – Summer Strallen. Turns out it was ‘Summer’ from Hollyoak’s – who left not only in character, but in real life, to play Maria in ‘The Sound of Music’. She was brilliant – at one point she wore a bathing suit I was highly jealous of – it made me wish I was from that era and got to wear such flamboyant items.

If you get a chance go and see ‘Love Never Dies’, and keep an eye out for the conductor of the orchestra. He was so enthusiastic, and I’m sure he had the giggles at one point, which really made me smile.