The Phantom Of The Opera is one of the most popular musicals ever worldwide. Back in 1990, the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to make a sequel to this success story, but in a completely different setting: New York! However, it took a long time to come up with a sufficiently satisfying and inspiring plot. The musical Love Never Dies premiered in London in March 2010. The sequel to the Paris
… 'fin de siècle' musical takes place ten years later, around 1907 in New York. Opera singer Christine accepts an anonymous agent's offer to come to Coney Island for a performance. Her husband Raoul and son Gustave accompany her. Soon the mysterious agent turns out to be none other than the Phantom, who has built a new life on the peninsula with lavish theme parks full of visual spectacle and quirky freaks. Lloyd Webber's score is wonderfully Puccinian romantic, but time will tell if fans of the 'old' Phantom musical will be delighted with the setting in a freaky entertainment world and its dramatic denouement. (SvdP)more
