The first impression I had of the Phantom of the Opera sequel wasn’t too good. Critics panned it when it first opened in London, and with those discouraging reviews, I thought it was going to be one of those turkeys that will be long remembered as a mistake from the word go (ahem, Spider Man anyone??).
And then news of a Melbourne production came in, and I thought, “This is going to be bad.” So when the accolades came rushing in, I first thought it was a marketing team working overtime - but the praises just kept on coming and coming, so I figured yeah sure. Let;’s give it a shot.
And it was… good. Apparently, the Australian team was given full rights to trim and tuck as they saw fit - and truly, they trimmed out a lot of the excess and made the story more closely tied to the original Phantom storyline - and that’s a good thing, I think.
The plot was melodramatic (as expected from a Phantom sequel) and the set was quite beautiful. It is not as dark as the original Phantom, as this time they opted for a rich maroon motif that reminded me of Baz Luhrmann’s red curtain trilogy. The set was absolutely a treat and it is a source of continuous shock that the set design team can fit that much into a stage so small.
The only thing working against it is the fact that the songs are so lacklustre. The songs just didn’t carry a strong enough hook to let the audience members hum along after the show. it’s not that the singers or the orchestra were bad - au contrare, the singers were note perfect and the orchestra was just fantastic. It’s just that no one can do Andrew Lloyd Webber - not even Andrew Lloyd Webber.
So overall, the show was great to look at and packs enough of a punch to impress - but at the end of the day, it can never be the classic that Phantom is.
Love Never Dies - 3/5 slices
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