Love Never Dies: A Magnificent Musical Trashfire Sequel to Phantom of the Opera

when men in black became a surprise hit in 1997 it  didn't yet have a sequel greenlit or even written   but that shouldn't have been a problem right  being based on a comic book it's the sort of   thing that should work well with serialization  if anything would lend itself to a franchise it   would be something like men in black gonna get  your gun back huh i like this gun but here's   the problem men in black one was an origin story  the story of fish out of water agent jay joining   the eponymous organization the end of the film set  up a sequel sure but it promised a different plot   and different characters agent jay is no longer a  green horn agent k the mentor figure has retired   agent l is now the new recruit so given  this setup what did they decide to do   for the sequel okay well he's retired right  well they retconned the ending of the first   movie slotting will smith's agent jay back into  the position of clueless noob to recreate that   sweet sweet chemistry he had with tommy lee  jones agent l is clumsily written out and plus   you can't count l i mean she wanted to go back  to the morgue i just i helped her frank the pug   who has a glorified cameo in the first movie is  now bumped up to lead character cause fan service   i just walked in to find you here with that sad  look upon your face and there's lots of these guys   that's going to leave a scar men in black 2  didn't build on what the first movie had set up   it just repeated its greatest hits and everybody  hated it any story can arguably probably have   a compelling sequel but unless it's a sort of  episodic thing like a superhero franchise where   by design it's more or less going to have like  the same conflict and characters each time in   order for it to be a satisfying story it should  probably be different from that first one expand   on the world in some way and if that is what  you're here for i have a sequel that's out today   it's called truth of the divine it's a  sequel to axiom's end and it is not the same   say what you want about it it's different from  the first one it is not men in black II there   i got my plug out of the way seriously it's my  one thing you can buy it now wherever books are   sold as long as you are in the us uk canada also  english-speaking countries i don't get any say on   the foreign rights. but there are some stories  that probably should just not have sequels love never dies is the result of a  decades-long attempt to take a fundamentally   unworkable story and make it work this might  also be the musical that was given the most   chances of all big budget musicals with  productions in toronto london australia   and even a world tour which absolutely yes i  went and saw in the futile hope that audiences   might take to it eventually at least an nth  of the degree to which they did phantom of the   opera phantom of the opera is by most meaningful  metrics the most successful musical of all time   it has played to over 140 million people in  35 countries in 166 cities around the world   with an estimated gross of 6 billion dollars  it has played over 12 000 performances across   30 years at her majesty theater in london alone  and is still the longest running show on broadway   suck it so just so we'll have a point of  reference for what happens in love never   dies here is a brief summary of the  stage version of phantom of the opera phantom of the opera is the story of christine a  young ingenue who wows paris after she falls into   the role of surprise understudy after the prima  donna is scared off performing by the phantom   of the opera after her gangbusters performance  we learn that christine has been getting voice   lessons from a mysterious tutor which her friend  and extremely minor character meg remarks upon remember meg we'll come back to Meg. so it turns out  her secret mentor is actually that phantom   a supposed ghost who is actually a guy who's not  only been extorting the managers but also screwing   with the cast because it's fun and he hates the  prima donna but this is a sexy phantom see and   he's in love with her and she's kind of into it  but she's also kind of into her old flame Raoul   who was also rich and a vicomte so Raoul becomes the  obvious choice once christine sees the reason for   his phantomy ways namely his face hijinks and a  love triangle ensue the phantom kills a few people   and after basically taking the entire  opera house hostage and forcing them to   perform his opera christine unmasks  him on stage and he kidnaps her   and the show ends with Raoul trying to  rescue her but getting captured immediately   after which the phantom demands  that christine marry him or Raoul   dies but when christine shows him a  moment of compassion and kisses him   he realizes what an [ __ ] he's been the whole  show and he lets the two of them go wishes the   mazel and an angry mob shows up and he escapes and  that extremely minor character meg remember her   picks up his masks and holds it up as the  spotlight focuses on it and the show ends love never dies is the story of the phantom  having apparently learned no lessons   still obsessing over christine and plotting  to lure and extort her into marrying him   again only he succeeds in his endeavor this time   but then he has to negotiate a hostage  crisis which ends in christine getting shot or love never dies is the story of christine  trapped in a loveless marriage to a negligent   alcoholic gambling addict reconnecting  with the serial killer who loved her and   also kidnapped her 10 years ago and deciding  that he's actually the lesser of two evils   until she gets shot by a former friend  in a completely unrelated hostage crisis or love never dies is the story of meg Giry  whose mother dragged her across the ocean to   coney island to work for the murderer who'd been  extorting the paris opera for some reason and who   has been dying for said murderous extortionist's  approval i was suddenly aware of a presence in   the air and i knew it was him until one day when  she realizes that he's never going to choose her   over her former friend he's still obsessed with  she kidnaps said friend's child with the apparent   intention of doing a murder-suicide but ends  up accidentally shooting her old friend instead it is perfect i wouldn't change anything so there  are some variations on this show's plot because   they kept revising it and revising it trying to  make it work but i'm just going to summarize the   nightmare that is most readily available  the 2011 melbourne production filmed for   broadcast 10 years ago it's a decade after  the events of the first musical and if you're   wondering what he's been up to and how his  life has pivoted in a new exciting direction   well he's still whining and obsessing  over christine Daae in song form just milking the giant cow to  her portrait which is better   than the West End version where  he was doing it to a real doll we then cut to coney island where Alan Cumming Harley Quinn and uncle fester introduce us to   the vibe which i guess could be described  as cirque du soleil by way of tim burton   but not like you know good tim burton more  like disney whipped out a boatload of money   to make dumbo because what else is he gonna do  tim burton let's get ready for dumbo so this is   the phantom's show fairground whatever and he's  rebranded himself as mr y. Mr. Y welcomes you to Phantasma and we learned that meg Giry remember  her the ballerina with like 10 lines   from the first show is now the star of mr  Y's sideshow through a song she performs also in universe the phantom writes all of the  songs for everything that happens under the   mr y umbrella so uh the phantom wrote this anyway she finishes the song runs backstage to  her mom madame Giry who was also here and is like   i hope phantom senpai notices me because everybody  wants to [ __ ] this [ __ ] now and mom is like no   senpai is never going to notice you sweetie and  then we get an exposition dump explaining how   the Girys smuggled the phantom out of france and  went with him to new york for i'm sure a very good   reason who concealed him safe away smuggled him up  to calais found a freighter out of france and we   never learn it but i'm sure it makes perfect sense  meg learns christine is coming to new york and the   audience is also reminded that meg and christine  were friends at one point meg is nostalgic   madam Giry is like oh no i don't like this i  don't see the problem this is ancient history   the phantom shows up randomly and leers to  remind the audience that there are phantoms   in this phantom we then cut to a dock in new  york and Christine Dade serving real Kate   winslet in titanic realness we learn that she  and Raoul are married and have a kid named Gustave   but the money's tight because Raoul turns  out is a gambler and an alcoholic oh yeah   and her art is paying off your gambling  debts is what they're saying in france   and he drank away all their money just like in all  the fanfics father dear come play with me come and   see this toy what a snub at most i can't explain  it but it was just a weirdly popular fanfic trope   back in 2002 and i guess andrew lloyd webber spent  some time on uh fanfiction.net ao3 didn't exist   yet is it true you left your entire fortune on a  roulette table in monte carlo how am i supposed to   feel in this moment? Ganja, i didn't want to make it that  everybody was attacking you. you insolent jackals   how day yeah i feel very attacked relax relax  so christine is here at the invitation of oscar   Hammerstein and Raoul is a bad dad doesn't he love  me no he does not so uncle fester Alan Cumming and   harley quinn show up in the nightmare mobile and  they take the fam to the hotel while Raoul drinks   some more and christine sings a very thinly veiled  number about how she clearly made the wrong choice   gustav goes to bed and then who breaks down  the door like the kool-aid man oh yeah and then okay so how to explain this this is basically like an eight-minute  dirge about how at the end of the last show   after Christine escaped with Raoul she immediately  came right back to the phantom to confess her love   they have sex despite his virgin status he  hits it and quits it like 30 times in one night cosmopolitan's top 10 positions to try beneath the  moonless sky so then after that eight minutes they   move to the balcony have another five minute  ballad about nothing and then gustav shows up   and we get this amazing reaction  shot oh gustav it's all right darling and because the phantom is an [ __ ] he michael  jackson's the kid and then threatens to disappear   the child if christine doesn't perform at  his side show why does he wear a mask mother?   is he a magician yes darling in his way he's an  [ __ ] and so she's like okay but then she reads   and she's like oh boy but his music is just  so good so then we get to the notes portion   of the show which is basically just a carbon  copy of the same thing in the original show in this version christine Raoul meg and madame Giry  reconnect they all kind of figure out what's going   on meg goes single white female learning that  christine is there to sing on the phantom's invite   raoul realizes that them coming to america  was a ruse engineered by the phantom   it's him that's what i said you work for  him now you do too oh [ __ ] oh [ __ ] and everyone's fine with it i guess no one  is going to bring up that he killed people   so christine is doing what the phantom  asked but he lures the child to his   lair at the base of a roller coaster anyway  to his i guess doom but then the kid starts   playing chopsticks on his piano and the  phantom starts doing like middle school   punnett squares in his head like oh my  a virtuoso and he makes this connection and then can we please stop talking to the ten-year-old  like that please i don't think you like it well why  not i like this new generation of music so turns out gustav can't take the beauty  underneath so the phantom does the same heel face   turn he does at the end of the first show and just  kind of accepts it and lets him go only where in   the first show his change of heart is precipitated  by christine showing him compassion and making out   with him in this show it's precipitated by nothing  the kid screams at his horrible deformity showing   that no actually i don't accept you no matter  what and the phantom takes from this oh man i   was being a huge [ __ ] again wasn't i and then  christine is just suddenly there and he's like oh   silly me being an [ __ ] again my bad you guys can  go just don't tell your kid i'm actually his dad   and she's like no sir i honor my contracts i am  nothing if not a professional and i will sing your music because she needs to beef up her linkedin  so she leaves in the phantom again precipitated   by nothing is like i will give everything i have  to this miracle child who can play heart and soul   and then he leaves and then the real villain  shows up and it's madame Giry, who is angry   because she seems to have expected to inherit  his wealth ten dark years of toil and tears   and now what we've worked for we'll go to  that child even though they appear to be   about the same age and that's the end of  act one please clap so here is where we   begin act two where love never dies bucks  musical theater tradition by trading off a   rousing high energy act opener that gets you  invested and gets the blood pumping with this one more ah buddy don't you think you had enough  all right one more drink sir that's what i need   don't you think sir? so here's day drunk Raoul  sitting at a bar giving us low tempo b side of   a mid 2000's tom waits album energy complete with  a boozy saxophone She does not. then meg just shows up and establishes  that she likes the ocean and its inherent   eroticism and how sometimes she just has thoughts  about i don't know walking straight into it   then we get to this he's just another  circus freak i'm not afraid of him   surprise [ __ ] so this dick waving contest  happens and the phantom and Raoul waste no time   going behind christine's back to make a bet if  she doesn't sing a song the phantom will then   go and pay off their debts and if she does then  she belongs to him she walks you leave together   pockets full, debts paid she sings you leave  alone whatever that means and if you thought   christine lacked agency in the first show well  so Raoul is an idiot and agrees because we need   to add stakes and there's like 45 minutes  left in this show and still no plot then   absolutely nothing happens between the bet and  the culmination of the bet well except for this   again in universe the phantom wrote this and after  we're done meg's like no no what he didn't watch   me sing bathing beauties i had quick change  all that you gave him has all been a waste   all that you've done it has all been erased anyway, onto the culmination of that riveting drunken bet   gustav's like mom i love you as she looks  into the middle distance longing for death   Raoul shows up begs christine not to sing and  gives enough of a rat's ass to comb his hair   and wear a coat for once but of course does not  tell her what he did don't sing the song dear   what but you have to know something's terribly  wrong dear someone drove a hot dog-shaped car   through the window come on whoever did this  just confess we promise we won't be mad   then the phantom shows up and does a billy zane  the duke and moulin rouge necklace scene to assert   his natural dominance only in those scenes where  the necklace functions as a metaphorical caller   chaining them to a rich guy that they do not  love here we're supposed to root for this guy is it because kate winslet is  going to pick billy zane this time? our hero consummate professional that she is  she dresses up in her iconic peacock   the symbol of i i don't know and she sings a song so then Raoul peaces out and scene that all the  cat moms in the audience have been yearning for   for 30 years the wait though there'sstill another  15 minutes go stop what is it gustav what's wrong   i told him to wait for Raoul oh no where's gustav?  that jealous madame Giry must have taken him   anyway madame Giry wasn't the real villain of the  show it was meg. yo what what is that the tattoo   it's my old high school team the plain view  red herrings look at its swim who has now   kidnapped gustav and is about to toss him  and herself off a pier because she's just   so lonely and senpai won't notice her always  wondered how to make you watch well watch me now and the phantom only wants christine even  though meg has ostensibly been forced into   sex work to raise funds for him dot dot dot  question mark i gave what they would take   i gave it for your sick so the whole  gang shows up and tries to talk meg down   and then meg throws them the child  but oh [ __ ] look out she's got a gun so this show ends with the phantom of  the opera negotiating a hostage crisis give me the gun said the phantom of the opera  the phantom then deploys his hostage negotiation   skills which aren't that sharp turns out he says  this we can't all be like christine christine so christine dies but at least the phantom gets  a consolation child boy and man hug kid's okay   with his face now apparently even though  his mother just bled out in front of him   Raoul just stands there with christine's corpse   and i cannot wait for the CBS sitcom  around these two and a half men the end so why is this in a post phantom  world in the late 80s early 90s   you have all these broadway producers  trying to replicate phantom's success from disney's beauty and the beast to miss saigon  to that one batman cover but there was also the   possibility of film adaptations for phantom itself  in 1989 warner brothers buys the movie rights and   grants Andrew lloyd webber total artistic control  and lord andy handpicks a young joel schumacher to   direct the film based on how much he enjoyed the  vampire film the lost boys anyway shooting is set   to go with michael crawford and sarah brightman  reprising their roles but then andrew lloyd webber   and sarah brightman divorce in 1990. not long  after the divorce lord andy and phantom designer   maria bjornsson were having conversations about  what a phantom sequel would look like weber wanted   it to take place in manhattan with said phantom  living in new york's first penthouse but changed   his mind after watching a documentary about the  brooklyn beach and fairground and thought hey   how about coney island so then he has dinner with  frederick forsyth now frederick forsyth is a name   you might be familiar with he's a best-selling  thriller author from england and brexit supporter   who is still publishing books as recently as  2018. so i guess you could see where a man   who makes his career writing thriller mysteries  from a journalistic bent would make him a natural   fit for writing a sequel to phantom so lord andy  goes up to frederick forsyth and tells him okay so   i'm going to unofficially commission you to write  my phantom sequel and i want you to include this   this this and this and set it mostly at coney  island and frederick forsyth is like okay and he   writes this concept and then he finishes it and he  brings it to lord andy and lord andy is like huh i i guess you sure did give me what i asked  for okay so in order to understand why love   never dies is the way it is i'm going to need to  give you a plot summary of frederick forsyth's   the phantom of manhattan so in phantom of  manhattan Erik is an impresario millionaire   in new york city having worked his way up from  coney island engineer in a clown mask building   roller coasters to owning half the city he has  accomplished this by being a super genius and   also teaming up with this random persian sidekick  named darius who worships mammon the god of gold   who is real and mammon has granted Erik powers  and good fortune to achieve millionaireity   now Erik wants to open a new opera  house in new york city but gasp   so does oscar hammerstein what bad timing  and he has actual historical soprano melba   as his prima donna so what's Erik going to do?  the only way he can make sure his opera is a   winner in the great opera house race is to bring  christine over from europe to be his prima donna   Erik has written an opera about a disfigured  war veteran that he wants christine to star in   he will conveniently switch places with the  bandaged-faced vet to sing with her and there's   also conveniently a child role that her son will  get to take later too also in this version her   son's name is pierre we know from the beginning  of the book that christine's son can't be Raoul's   because before they ever even met Raoul got his  dick shot off by performing a heroic deed in paris and everyone was so sad for him thinking no woman  would ever want to marry him but lucky for him   christine got knocked up by a guess who and she  needs a husband everybody wins so Raoul is actually   super sweet and self-sacrificing in this book if  a bit of a dullard and he can't speak english so   he spends the whole book being confused and  french as they come over from europe the boy   has a tutor who is an irish priest who has literal  conversations with god much of the narration is   done by a smarmy new york city reporter who's  getting the scoop on the opera house race   as well as narration from the irish priest Erik's  evil sidekick and a random street urchin character   and of course erik himself who begins the book  explaining why gaston Leroux was a hack idiot and   andrew lloyd webber was the correct version  actually looking at his original text today   frankly one is in a quandary the basic idea is  there and it is brilliant but the way poor gaston   tells it more bewildering Leroux tells his entire  story without ever giving a date when it happened   for an investigative reporter which he purports  to be this is a bizarre omission but far and away the most bizarre departure by Leroux from even the most basic rules of investigation   and reporting is his end-of-book seduction by a  mysterious character known only as the persian   this strange mountebank is briefly mentioned  twice in the first two thirds of the story   and in a most passing manner   he appears also to have made an error with the   position appearance and intelligence of madame  Giry an error corrected in the Lloyd weber musical   this is the story of the lloyd webber musical and  it is the only one to make sense what do you think   it stinks when christine arrives erik sends a  monkey music box because this is a sequel to   the musical to her hotel which she immediately  recognizes and realizes what's going on erik   invites her to a coney island maze of mirrors  to tell her what's up and confesses his love   i love you [ __ ] oh my god i ain't gonna never  stop loving you [ __ ] she flees hijinks ensue   eventually the opera opens and they perform his  opera and it's so romantic the priest and the   reporter characters are trying to figure out  what's going on with the evil persian sidekick   and then after the opera this evil persian  sidekick invites christine to the park so he   can kill her or maybe just lure erik there to  kill him because he's evil like that but his   reason is because erik has forsaken his worship  of mammon which in farsi actually means mother okay and the sidekick must kill the non-believer  or something anyway christine dies erik kills   his sidekick they tell the kid erik is his  dad Raoul is very cool about this the irish   priest is chill the reporter gets his scoop and  then erik lives happily ever after with his son   and like this deformed people's community the end   so although lord andy was not interested in  pursuing the sequel stage show at first he   never really lets the idea go and whether  emboldened by the 2004 movie's success existence? what do you even call this? i don't  know. in a daily mail interview from 2007   weber confirmed that the stage sequel is  still in his mind it's taken me 10 years   to decide to do this and i want to base it on  the ideas i had with freddie forsyth years ago   for something called the phantom of manhattan that  came out as a book there are various things in the   plotting that i'm not very happy with i think i've  solved them i hope we can sort them out but i'm   really pretty buzzed up about it so in 2007 lloyd  webber approaches friend previous collaborator and   successful playwright/screenwriter ben elton we  have a lot in common i think we're like mickey   rooney and judy garland we want to do the show  right now i don't know which is which i know he's   got the better legs but to rework the ideas that  weber and forsythe had developed a decade earlier   and then he decides that the real problem is it  was he who found the way through the roadblock   he pointed out that my first thoughts for a  new plot contained several new characters ben   suggested that any continuation of the story must  be about the protagonists of the original show so   the new characters were axed and gustave  christine's son is the only new principal   character we meet come the autumn of 2007 ben  had shaped a story that i felt i could make work   oh give me the gun, Meg. so they kept more or less the  same tension and antagonist and just searched   replaced the evil persian uh with madame and  Meg Giry well i guess that makes sense madam Giry  replaced the original persian in the original show  so why can't she just replace the evil persian too   so they set it up where you think the antagonist  is going to be madame Giry who also really has no   reason at all to feel like this and is already  an incredibly weak motivation going forward why did you think he was going to leave everything  to you did he say he was going to is he terminally   ill because he appears to be about your age  madame so giving madame Giry and meg something   like darius's motivation from the original book  which was stupid but followed its own logic   makes this ending even worse Giry still has the  evil persian's same motivation she still wants his   millionaireity but based on what  where the hell does this come from   she never seemed motivated by money not in the  first show and not in the second either and this   is to say nothing of the logic of the Girys  being here at all who concealed him safe away but we grafted forsyth's weird plot  onto old characters from the first   show who have no reason to be here so   give me the gun, Meg. so this new version drops all  of the new characters that forsyth added like   the priest the reporter and the evil persian and  hews closer to characters already established   in the first show but not without keeping some  key elements like christine's love child with the   phantom and the whole runs of freak show despite  having been held captive in a freak show but   i guess it's a humane freak show now hurt people  hurt people i guess and i'd be tempted to say that   at least some of this was a good artistic move  moving away from that book but the results man also this show wants us to root for erik and  christine and in earlier versions apparently it   didn't shy away as much from the fact that he was  you know murderer but in the final version it has   to totally ignore half of the first show to make  its stupid romance work the Girys treat him like   he's just some guy you work for him now you do  too this man has killed several people everyone   just kind of politely ignores everything he did in  the first one except for his fixation on christine   she chose Raoul chose to make a new start  just beauty and youth over genius and   art or my favorite little writing detail the  one song that is repeated from the first show   here is that song from the first  musical without that crucial line cut   he kills without a thought he murders all that's good. I know I can't refuse  feels like that might be kind of a deal breaker   so let's be honest the ending  of this show is pretty hilarious oh does christine get killed? Yes! (laughter) so what is the main tension of love never dies  well this verse is also same as the first what   will become of the phantom and christine who  will she choose but that tension resolves   after she sings her peacock dress so the main  plot is tied up but that doesn't end the story   the random thing has to happen gustave what is it  gustave what's wrong i told him to wait for Raoul   before he asked me to surely he wouldn't the  phantom never at any point interacts with meg   before the end of the show the phantom at never  any point interacted with meg in the first show   if a tragic thing happens at the end of a story  fine great but it needs to both come out of and   influence the actions of our protagonist and  while sure meg was in the show before this this   isn't like some dad who never went to timmy's  baseball games and now timmy's gone off the edge we don't know anything about  what their relationship even is   we don't know how he treats her for all we  know this is like a fatal attraction scenario   but while you could argue that this was set  up sort of like they tried to they can't bring   themselves to make the phantom legitimately [  __ ] them over in order to get with christine   so this i took a little trip to coney island i  took a little trip because of you never makes   sense he never wrongs them in any way that we  actually see. I hope christine is worthy of you   i hope her singing makes up for what your  blindness has done to Meg. they just feel entitled   to his stuff the phantom pedestalizing christine  could in a different story lead to some kind of   downfall but not here meg feels owed by him but  the show never gives us any indication that her   feelings are justified and either way meg is  not like his ward she's like at least 30. sherry   lewis has got it going on in no universe is this  man responsible for what she is doing right now   and it's weird to imply that he is give me the  blame for not seeing the things that you've done, Meg. this is some poetic thematic culmination all  his ghosts come back to haunt him there could   have been a story where he throws all  the people who helped him when he very   much did not deserve it under the bus  because of his obsession with christine   but the show doesn't do that because it wants  the audience to root for these crazy kids   and i cannot overstate this this is a  fundamentally unsalvageable relationship we should   not be rooting for them in this very show he  threatened to murder a child that perfect specimen   may disappear on Coney island you know what  you do you buy yourself a tape recorder you   just record yourself for a whole day i think  you're gonna be surprised some of your phrasing   and only walked it back when he realized  the kid was actually his crotch dumpling   he plays like me so the tragic ending isn't poetic  it isn't the result of some mistake the phantom   actually made and he has made many this isn't his  past or his character flaws coming back to haunt   him it's not him burning everything down if he  can't get what he wants it's just a random thing you know the funny thing about empire  strikes back uh when it first came   out is it was actually kind of met with  mixed reviews from critics and even from   fans and i think part of the reason for that  is because people were so used to sequels more   or less kind of following the same pattern  as first ones and the empire strikes back is   pretty different from the first star wars movie  but it didn't take long for empire strikes back to   be reevaluated as the good one arguably the best  one of all of the ones that have been produced   and generally when you look at sequels that are  seen as positively even maybe even better than   the first one it's probably because they try new  things they expand on the world they introduce new   characters they take the story in a different  direction because presumably your characters   have grown since that first story phantom of the  opera ends with him letting christine go and the   reason that the musical is more compelling than  most other versions is because it's one of the   only ones where that happens where he voluntarily  kind of sees the error of his ways and lets her go   why undo the thing that made your first show  work in the first place so you could say that   love never dies is a story for the ages about the  need to recapture lightning in a bottle a story of   being unable to let go of the past but at  the same time i strain to think of this   as a cynical lazy cash grab in the vein of men  in black II it's just so i don't know sincere   like andrew lloyd webber wanted this to work and  moreover you know you can't say that there was no   care or passion here just look at the costumes  and the sets the costumes in particular are   arguably better than the ones from phantom of  the opera because phantom of the opera one is so   like melodramatic and loud and high  emotions and because i strain to see   a scenario where a phantom of the opera sequel  that includes the phantom and christine doing the   same [ __ ] they did in the first one not being a  complete trash fire i i just i can't imagine any   sequel to that version of phantom of the opera  being anything but just you can't look away from   it it is just going to inevitably be captivating  it is baffling it is bad from start to finish   but it is also eminently watchable and for that i  can't say i hate it i love the [ __ ] out of love   never dies you might say my love for love never  dies never dies as you know my single my single   is dropping is dropping but of course there are  also many phantom sequels and retellings out there   they don't necessarily have to take the form of a  stage show my favorite sequel is a fanfic that was   published by some mysterious author like 10 years  ago there's books and also there's audio books   hi did you know that this is not a conflict  of interest i was surprised too but either   way i get to promote my new audiobook truth  of the divine by way of our sponsor audible   a lot of people have asked is abigail thorne  from philosophy tube uh coming back for the   sequel the answer to that is yes and best of all  you can get it for free if you visit audible.com/lindsayellis   or text lindsay ellis to 500 500 and  start your 30-day free trial today audible members   get one credit every month good for any title in  the entire premium selection of best sellers new   releases regardless of price and you keep them  forever want to let a friend or relative know   that you're thinking about them share the gift  of audible with others this is actually the copy   so they can be inspired informed or entertained no  i did not write that so visit audible.com/lindseyellis  or text lindsay ellis to 500-500 to start  your 30 day free trial and you can get both axiom's   end and truth of the divine which is out now on  audible or a hard copy wherever books are sold oh, she thicc.

Channel: Lindsay Ellis

Views: 1,295,027

Keywords: lindsay ellis videos, lindsay ellis video essay, lindsay ellis review, lindsay ellis phantom of the opera, lindsay ellis love never dies, love never dies review, phantom of the opera musical review, love never dies animatic, Andrew Lloyd Webber, musical, cats musical, cats the movie, phantom of the opera broadway

Id: Pfz-_WxGu3Y

Length: 44min 0sec (2640 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ApocaLiz]

TEEEEEN YEEAAARS OOOOOOOOOOOOLD!

[u/patrickwithtraffic]

Lindsay Ellis: my number 1 source on just how bad certain bad musicals are

EDIT: NGL those giant crystal set pieces are pretty dope and belong in a music video with much better music. Feel like Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson could've done something cool with them like 20 years ago.

[u/PresN]

You know the feud is back on because Lindsay stole Natalie's "inherent eroticism of the sea" line.

[u/TheVecan]

I can't tell if I'm on Contrapoints-time or what, but has Lindsay really been cranking videos out like damn?

[u/GenericMan92]

I lost it at the mashup of King of the Hill with The Beauty Underneath and subsequent face reveal scream.

[u/Remarkable-Season]

I swear I read the plot of Love Never Dies years ago and I didn’t remember 2/3 of the plot points

[u/lithiumfleur]

Nothing groundbreaking to me…because I know entirely too much about LND. But a fun time!

I still maintain that him coming up with the concept after his divorce from Sarah brightman is, how shall we say - telling.

[u/fizzgigmcarthur]

No reference to the fact that ALW’s cat walked over his Clavinova keyboard and deleted the entire score so he had to rewrite from memory? Which is why it sounds like a half-remembered phantom homage

[u/maryjolisa34]

It IRKS me to no end that this trashfire has a gorgeous filmed production, meanwhile so many brilliant shows go unfilmed or are inaccessible to the vast majority of people.