Review: ‘Love Never Dies’? Well, actually, it does (original) (raw)
From left: Meghan Picerno as Christine Daaé and Gardar Thor Cortes as the Phantom in “Love Never Dies” at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.
Joan Marcus / Broadway San Jose
“Love Never Dies”? Yes it does.
Love for “Phantom of the Opera.” Love for Andrew Lloyd Webber. Love for sequels. Love for going to the theater. They’re each compromised by this musical, running at the Hobby Center through Sunday. The torrid production history of this sequel suggests it’s no longer the cynical cash grab it first appeared to be but rather a blinded-by-passion project from the famed composer of “Phantom” and “Cats,” with lyrics by Glenn Slater.
But look at what they’ve done. How could they?
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This musical is weepy, unironic and impossible to believe. There isn’t a single relatable character in it, nor any moment of true feeling, though the very loud strings and horns and very high vocal notes try to suggest otherwise. The musical’s faux-emotion is so agonizingly artificial you find yourself questioning the appeal to the original “Phantom.”
Webber’s 1986 musical was also this melodramatic and macabre. Its songs also sounded like self-serious opera and it also sported a gothic, mist-ladden art design without a sense of subtlety. So why did “Phantom” nevertheless feel so magical while “Love Never Dies” remains as appealing as screechy experimental jazz?
There’s something missing, after all, about the deformed Phantom (Bronson Norris Murphy) returning to haunt his beloved opera singer Christine (Meghan Picerno) ten years after the events of the original and forming a stomach-churningly creepy relationship with her son, Gustave (a brilliant, show-stealing Jake Heston Miller).
The actual story, which also includes “Phantom’s” Raoul (Sean Thompson) and Meg (Mary Michael Patterson), isn’t worth the space to recount. The singing is so overdone and the lyrics so listless that it’s difficult to follow what the musical is trying to present scene to scene.
The singers and the band did a good job. But combined with the lavish, unfocused art design and a story that seems like it’s parodying bad opera, all elements of the show become overbearing. Nay, unbearable. Even if the musical somehow ends up on Broadway, it’s best to strike this one from the Webber canon.
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July 18, 2018
Arts Writer and Theater Critic
Wei-Huan Chen is theater critic and arts/culture writer for the Houston Chronicle. He splits his time between critiquing performing arts and reporting on the city's myriad cultures and phenomena. His subjects include theater, film, music and inclusion/representation in the arts.
Before arriving at the Chronicle in 2016, he worked for the Indianapolis Star, the Lafayette Journal & Courier, the Needham Times and the Boston Phoenix. Chen is a 2016 National Critics Institute Fellow at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. He has won many awards for his writing on the arts, including First place from the Texas Associated Press Media Editors for Criticism.
One of the few full-time Asian-American arts critics currently working at a large metro daily, Chen writes and speaks frequently about diversity and criticism. He has spoken on the topic at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, the Asian American Journalists Association National Convention, New York City's BroadwayCon, the Theatre Communications Group National Conference and for American Theatre Magazine's podcast, "Offscript."
Chen once auditioned for "The Bachelorette" and wrote about it. He did not receive a callback.