Love Never Dies, Regent Theatre, Melbourne, Australia.

Love Never Dies, Regent Theatre, Melbourne, Australia.

It takes all sorts to make the world as they say and we all have different ideas about what is fun and what is torture into the bargain. For me I have to say that all the free streaming of recorded theatre productions has helped to make this strange time in our lives more bearable.

We have been exercising our socks off most of every morning since the beginning of March. My own personal lock down began before the official date because it seemed like the most sensible thing to do from my point of view, being a little long in the tooth at 80 years old and having had asthma for many years. My husband Steve, joined me a week later. We have managed to stay fit enough, that we are both sure, that should this impossible situation end any time soon that we would be ready for any of the long list of events we have entries for. We have trained hard every day through the whole dreadful experience without the once weekly day off training that we always did have before, but have included much more flexibility and stretching work.

Thank heaven and all the angels Steve and I are best friends as well as a married couple and have a working coach and athlete relationships. That boils down to the fact that we get on well and don’t get grumpy with each other even after an extended period of lock down. We have very similar tastes in entertainment and have worked our way through a number of things on TV that we had missed. 

A few movies, helped a bit and in that I would include the Mark Wahlberg film, Spenser Confidential. Right now I will forgive anything if it at least holds my attention until the end and this gets my pass mark for that, although it really was not anything marvellous.

Mark Wahlberg was believable and at least looks fit enough to have done his own running and fence climbing. The most memorable scene was the one in which he co-starred with a long haired German Shepherd dog for a while. The dog played his part very well in a chase scene that went quite badly wrong. That was a nice light moment and we laughed out heads off though I don’t think that was the director’s idea, who knows. We watched it to the end and declared it OK.

Last night’s choice of viewing was a whole lot better. Andrew Lloyd-Webber' s series of recordings offered for this difficult time called, the Show Must Go On, had Love Never Dies as next on the marvellous list of shows being streamed for a very limited time. This was a production staged at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, a while back. The cast had Ben Lewis as the Phantom ten years on, moved to Coney Island, New York but still obsessed with his leading lady Christine Daaé played by Anna O’Byrne. I understand that it had been majorly re-written since the opening in London years ago and was much improved for the reshuffle and tightening of the story and having wads of money thrown at it I suppose too. Scenery, costumes and make up were all great.

 

Steve and I first saw Phantom of the Opera many years ago when it first became THE West End show to go to see. On our first visit to see it we were completely knocked out by the show and even though we had read the write ups and heard some of the music and seen interviews on chat shows. 

When the curtain finally came down and the theatre lights went up we were not in a fit state to get up and walk out into the street because we were completely overcome with the emotion of the show. It took a good deal of huffing and puffing even after the eyes were well wiped before we got up to leave and were sitting in an empty theatre as the cleaning team moved in. We saw it a handful of times with cast changes over the next few years and loved every evening we spent watching that magical show.

We were quicker off the mark to book tickets for Love Never Dies when that opened in the West End. We enjoyed that show also but it did not have the same effect as our first visit to Phantom. 

That seems to not quite work since some things did not make sense. The main reason for me was that in the according to the plot, it was set ten years after the original Phantom story and yet the leading man looked about ten years younger that in the first production. None the less the singing from both stars was marvellous as it was in the show was saw last night, and we thoroughly enjoyed it all the more for such a fabulous production. 

I still preferred the original lead man playing the Phantom in Love Never Dies, I thought he had the best mixture of great voice, good swarthy looks, stature and the desired degree of magnetic creepiness. The Phantom character is a killer after all isn’t he. 

 Original star of Love Never Dies, Ramin Karimloo

Steve and I cruelly refer to the wonderfully talented compose writer etc. as Andrew Lloyds-Bank. That began after we went to see his art collection in a London Gallery some years ago, there was a fortune in wonderful paintings displayed. Yet still I thank him from the bottom of my heart for all the pleasure he has given us with his marvellous shows.