Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to his musical phenomenon The Phantom of the Opera, was originally conceived back in 1990. Phantom had premiered in 1986, and was in the process of becoming a juggernaut, but Lloyd Webber had always felt that the story was unfinished, and more could be drawn from it. He began exploring the possibility, and progress occurred in fits and starts.
Over 20 years, he enlisted a number of collaborators and, despite some detours and dead ends, the project has at last yielded results. In 2010, it finally made it to the stage in London. In May this year a second production opened in Melbourne. Maria Mercedes plays Madame Giry in the Australian production, one of five characters from the original Phantom story, who carry over into Love Never Dies. She says she feels it is a role she was meant to play.
“I was on tour doing Menopause the Musical,” she said. “One of the other girls had been in Phantom. She told me they were doing a sequel and said ‘you’d be perfect as Madame Giry’. So I got a copy of the soundtrack and I fell in love with it. I called my agent and said ‘I want to a play this role, I am her, I have to be her.’ ” She did an audition but was a little downcast when she wasn’t invited back to do a second. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be after all. Then they called her in to do a workshop, which they filmed so Lloyd Webber could be involved in the casting process. He liked what he saw.
“After one audition and one workshop, I got it. I was blessed, I felt it resonate.” Set in 1907, Love Never Dies picks up roughly ten years after Phantom left off. After the Phantom disappears from the Paris Opera House, he is smuggled to New York by Madame Giry and her daughter Meg. His home now is an amusement park on Coney Island. “Madame Giry is the connection, the conduit between the past and the present,” says Mercedes.
“She saved the Phantom as a child. Then when he burned down the opera house, the mob wanted to lynch him, I mean, he was a murderer. It was Madam Giry and Meg who snuck him away, and were very protective of him.”
But as the title suggests, he has never forgotten Christina, the love of his life. He longs to see her and hear her sing again so, posing as an impresario, he invites her to New York to make her American debut. She accepts, oblivious of the true source of the invitation, and travels there with her husband and son. It is only once she has arrived, when it is too late for her to retreat, that she realizes the danger she has led her family into.
The original Phantom of the Opera was based on the French novel written by Gaston Leroux, but Love Never Dies had to be written from scratch. Lloyd Webber worked with a number of people but kept running into a brick wall with it, unable to crack the problem of creating something which was an appropriate development of the original. It was Ben Elton who provided the key. Elton had worked with Lloyd Webber previously on The Beautiful Game. Elton looked at Phantom and decided that its success as drama could be distilled down to five characters. He wrote a synopsis for a sequel using this as his framework, and suddenly the project had the right shape and direction. Love Never Dies has big shoes to fill.
The Phantom of the Opera is the most successful event in entertainment history, having been seen by over 100 million people in 25 countries and taking over $5 billion in box office receipts alone. While the West End production of Love Never Dies had a chequered history, the Melbourne show has led a charmed life. Director Simon Phillips and his creative team have done a complete overhaul, and Lloyd Webber is very excited by the result. “When we opened, Andrew came to Australia to bless the show. He watched the first half, then called in the creatives. He had tears in his eyes. He was totally blown away; by the cast, direction, the orchestra, sets, design, costumes, everything.”
And the audience? “We didn’t know how they’d respond. Here it’s a different culture, it’s more honest. They’re not necessarily going to enjoy it just because they enjoyed Phantom. But we’re doing eight shows a week, and night after night the audience keeps coming in. That says everything.” Next feather in the cap came from Universal Films.
They saw a clip of it on YouTube and approached Lloyd Webber about shooting it to put out on DVD, and he happily agreed. So in mid-September, a film crew of around 60 moved into the Regent Theatre to do just that. “We do eight shows a week and have Monday and Tuesday off. So they shot it Monday and Tuesday, all day and night. Then we cancelled the Wednesday show, and shot day and night. Then more again on Thursday day, and then they shot it Thursday night in front of an audience. I was so nervous.”
So what are the differences between this show and Phantom? “In the original, the Phantom was less human. You only saw him about six times. He was kind of untouchable. This time he’s more approachable. He’s still dark, but now he’s an entrepreneur. But all the characters are more layered, more exposed. Madame Giry is a fully fledged character in this. In Phantom she was just a mean old dance mistress. Now she’s passionate about everything, for herself and for her daughter.” Mercedes also considers the music to be a step up from Phantom, describing this as being more like opera than musical theatre.
She says her favourite part is the end of Act One, which she describes as her Maria Callas moment, when Madame Giry opens up, heart and soul. She’s clearly enjoying performing the role. “When I was doing Menopause, I was singing to a click track. Now I’ve got a full orchestra.” Mercedes is also very enthusiastic when she talks about the look of the new show. With sets and costumes designed by Gabriela Tylesova, she explains that the production has a very filmic look to it. “It’s a lavish spectacle. People from overseas who come and see it are amazed. Nowhere in the world has anything like this been staged. “It was the same when we filmed it. Everyone was saying ‘why are you filming it here, and not on Broadway?’ But Andrew was saying ‘this is one of the best productions of any of my shows.’ “We’ve always had excellent performers here and this show is really great. I’ve been to the West End and Broadway, what we do is as good, if not better. This says a lot for Australia, how far we’ve come.”
And while Love Never Dies is technically a sequel, Lloyd Webber has said on numerous occasions that he considers it to be a stand alone work, so if you missed Phantom, you can still enjoy this. “It’s very clever writing. In 15 minutes, you know exactly what happened before, it’s made very clear at the opening.”
‘Love Never Dies’ will play in Melbourne until 18 December. The Sydney season begins on 12 January. The DVD will be available from February 2012.