LOVE NEVER DIES Blog: First Preview

It has seemed like a very long haul for all concerned, but last night saw the first public performance of Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre. The show is now in preview until the official opening night on March 9th which is when the press get in to see the show and give their verdicts.

There was a small technical hitch after the first number, and then director Jack O’Brien took to the stage to assure the audience “that’s not it… !” and ”that has NEVER happened before” before he asked for a little patience as the crew worked behind the curtain to fix the issue. After only a few minutes the show was ready to restart (it had all gone so swimmingly in the afternoon’s dress rehearsal too!).

With the show back in full swing the audience reaction was, on the whole, positive with many people rising to their feet to give the cast a standing ovation at the end. Not bad at all for a first preview! We obviously don’t want to give anything away but we did ask a few audience members for their initial reactions during the interval and at the end of the show, see the clip below.

After the final curtain we asked the two leads for their views. Ramin Karimloo, who plays the Phantom, was ecstatic about performing in front of an audience at last. “We were so ready for that”, he grinned, “you can work through the scenes systematically, but there is nothing like getting the sense of pace you gain from audience reactions.” He added that “it was great to get a few laughs too”. With typical gallantry he referred to his leading lady’s performance (ignoring the fact that his rendition of ‘Til I Hear You Sing’ in the first act had also provoked a rapturous reception) “Did you hear the reaction Sierra got for her aria (Love Never Dies)? God, it was amazing, they couldn’t get enough…insatiable!”.

And indeed she did both look and sound fabulous. Sierra herself was unable to stop grinning widely… “Wow, I am in the West End!” reality was hitting clearly hitting home. I asked how she was feeling, having missed the first dress rehearsal on Saturday. “I feel great, it was so weird, it literally came from nowhere and just knocked me out, I suddenly developed a temperature of 103″, but clearly Sierra is right back on top form having been given a thorough check up from the doctor “he was stunned by how quickly I had recovered, the fever disappeared as quickly as it arrived, he had never seen anything like it!”

If you are lucky enough to be one of the first to see the new show, we will be adding a feature to this site very soon to enable you to post your own reviews and share them with the world!

From the LOVE NEVER DIES Blog at www.loveneverdies.com