Lloyd Webber Says LOVE NEVER DIES Might 'Be The Last Big, Full-Scale Piece I Write Myself'

With previews for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical 'Love Never Dies' mere days away, the anticipation surrounding this new production is rising - and so, it can be argued, is the expectation amongst theatre audiences and critics.

The show's director Jack O'Brien is well aware of the scrutiny the musical is bound to face from patrons and critics alike, especially those keen to compare this production to its predecessor. There are also those Phantom-enthusiasts seeking out to fill in certain story gaps that the first production may have left behind. Thus, a solid story line for 'Love Never Dies' was key from the onset, the Daily Mail says in a story dated February 12. "That's why the key creatives of Lloyd Webber, O'Brien and lyricist Glenn Slater insisted on getting the story right for Love Never Dies. O'Brien said it amounted to putting the main characters on a psychiatrist's couch. He needed to understand the DNA of the former piece. 'Why is the Phantom so abhorrent?"

For his part, Lloyd Webber has lived with this musical creation for years. "I really do think I've put as much as I possibly could into it,' Lloyd Webber says in the Daily Mail. 'It's three years of thinking through every bar.

'Heaven knows, what with everything that has gone on lately for me (a nod to his cancer) this could be the last big, full-scale piece I write myself. I therefore feel that everybody is trying to make it the best possible work that we all feel that we've done.

'I suppose the characters of the Phantom and Christine have become entrenched in my life and I never intended it that way.'"

To read the rest of the story in the Daily Mail, click here. 

The World Premiere of "LOVE NEVER DIES" will take place in London on 9 March 2010 at the Adelphi Theatre. Previews begin on 22 February. The show will subsequently open in New York on 11 November 2010 and then in Australia in 2011.

March 2010 sees the Polydor/Universal release of the album of "LOVE NEVER DIES", the long awaited follow up to "The Phantom Of The Opera" (the eighth best-selling album of ALL TIME, unprecedented for a musical theatre album). The album release will coincide with the opening of the show in London's West End and will be available in both deluxe and standard versions.

Performances in London at the Adelphi Theatre will be Mondays - Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets, priced from £25.00 - £67.50 (to include 75p theatre restoration levy and inclusive of booking fees), are available from the Adelphi Theatre Box Office on 0844 412 4651 or online from www.loveneverdies.com.

 

 

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