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The Founder | Wednesday 23 February 2011
E X T R A
13
Arts
Review: (the revamped) Love Never Dies
Vikki Vile
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom
sequel, Love Never Dies was cruelly
dubbed ‘Paint Never Dries’ by fans
of the original when the show
opened in March of last year. Just
months later, the press reported
that tickets were selling for as little
as £3 and the show was heading
for disaster. No surprise then that
the good Lord saw the need for a
re-think, controversially closing the
show for a few days over the Christmas
period for readjustments.
Noting the teething problems, I
approached my visit to the Adelphi
with mixed feelings, concerned
that this allegedly underwhelming
follow-up would sent me running
back to Her Majesty’s Theatre
where the original is still packing
in the tourists. That said, I believed
that Lloyd Webber was not foolish
enough to put on a sequel to a renowned
original if it was not up to
scratch. The rearranged show now
begins with one of the big songs:
‘Til I Hear You Sing. There is no
lead-up, just bam, there it is before
you’ve even had time to get comfortable.
I found this confusing, it
was like going to see The Sound of
Music and starting with the Nazis,
but despite this, I believe it worked.
Many have asked whether Love
Never Dies is an accessible watch to
a Phantom virgin and the answer
is unquestionably yes, though the
content of the sequel will mean less.
The plot is touching, rather than
taxing. We meet Christine and Raul
ten years on, now with a son named
Gustav. The family are captured on
arrival in New York by the Phantasma
Freaks (go with it) and are
taken to Coney Island, a down-atheel
land of sleaze and mystery. The
Phantom reappears to haunt Christine
and demands she sing for him
one last time, whilst Raul insists he
will leave Christine if she does. In
addition, there is the added intrigue
of the subplot involving Meg Giry,
now a washed-up dancer for the
Phantasma troupe, and her mother,
still bitter that the Phantom fails to
notice Meg’s talent. Reading that
back, it is easy to see where all the
criticism has come from with such
a thin-sounding plot. However, I
would argue that the music saves
the show; unquestionably Lloyd
Webber’s greatest achievement
since the Phantom of 1986.
The set is a feast for the eyes with
big projections, acrobatics and impressive
costumes creating a sense
of life at Coney. The moments between
Christine and Gustav in the
first act are endearing; Look With
Your Heart is a heart-warming
number; and she and the Phantom
share some thrilling romantic arias.
In a peculiar role reversal, Love
Never Dies encourages us to side
with the Phantom as we see Raul’s
character take on a new darkness
in his dejected, drunken state.
Never have I seen so much tension
injected into a title song as in this
show’s climax, but Sierra Boggess’
talent makes it worth the wait.
I loved it, there’s no denying. It
is obvious that Love Never Dies is
a show that has had a lot of money
thrown at it, but I believe that after
a nervy start, this is a wonderful
and genuinely spooky show that
can run the course. It is a show with
heart, intent and meaning, and after
all, if the insipid tackiness of shows
such as Dirty Dancing can still pack
in the punters, why can’t this?
Student Workshop
Review:
Pool (no water)
by Mark Ravenhill
Knowing nothing of the play, I
entered Sasha Haughn’s production
of Mark Ravenhill’s Pool (no water)
with a completely empty slate of
expectations. Unfortunately, when I
left I still held an empty feeling.
The stage was bare; a tiled floor
and three white flats were the only
Tim Berendse
set. The audience (well, about ten
of them) was seated around the
tiled floor, with the actors sitting
in between them. The rest of the
audience, including myself, were
placed in raked seating behind the
three-sided audience/performance
area. From the offset this made
me, as an audience member, feel
very detached. The small amount
of audience members seated in
between the actors were addressed
throughout the performance, but
the majority of the audience were
excluded from any interaction and
forced to simply watch, almost
voyeuristically, as a story was told
to other audience members; a confusing
situation to find oneself in.
Perhaps this was intentional, but it
didn’t work. I did not feel engaged
in the performance at all, and as a
result was not shocked when the
actors used crass language or took
their clothes off.
I have never been a big fan of
plays that try to tell an audience a
story without interaction between
characters. I don’t think it works,
and I feel it never will. The whole
play sounded like one long monologue
split and given to different
characters. I was thankful when the
actors finally started moving after
ten minutes of telling a story to the
audience members next to them.
Again, the majority of the audience
in the raked seating was excluded
from these seemingly private
conversations and as a result, it was
extremely difficult to understand
what was happening.
Even the actors seemed confused
as to who they were meant to be
saying their lines to. Some said
them to each other, some said their
lines to the audience seated around
them, and others seemed to say
their lines to themselves. When one
of the actors eventually took on the
role of protagonist, there was a brief
sense of hope that there would be
some character interaction, but to
no avail.
I can imagine that the play could
be performed more interestingly,
perhaps using physical theatre to
add some relief to the dry speech,
but the actors, who seemed more
like narrators, were unfortunately
left to perform their insular lines in
an unengaging and detached way.
I think what let this performance
down was the lack of movement
and interaction between the characters,
whose acting was at no fault
at all. What was most important, I
feel, was the lack of consideration
for the audience, who may have
seen a great play if they were sat
in amongst the actors. However,
the largest part of the audience
was excluded, something that was
highlighted perfectly in the climax
of the play, where one of the actors
delivered a highly emotive speech,
but with her back to the majority of
the audience, hiding any expression
or emotion from view, summing up
the entirety of the play.
tf Arts
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