Dr. Blackwell's BLOG

Saturday, June 18, 2011

West End’s Love Never Dies Closing; Australian Production Gaining Momentum

Filed under: Performing Arts — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 00:45

lens7605802_1268331803love_never_dies.jpg Playbill is reporting today that Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera is closing on the West End. The tumultuous West End production opened to mixed critical reception. Webber also intervened with the show and rearranged key elements of the original staging by replacing the director and creative team for the West End’s Love Never Dies.  According to the article:

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, his continuation of The Phantom of the Opera story, will shutter at the West End’s Adelphi Theatre Aug. 27. It was previously booking through January 2012. No press statement has been issued, but the troubled musical, which originally opened in March 2010, had previously been revamped last December, after a brief hiatus for production changes to be implemented. Original director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell have long departed the project.  

While this staging of this show is closing, the Australian  mounting of the production is garnering terrific reviews. Webber himself is delighted in the Australian version of the show and has been quoted as saying this is the version he wants to bring to Broadway sometime this year or next. As Playbill explains:In May, an entirely different production was launched in Melbourne, Australia. At the time, Lloyd Webber told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, “I would like this show to go everywhere because I think it’s just the best. This is the show that should go to Broadway without any question.”Webber is currently securing the financial backing the show needs to run on the Great White Way. The production closing on the West End had an opening budget of $9 million.

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