the phantom of the opera songs insolent boy

So, where we’ve left off with Phantom is that the Phantom captured Christine, took her down into his “dungeon of my black despair” and essentially blackmailed her to love him and stay with him or he’d kill Raul who comes to try and save her. I’m typically one to give away a lot of spoilers – especially when I’m critiquing shows and films – but this is one production I want people to actually give a go, so I won’t reveal as much as I usually would, though a lot of it is relatively predictable following the events of its prequel. I now actually prefer Love Never Dies to Phantom of the Opera – I know, controversial, indeed. It is a spectacle – a sensational reimagining of what the show should have been from the start. The Australian production of Love Never Dies directed by Brett Sullivan and Simon Phillips is the only version worth watching. I waited patiently and my prayers were answered.

Yet this one damn song just kept dragging me back to the promise of a better musical than what had been produced back in 2010. The set was a mess, they’d not harnessed the same gothic feel as Phantom did, and the songs, while brilliant, weren’t quite audience-ready. So I watched the trailer for Love Never Dies in London, and by God did it suck. It’s as haunting as he is, and just as much of a masterpiece. It’s heartfelt and agonising and truly captures the Phantom’s pain at being separated from the woman he loves. It is, without a doubt, one of the most well-written, enrapturing pieces of music I have ever had the pleasure to be introduced to. The very first time I listened to Ramin Karimloo sing ‘Til I Hear You Sing’, I was won. It’s fair to say, like my fellow avid theatregoers, I was in denial at how such an abomination should be granted existence. Why ruin such a beautiful thing by tarnishing it with a sequel? They were going to expand a story that had been given a very definitive ending, and was already loved in its entirety by a vast percentage of the population. When Lloyd Webber and Co announced that they would be bringing out a sequel to one of the most acclaimed musicals of all time I shared the opinion of many – “are they insane?” Since 2012, to be exact, when I was first given my copy of Australia’s production of the Phantom of the Opera sequel.

This is one I’ve been sitting on for a really long time.

The phantom of the opera songs insolent boy