Katrina Kemp

It's no secret that entertainment culture has an obsession with sequels and beyond. Movie trilogies become sagas and soon enough Jude Law is playing young Albus Dumbledore. This desire to expand the story; to pick up where you left off is prevalent even on the stage, although perhaps not as regularly. In Andrew Llyod Webber's Love Never Dies, the story isn't over just yet for Christine Daae, The Phantom, and many other important players from it's predecessor, The Phantom of the Opera. 

Your knees won't buckle when you enter Belk Theater to see LOVE NEVER DIES, Anthony Lloyd Webber's long-awaited sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. There's no gleaming chandelier looming ominously over ticketholders in the front rows, nor will you see any nooks or gargoyles spanning the stage proscenium. Until the curtain rose, about the only aspect of the new Lloyd Webber melodrama that reminded me of its predecessor on opening night was the size of the crowd who had come to see it. A near sellout - not too shabby for a musical that has never played on Broadway.

As Memphis theatergoers pile into the Orpheum to kick off a record-breaking 2018-2019 season for ticket sales at the much beloved venue, they are confronted with a familiar, albeit masked face. Indeed, while Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera continues its remarkable 30-year run as Broadway's most enduring production, its sequel, Love Never Dies, has opened in the bluff city. Like all other sequels, Love Never Dies faces the initial challenge of justifying its mere existence. That challenge is further amplified when the first installment is, like The Phantom of the Opera, so woven into the fabric of our cultural iconography. Grumbling devotees of the original Phantom will no doubt ask why the story necessitates a sequel at all, let alone one in which the Phantom is transplanted from the Paris Opera House to (gasp) the underbelly of New York's Coney Island. To those skeptics in the audience (of which this reviewer was one), rest assured that Troika Entertainment's magically beautiful production of Love Never Dies, with direction by Simon Phillips, answers that question rather quickly. Why does The Phantom of the Opera require a sequel? Well, why not? That is particularly the case when the sequel is such an eye catching showcase for its talented cast of performers.

Casting has been announced for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, for the premiere St. Louis engagement at The Fabulous Fox Theatre.

All new photos have been released from the North American production of Love Never Dies, starring Bronson Norris Murphy as the Phantom and Meghan Picerno as Christine Daae.

We cannot help but wonder: Do peacock feathers foretell of something far more sinister and portentous than what we've seen already in both Love Never Dies and The Phantom of the Opera await our heroine in the moments to follow? We won't spoil the outcome for you, of course, but suffice it to say that those pesky peacock feathers continue to work their devilment in the intriguing production now onstage at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center through Sunday, June 24.

Complete 2018-2019 schedule has been announced for the North American tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. The tour launched in Fall 2018, and continues this week in Nashville, TN at TPAC June 19-24, followed by the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, MN next week, June 26-July 1. A complete touring schedule is below.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, continues its North American tour (currently at South Carolina's Peace Center), and BroadwayWorld has just learned that Bronson Norris Murphy as officially taken over the role of The Phantom.

There are many, very obvious spectacular things that stand out while watching LOVE NEVER DIES, Andrew Lloyd Webber's infamously, uh, troubled 2010 musical follow-up to his long-running global hit THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, now continuing its two-week engagement at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 5, 2018. While, sure, the show is stunning in its visual artistry and musical performances, the rest is repetitively frustrating. Unless you're a huge PHANTOM fan already or are perhaps maybe morbidly curious as to what the fuss is all about---LOVE NEVER DIES, sadly, doesn't offer much else to audiences beyond its superficial surface beauty.

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature LOVE NEVER DIES, FINDING NEVERLAND, FUN HOME, and More!

Let's make one thing perfectly clear from the start. If you are expecting a sequel to Phantom of the Opera in Love Never Dies, you may be let down. This new show that is making its American premiere in the tour across North America, after a dismal opening in London in 2010, has been rewritten and reworked many times over, and is based on Frederick Forsyth's The Phantom of Manhattan, not on Gaston Leroux's Le Phantome de l'Opera upon which the first Phantom was based. Even Lloyd Webber stated emphatically that it is not a sequel, but a different story with the same characters. If you open your imagination and find it in your heart to believe that the Phantom and Christine consummated their love for one another by having sex and producing a son, you will enjoy much of the show. If not, and you want this production to follow the original from 1986, it will most likely not suit you.

Last night, the stars were in alignment as multi-platinum recording artist Nicole Scherzinger attended the opening night of Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera; April 5 - 22, 2018.

Hennepin Theatre Trust announced Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, makes its Minneapolis premiere as part of the 2017-2018 Bank of America Broadway on Hennepin season June 26-July 1, 2018 at the historic Orpheum Theatre (910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis).

LOVE NEVER DIES is an unnecessary sequel to the megahit PHANTOM that wisely skips Broadway and hits the national tour road for ALW fans. The ladies of this evening rule even though the guys are (supposed to be) in charge of the action in this passable evening of musical theatre.

Direct from the highly successful production of Love Never Dies in Hamburg, Germany, Gardar Thor Cortes will portray the man behind the mask, 'The Phantom,' with Meghan Picerno as 'Christine Daae,' Karen Mason as 'Madame Giry,' Sean Thompson as 'Raoul,' Mary Michael Patterson as 'Meg Giry,' and Casey Lyons and Jake Heston Miller sharing the role of 'Gustave.' The trio of Phantom's henchmen include Katrina Kemp as 'Fleck,' Richard Koons as 'Squelch,' Stephen Petrovich as 'Gangle,' Gardar Thor Cortes is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association.  The Producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance of this production.

On Monday night the Broadway knockouts and opera songbirds of Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES! touring company benefited the great efforts of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the company will be performed everything from classic rock to classic Broadway to the great tunes of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber himself.

Dark, brooding and weird, the show collapses under the weight of plausibility.

Broadway In Chicago and Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES are delighted to announce that individual tickets for LOVE NEVER DIES, the spellbinding sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, will go on sale Friday, December 8, 2017.

The North American tour of LOVE NEVER DIES brings the musical to the United States for the first time since its 2010 London premiere, and is playing at the Boston Opera House through February 11th as part of the 2017-2018 Lexus Broadway in Boston Season.