Gerard Butler Presents Love Never Dies Reviews: In Pictures
LOVE Never Dies is the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber The Phantom Of The Opera. the name is drippy, the kind of sentiment printed inside a 70th birthday card decorated in watercolour flowers. It’s already got a nickname: Paint Never Dries. Gerard Butler went to see it. Which was nice.
The critics also went to see it. That’s them in the aisle seats leaving before the curtain call. That’s them with their carrier bags and little pens and little hands and little feet. We’ve got pictures from the first night at the end of this post.
The verdicts:
This production keeps such a straight face, it’s as if the slightest smile might crack it. It never acknowledges that in a musical in which no one could exactly be described as animated, it might be a mistake to introduce your leading lady in the form of an automaton in her image. Or that it’s probably not a good idea to have your hero, in his first solo, sing “the moments creep, but I can’t bear to sleep” to a melody that moves like a sloth in quicksand.
Charles Spencer – Telegraph: 4 Stars
“What I have no doubt about whatever is that this is Lloyd Webber’s finest show since the original Phantom, with a score blessed with superbly haunting melodies and a yearning romanticism that sent shivers racing down my spine.”
Michael Billington – The guaridan: 3 Stars
The problems lie within the book, chiefly credited to Lloyd Webber himself and Ben Elton, which lacks the weight to support the imaginative superstructure.”
Benedict Nightingale – The Times: 2 Stars
“But then this Phantom is not the phantom we knew. The “poisoned gargoyle who burns in hell” has clearly taken an anger management course in New York… Where’s the menace, the horror, the psychological darkness? For that I recommend a trip to Her Majesty’s, not the Adelphi Theatre.”
Warwick Thompson – Bloomberg: 3 Stars
“Some snippety wag has already named the show “Paint Never Dries.” It’s true that unless you can bring a sense of amusement to the bizarre mechanics of the plot, you’ll be nonplussed. If you can, there’s plenty to enjoy.”
Paul Taylor – Independent: 5 Stars
“This mix of the heart-stopping and the stomach-lurching (a true kinaesthetic experience) characterises some of the best sequences in Love Never Dies.”
Anorak awards it these stars darling:
8492072
Posted: 10th, March 2010 | In: Celebrities Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
