IN New York

Have you seen the Marquis Theatre’s new marquee on W. 46th Street? Can’t miss it: big red neon letters spelling out—what else but?—MARQUIS THEATRE. Not exactly subtle. But at least you can’t miss the new box office location. Lots of new street-level posters for current tenant Come Fly Away, too. What do you think?

The postponement of the New York opening of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, the maestro’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, was announced today (April 6, 2010). The show is now expected to bow at the Neil Simon Theatre in Spring 2011 rather than Nov. 11, 2010. There have been complications following Lloyd Webber’s prostate cancer operation, and his doctors advise against long flights. The composer was to have traveled this summer to New York for auditions and rehearsals, but for the time being he will confine himself to projects closer to home in England.

Perhaps you spent your weekend, as I did, curled up in the kitchen with a cauldron of thick pea soup or on a long, drive in a downpour, listening to Decca Broadway’s new CD Love Never Dies and wishing you were in London for the opening last week of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. Well, we’ve had our plastic sneak peek (Love’s Broadway opening is Nov. 11); cue the ballyhoo: What’s the verdict?


Like everything Lloyd Webber, the album’s a mixed bag, at least on a first listening. There are tunes that won’t let go once they’ve wormed their way into your consciousness. The Phantom’s first-act aria, “‘Til I Hear You Sing,” is one such. Some melodies reach for high art (”The Coney Island Waltz” is pretty, but dramatically a rung or two or five below Richard Rodgers’ “Carousel Waltz”); others get down and dirty (a bump-and-grind “Bathing Beauty” that is catchy but a pale “Let Me Entertain You”). There is endless exposition, but also snippets from Phantom artfully woven in. Several times, the composer flirts with rock, and you can hear the ominous notes of the synthesizer tuning up before he pulls back. There’s only one out-and-out rock song, “The Beauty Beneath,” and it’s a shocker, not just stylistically, but thematically. The Phantom (renamed Mr. Y since relocating to Coney Island, NY) discovers his son’s (yes: You have every reason to ask) fondness for music. It’s as if the father in finding a kindred spirit takes the chip off the old block to an opium den to celebrate. Guitar chords crash. “Do you feed on the need for the beauty underneath?” father asks son. Is music a “hunger that you can’t repress?” What’s a kid to say? “Yeeeesssss.” Call out Child Services. Has the Phantom been masquerading as Gene Simmons all along? As to the “big” number, the number Mr. Y’s been waiting 10 years to hear Christine sing, it’s a bit of a letdown. Ten years for this pretty bauble? Get a life, dude.


Having said my beef, the orchestrations (by his lordship and David Cullen) are lush and creamy and, frankly, gorgeous. Like the Phantom himself who’s down in the depths in The Phantom of the Opera and up in the air in his Coney Island eerie in Love Never Dies, the new score plumbs the depths and ascends the heavens. You may want to turn down the volume, but you won’t want to turnoff the machine. There’s plenty to come away humming.


But what about the lyrics? They’re usually the last thing you remember in a Lloyd Webber score. And Love Never Dies is no exception. Glenn Slater penned the rhymes here. “Hurry, please, before I freeze” is one of my favorites. Lloyd Webber’s tragedy may be that, with the exception of Tim Rice and T.S. Eliot, he’s never found a wordsmith who’s also a soulmate. Where’s his Oscar Hammerstein? Where indeed.


Word is the show will be revamped between London and New York, between now and November. Miracles do happen, and there’s always a doctor in the house. Especially on Broadway. In the meantime, give a listen. And let me know what you think.


Next on my agenda is All About Me. Can’t wait.