Love Never Dies

Our two originating actors for Love Never Dies, Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess starred in the Phantom of The Opera 25th anniversary show at the Albert Hall this month.

The performances took place at the Royal Albert Hall London on October 1st and 2nd 2011 with Ramin Karimloo playing the Phantom and Sierra Boggess as Christine. The pair, who performed together in the Adelphi Theatre’s Phantom sequel Love Never Dies, performed one show on October 1st and a further two shows on October 2nd.

Karimloo and Boggess were joined on stage by Barry James as Monsieur Firmin, Liz Robertson as Madame Giry, Gareth Snook as Monsieur André and Wynne Evans as Piangi as well as special guests and a 200-person-strong supporting cast and orchestra.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh said:

“It is amazing to think that the extraordinary success of The Phantom of the Opera is about to celebrate 25 years. The success of the show has become the stuff of theatrical legend so Andrew and I felt we needed to create a really special performance to celebrate the 25th anniversary. One of the great strengths of The Phantom of the Opera is that being set in an opera house, its production is totally theatrical. So we felt that there could be no better 19th Century theatrical auditorium in London for this occasion than the Royal Albert Hall.”

Royal Albert Hall

Love Never Dies will be filmed and released on DVD at some date yet to be announced, Andrew Lloyd Webber told the New York Times. The US newspaper didn’t specify whether Lloyd Webber plans to film the Melbourne or London production of Love Never Dies, but it does seem that a New York arrival may not be imminent.

According to a report by Variety magazine, Cameron Mackintosh is launching a tour of The Phantom of the Opera in 2012, with the tour director for Les Miserables directing the production.

Mackintosh told Daily Variety the Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster will be produced in an all-new version. Directed by Laurence Connor, it will feature new sets and costumes by Paul Brown and lighting by three-time Olivier Award winner Paule Constable. Mackintosh said the production will open at a regional UK house.

The tour of Phantom is something that has been mooted in the West End for some time. It is the 25th Anniversary of Phantom in October this year with rumours of a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall. So a tour next year would make sense. Also Ramin Karimloo who has just extended his contract to play the Phantom in Love Never Dies has been tweeting that he has an exciting project lined up for next year

From the 5th March 2011, Love Never Dies gets a new Raoul in the form of David Thaxton taking over the role from Joseph Millsom.

David Thaxton

Sierra Boggess is also leaving the cast, to head for Broadway where the former Christine will star in Master Class with Tyne Daly.

The role of Christine in Love Never Dies will be taken over by the current Christine’s understudy, Celia Graham.

Other changes are that Celia Graham (who is currently Christine’s understudy) will take over the role from Sierra Boggess who is heading to Broadway to star in Master Class with Tyne Daly.

Ramin Karimloo stays on as The Phantom extending his contract for an undsiclosed period, but he’ll be one of the few Love Never Dies originators since Summer Strallen  is also leaving to go on a tour of Top Hat the Musical with Tom Chambers.

Haley Flaherty (Rocky Horror Show, Mamma Mia, Follies, Grease, Chicago, Saturday Night Fever) is taking over as the new Meg Giry.

After a great opening in London, an acclaimed first year and a partial redesign and rewrite, Love Never Dies takes its first step away from the Adelphi Theatre soon as the Australian production opens in Melbourne in June 2011.

Love Never Dies Australian Cast

Love Never Dies Australia Cast

The Australian Christine is to be played by a previous Christine from The Phantom Of The Opera. Anna O’Byrne has already played the part to great acclaim in an Australian tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Anna is an award-winning classically trained singer, and has performed as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and appeared in works by Mozart, Puccini and Ibert for The Victorian Opera, Victorian College of the Arts and Victorian Youth Opera.

The Phantom  in the new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is being played by Ben Lewis.

Ben’s previous stage credits include the original Australian cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical, Sir Galahad in the original Australian cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot, two-seasons as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Urinetown with Sydney Theatre Company and Polites in The Odyssey for Black Swan and the Malthouse.

Performances begin in Melbourne on May 29th 2011 at the Regent Theatre.

Ramin Karimloo (the Phantom) and Sierra Boggess (Christine) will be starring in a concert on Friday Night is Music Night broadcast on Friday 17th December on BBC Radio 2 from 8:00pm-10:00pm.

If you miss it on the night and you are a UK resident don;t worry because you will be able to log in to the BBC Radio “Listen again” service, the iPLayer – a link to the exact show will be provided here later.

Ramin and Sierra from Love Never Dies sing a selection of music about the masked men of stage and screen with a programme that includes songs from Robin Hood, William Tell, The Masked Ball, Batman and Spiderman.

Andrew Lloyd Webber gets to introduce the pieces from his own shows including The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies with Ramin and Sierra accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Simon Lee.

Love Never Dies is closing for four days in London from Monday 22nd to Thursday 25th November so that a number of changes can be made.  Performances will then resume again on Friday 26th November.

The reason for these drastic measures is to bring about what really amounts to a restaging of the show, with Bill Kenwright as the new Director and Bill Deamer the Choreographer instead of Jack O’Brien and Jerry Mitchell.

Love Never Dies in London  has also just extended its booking period by another two months at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End to 28th May 2011.

Love Never Dies heads for Australia in May 2011 premiering in Melbourne’s Regent Theatre.

We have some free tickets for Love Never Dies to give to you as a prize!

Are you free on Saturday night, 9th October? If so you can enter the competition here on the Love Never Dies blog and stand a very good chance of winning a pair of top price tickets for the Saturday Night performance at the Adelphi Theatre on London, with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess – I’ve seen it and it’s by far the best show in London for the present, with beautiful music, spectacle, and set design. You’ll love it whether you’ve already seen Phantom of The Opera or not, makes no difference.

The top price tickets to this hugely popular musical theatre show have been kindly provided by TheatreBreaks.com

To enter the competition all you have to do is leave a comment here on this blog, saying why you’d like to see Love Never Dies on Saturday. You can post it either on this competition post below, or anywhere else on the blog within the next 23 hours starting from now, Friday 8th October at midday.

At 11.00am on Saturday, tomorrow, the day of the show, the winner will be chosen, notified by email by Saturday afternoon and two Love Never Dies tickets will be arranged to be collected from the box office with the lucky winners’ names on them!

A stunning set of photographs from an early performance of Love Never Dies taken by Estefania y Arantxa Álvarez:

Love Never Dies London Extension

While waiting to see what’s happening with the planned transfer of Love Never Dies to Broadway, the show in London has announced an extension with booking now available for tickets until March 2011.

Love Never Dies had been announced for a Broadway opening this spring with London leads Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo transferring to the Neil Simon Theatre, currently showing a Beatles Tribute show. But US reports say the British musical’s arrival this season is now very unlikely, so perhaps this freed up the stars to extend the London production. Love Never Dies with a new set and production has been mooted for Australia and then Toronto, before Broadway now. It seemed that some of the key people working on the Broadway production have defected to another show entirely, such is the musical theatre business!

Neil Simon Theatre - not for Love Never Dies