The 2011 Royal Variety Show took places at the Lowry Theatre Salford Keys early December in the presence of HRH Princess Anne.

West End Stars performing included Adam Cooper and the cast of Singin’ in the Rain which had rave reviews at the Chichester Festival Thetre earlier this year and is due to open in London’s West End at the Palace Theatre in February.

Four West End leading men who did not appear in the ITV1 billing also made an appearance:  Ramin Karimloo who has just taken over the role of Jean Valjean from Alfie Boe in Les Miserables:John Owen-Jones who is currently the Phantom of the Opera and is shortly leaving the show to play the role on a national tour which starts next year: Simon Bowman who has played Jean Valjean and the Phantom and Earl Carpenter who has been playing the role of Khasoggi in We Will Rock You and is currently in  rehearsals to take over the role of Phantom from Owen-Jones and also play it in the latter half of the tour.

They were joined by Nicole Scherzinger who was spotted having dinner with Lord Lloyd Webber before the show.  She was introduced by the Lord as “performing alongside the cast of Phantom of the Opera”.  She is known to be a Phantom fan and has made a recording of “Love Never Dies”.  She said: “It was an honour to be in his company. To be asked to sing Phantom Of The Opera is amazing. I’m so excited to be performing again.”

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

Ramin extended his contract for six months until 3rd September 2011, but he has a new reduced new performance schedule playing the role of Phantom in Love Never Dies London for six shows a week,  probably with Mondays and Thursdays off.

Ramin also mentioned a record deal and some show dates for his group the Sheytoons.  If you’re lucky enough to have seen them perform you’ll know they are great songwriters.

The show is a casting competition for another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Wizard of Oz which opens in London in April 2011 with a Leading Lady – the part of Dorothy, chosen by the public. Sierra Boggess helped out with the final four contestants during the week giving them advice on singing, stamina, and the West End Leading Lady lifestyle which the lucky winner might expect.

So what will the critics and press reviews make of it? Well in many ways, it doesn’t really matter because, having seen one of the early previews and loved it all, especially the score, I’m certain that the great British musical theatre going public is going to really enjoy this musical extravaganza. It’s a modern production that builds on the language of musicals and delights the eye and ear, while twisting the emotions appropriately as the plot unfolds. There were one or two effects that didn’t work quite as well as others, but from all accounts the show had already improved considerably on the first preview, and it’s now a case of tweaking a show that is ready for the world rather than implementing any big last minute redesigns.

Maybe if you go and see Love Never Dies in three months time, for a summer theatre break, it will be a more mature production, perhaps with a new final ensemble or something to smooth over any slight disappointments, but the characters are set and most importantly, the music is a final piece that holds together very well. I’ll be throroughly recommending Love Never Dies as a new musical top choice choice for London theatre breaks.

So what did you think?

I was struck by the performance style of Sierra Boggess being reminiscent of the Sarah Brightman who was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s inspiration for the original Phantom of The Opera. The flourishing crescendo of that operetta style is a bit much for my taste just for a few moments but I did recognise a great show tune in there which will have a strong emotional appeal when seen live at the theatre in just a few weeks tine when Love Never Dies opens in London. I did actually start humming the tune the next day after only having heard it once.

According to an interview published in the Telegraph last month, Ramin Karimloo star of The Phantom of The Opera and Love Never Dies said he believed the Phantom showed clear signs of the condition known as Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism. Sufferers often have difficulties with communication and social relationships.

According to Ramin Karimloo, who joined the London production of Phantom of The Opera two years ago, the autistic spectrum and asperger’s in particular could explain the Phantom’s eccentric traits, his musical genius and his difficulty with social interactions which led him to hide away beneath the Paris Opera House for all those years.

It’s an interesting theory, which could also help to bring better public understanding of the increasing common condition of autistic spectrum symptoms but it seems to me that Ramin Karimloo is completely ignoring the effect of the Phantom’s facial disfigurement and hence the mask in the story which is set two centuries ago. But never mind,

“I saw a documentary on Asperger’s syndrome and it made a lot of sense to me,”

said Karimloo.

Ramin Karimloo was born in Iran and has been central to the launch of Love Never Dies, the long awaited Phantom story continuation which Andrew Lloyd Webber says “is not a sequel”

Love Never Dies with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess opens in London in March 2010 at the Adelphi Theatre, and then later around the world.