The music is gorgeous, the plot ridiculous, and the show’s raison d’etre purely monetary, but for those curious to know what happened to the Phantom and Christine a decade after the chandelier fell in the Paris Opera House, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies provides answers this week and next at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts.

 The year is 1907, and though The Phantom Of The Opera was set way back in 1881, Ben Elton’s book (based on Fredrick Forsyth’s The Phantom Of Manhattan) informs us that a mere ten years have passed since the Phantom escaped Paris leaving only his mask behind him … but who’s doing the math?

 As to where Phantom (alternate Bronson Norris Murphy) has been all this time, one need only ask Madame and Meg Giry (Karen Mason and Mary Michael Patterson), the mother-daughter duo who smuggled the masked man of mystery out of Paris and across the Atlantic to Coney Island, USA, where he and Madame now run the vaudeville/freak show Phantasma where Meg reigns as the troupe’s undisputed star … but not for long.

 It turns out that Oscar Hammerstein (not that Oscar Hammerstein but the legendary American musical theater lyricist’s impresario grandfather) has invited the Phantom’s beloved Christine Daaé (Meghan Picerno) to sing at his Manhattan opera house, and before you know it, she, her husband Raoul (Sean Thompson), and the couple’s ten-year-old son Gustave (Jake Heston Miller) have arrived on American shores.

Talk about a recipe for disaster.

 Melodramatic potboiler Love Never Dies may be, but at the very least, it offers audiences the opportunity to hear some of the most exquisite melodies Lloyd Webber has written since “The Music Of The Night” first had Sir Andrew borrowing from Puccini, and when Murphy’s tenor soars in “‘Til I Hear You Sing” and Picerno’s soprano does the same in the title song, “Bravos” and “Bravas” are indeed in order. (Lyrics are by Glenn Slater with additional lyrics by Charles Hart.)

No other songs come close to matching these two, but the bouncy “Only For You” gives Meg and a bevy of chorus girls a chance to do some leggy footwork thanks to choreographer Graeme Murphy before “Bathing Beauty” throws in some muscled male swimmers to the titular beauts.

 Providing a certain measure of comic relief under Simon Phillips’s direction are freak show attractions Gangle, Fleck, and Squelch (the terrific trio of Stephen Petrovich, Katrina Kemp, and Richard Koons), dressed like something from an absinthe-fueled dream as costumed by Gabriela Tylesova, who also designed the production’s sideshow-mirror-distorted sets, alternately beautiful and bizarre, which pretty much describes Love Never Die’s music and plot, one whose final twist seems needlessly cruel to one of Phantom’s most beloved characters.

 Murphy and Picerno are as gloriously voiced as any Phantom and Christine before them, and speaking of glorious voices, I may never have heard a boy soprano as heavenly as Miller’s.

Chelsea Arce (assistant dance captain), Diana DiMarzio, Tyler Donahue, Yesy Garcia, Tamar Greene, Natalia Lepore Hagan, Lauren Lukacek, Alyssa McAnany, Rachel Anne Moore (Christine alternate), Dave Schoonover, John Swapshire IV, Kelly Swint, Lucas Thompson, and Arthur Wise are as multi-talented as Broadway ensembles get, and musical director Dale Rieling and the Love Never Dies orchestra insure expert symphonic backup.

Erin Chupinsky (dance captain), Alyssa Giannetti, Adam Soniak, and Correy West are swings.

 Production design kudos are also in order for Nick Schlieper’s spectacular lighting, Mick Potter’s crystal-clear sound mix, and Backstage Artistry’s wig and hair design. Edward Pierce is design supervisor. Orchestrations are by David Cullen and Lloyd Webber.

Gavin Mitford is associate director and Simone Sault associate choreographer. Daniel S. Rosokoff is production stage manager.

I didn’t hate Love Never Dies. I didn’t love it either. It seems unnecessary, at least to those like this reviewer who could see its predecessor once or twice and call it quits. But holy phantom do those voices soar.

Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scfta.org

–Steven Stanley
April 24, 2018
Photos: Joan Marcus

Tags: Orange County Theater Review, Segerstrom Center For The Arts, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber