Love Never Dies

The sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber's sensationally popular The Phantom of the Opera. It takes place on Coney Island, approximately ten years after the end of Phantom. Madame Giry and her daughter, Meg, helped the Phantom to escape to America after the events of the first show, and from there made it possible for him to open up a lavish amusement park on Coney Island. Then, without telling either of the Girys, he lures Christine -- now married to Raoul -- to come sing at his park. Craziness ensues. Music was done by Andrew Lloyd Webber, while the book was written by him, as well as Ben Elton, and Glenn Slater.

The show ran from 2010-11 in the West End; an Australian production with a revised book, some changes to the music order and lyrics, and new staging opened in Melbourne in 2011 and moved to Sydney in 2012. A Broadway production was planned but postponed; however, the Australian staging was filmed and released on DVD in 2012.

Compare and contrast with The Phantom of Manhattan, a novel based on Lloyd Webber's initial plans for a sequel in The Nineties.

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Tropes used in Love Never Dies include:

• Adaptational Villainy: Meg, who was Christine's friend in the original musical, shoots and kills her out of jealousy. Raoul suffers this, too; although not really a villain, he became The Alcoholic and picked up a gambling problem that makes him a less-than-ideal husband to Christine, while neither trait was present in the original book or play.
  • In the revised production, Meg tries to commit suicide, and Christine is accidentally shot as the Phantom tries to wrest the gun away.
• The Alcoholic: Raoul.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: The Phantom once was, of course, a psychopathic murderer, yet Christine is still attracted to him.
  • Meg Giry counts as well, her love for him the result of being brought up by Madame Giry to serve him, and the poor girl trying to find a sense of validation for the time she spent as a prostitute to help him. Too bad he doesn't know any of that...
• Amusement Park of Doom: The pre-Retool prologue was set a few years after the play's main action, with Phantasma a mostly-abandoned ruin inhabited only by its freaks.
• The Bet: The Phantom bets Raoul that Christine will stay and sing that night. Raoul loses.
• Big Applesauce
• Big No: Gustave, as Christine dies.
• Bittersweet Ending: Meg kills Christine. However, she dies in the Phantom's arms and reveals to Gustave that he's his real father and to accept and love him -- and the boy does.
• Broken Bird: With all the time and effort she's spent on the Phantom, and pining for (and being ignored by) him, it's Meg Giry who seems to be the most pitiable character in the show, oddly enough supplanting his role in the last show.
• Canon Discontinuity: One has to wonder if Lloyd Webber completely forgot about the prologue to Phantom when writing this sequel. Either that, or Raoul is simply stalking dead Christine when purchasing the music box. Though, while not explicitly mentioned in the stage version, the female bidder is intended to be Mme. Giry, and Love Never Dies would explain why she and Raoul have no personal interaction.
• Cheerful Child: Gustave is sweet, loving, and excited and curious about the world of Coney Island; the only real concern he has is that his father doesn't care much about him or his mother.
• Costume Porn: As per its predecessor.
• Crowd Song: "Heaven by the Sea", before it was dropped; its purpose and status as a crowd song is filled in the Australian production by "The Coney Island Waltz" via incorporating the lyrics from the show's original prologue. Some of its music appears in "Only for You" as well.
• Cryptic Background Reference: In the original London prologue (and the cast album), Fleck explains Phantasma's ruined state as the result of "the fire that destroyed everything". The audience never learns what caused the fire.
• Cut Song: The original prologue (later incorporated into "The Coney Island Waltz" in Australia), "That's the Place You Ruined, You Fool!" and "Heaven by the Sea".
• Dark Reprise: As with the original, positive melodies later reappear in darker forms, most obviously and extremely "Bathing Beauty" in the final scene.
• Derailing Love Interests: Raoul, so that the possibility of Christine and the Phantom getting together can be raised again.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Poor Christine, right in the arms of the Phantom after Meg fatally shoots her.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Raoul does this at the start of Act Two at a Coney Island bar, wondering in song "Why Does She [Christine] Love Me?"
• The Edwardian Era
• The Eleven O'Clock Number: The title song.
• Everyone Looks Sexier If French: Meg Giry's stage career in America seems to benefit from this trope; she is billed as "The Ooh-La-La Girl" at Phantasma.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: In the London production, Christine's gown for the concert.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: The Phantom gives Christine a dazzling necklace as part of "Before the Performance".
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: For Meg and her fellow Phantasma dancers.
• Freaky Is Cool: Gustave thinks so, as established in the songs "Beautiful" and "The Beauty Underneath".
• Glorified Sperm Donor: The Phantom. Despite his running out on Christine immediately after conceiving Gustave, staying away for ten years, and showing no evidence that he could ever make a decent parent, we're supposed to be happy when he ends up with the kid. At least he's not an alcoholic...
• Gorgeous Period Dress: Most of the characters are either members of the upper crust or performers at a lavish amusement park, so this is a given.
• Incest Subtext: As described on the YMMV page.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It's Raoul who makes this decision.
• "I Want" Song: "Till I Hear You Sing".
• Last Kiss: It is shared between the dying Christine and the Phantom.
• Little People Are Surreal: Fleck is a little person in the Australian production. (In the London version, she's a aerialist of average stature but "half-bird, half-woman".)
• Love Makes You Crazy/Love Makes You Evil: Meg Giry. "I gave what they would take. I gave it for your sake!"
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Phantom is Gustave's real father.
• Meaningful Name: Originally, Christine and company came to the U.S. on the ship Persephone; this was subsequently changed, but the detail turns up on the soundtrack album. And why didn't she and Raoul suspect anything was amiss when she was asked to perform at a park called Phantasma? (The Australian version changes this plot point -- she comes to the U.S. because she's been hired by Oscar Hammerstein, but the Phantom does some arm twisting to convince her to sing for him instead.)
• Melodrama: As per its predecessor, the characters get themselves into a lather over every little thing. Gustave desperately pleads with his father to look at a music box, and the Phantom entering Christine's room is scored with music that would be more appropriate for a tragic ending to a show than the halfway point of Act One.
• Money, Dear Boy: Christine is performing at Phantasma solely to earn money to pay off Raoul's gambling debts.
• Monster Clown: Subverted in the Australian version with Gangle and the other clowns -- they and their fellow Phantasma performers are working for the Phantom and come off as strange and menacing in the way they beckon visitors to their stomping grounds, but are not actually bad people.
• Nice Hat: Christine has two of these, as per upper-class fashion of the time period.
• Ominous Music Box Tune: The music box the three freaks give Gustave upon arrival plays the opening strains of "The Point of No Return", alterting Christine to the danger she and her family are walking into. (In the London version, it only played a cheerful march at first, but then "Point of No Return" just before the Phantom enters Christine's room.)
• Opening Ballet: After the prologue comes "The Coney Island Waltz" in the London version.
• Papa Wolf: After Christine sings the title song and returns to the dressing room, she discovers Gustave is missing. Needless to say, his father is livid. He is ready to use every bit of his influence to stop Raoul de Chagny from leaving Coney Island and to manhandling and/or murdering the Girys to get back his son.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Christine has one for her Coney Island concert.
• Power Trio: Fleck, Squelch, and Gangle, a trio of "freaks" who serve as the Phantom's lackeys.
  • Big, Thin, Short Trio: In the Australian version, Squelch is big (he's a strongman), Gangle is thin (he's a barker), and Fleck is short (she's a little person).
• Rage Against the Reflection: Before kidnapping Gustave, Meg Giry destroys a dressing room mirror.
• Reclusive Artist: The Phantom became this over the ten years separating the two shows -- everyone in New York City knows about the amazing "Mr. Y", but very, very few see him.
• The Reveal: The show pivots on three big reveals: one, the Phantom and Christine had a one-night stand, two, he's Gustave's father, and three, the Phantom's dreams could never have been realized if Meg hadn't been forced into prostitution.
• Sanity Slippage: At the end, Meg undergoes this.
• Scenery Porn: The London version indulges in video effects for this (particularly for scene transitions), but the Australian version is no less lavish.
• Sequel Escalation: In a fairly clever Call Back to the original, which had The Chandelier Of Doom And Exposition reassemble itself and rise above the audience during the overture, LND has Coney Island itself go from decrepit wreck to dazzling midway while the chorus sings about its heyday.
• The Song Before the Storm: The reprise of "Devil Take the Hindmost".
• Stage Mom: Madame Giry for Meg.
• Stripperific: Meg's costumes.
• Tenor Boy: Raoul, though he's not much of a boy anymore...
• Title Drop: Christine does this several times, and not just in the title song.
• True Beauty Is on the Inside: The show's most harped-upon message, down to the song titles "Look With Your Heart" and "The Beauty Underneath".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: So what happens to Meg? We spend all this time watching her heartbreaking descent into madness, she kills Christine, and....no closure on her character?
• White Dwarf Starlet: Meg Giry seems to be an uncharacteristically young example of this trope; back in Paris she had a "promising" ballet career ahead of her -- the stage musical even presents her as the lead of the corps de ballet -- and now she's a burlesque stripper.
• Woman in Black: Madame Giry.
• Would Hurt a Child: Meg Giry tries to kill Gustave in the climax.
  • In the revised version, Christine refuses to sing for the Phantom until he threatens to take Gustave from her. He ends up having a Villainous Breakdown at the end of the first act when he realizes Gustave is his child.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Madame Giry claims as much.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: The sequel, set in 1907, is supposed to take place ten years after the original. Whether you go by the stage version (set in 1881) or the movie (1870), this doesn't add up. The opening text on the filmed version of the Australian staging says the original's events took place in 1895!
• Your Cheating Heart: Christine slept with the Phantom the night before her and Raoul's wedding...and based on that alone can conclude Gustave is the Phantom's son. While possible suspicions of infidelity would explain Raoul's change in character, this is never suggested; when the Phantom raises the question that Gustave isn't his, Raoul's genuine surprise implies he's had no reason to be suspicious of Christine.