• Love Never Dies (Tokyo)

1/17/25 (Fri), Tokyo

This show, a sequel of sorts to Phantom of the Opera, flopped big time in London and again in a significantly rewritten version in Australia; it never made it to New York. The revised show has had more success in Tokyo, where it has played on several occasions since 2015. The theater in this opening-night performance appeared nearly full. The lead roles are all double- or triple-cast. For the opening, veterans Ichimura Masachiku (now well in his 70s) and Hirahata Ayaka are back as the Phantom and Christine. Interestingly the show is not being produced by Gekidan Shiki, which has made the Japanese Phantom an immense success for the past three decades, but by the smaller Horipro.

The setting is said to be ten years after the original musical (though there’s some confusion in the timeframe). The Phantom, who was left for dead in the original, has somehow survived with the help of Madame Giry and Meg and has moved from the Paris Opera to Coney Island – a good metaphor for the musical’s own journey. He has become an impresario of a major entertainment complex, where Meg is the star. Christine shows up with her now-husband Raoul and their child, having been lured from Paris for her US debut by an anonymous offer. She is shocked to learn that the offer was by the Phantom, who is still besotted with her after all these years. It seems that they were once in love – something I don’t remember from the original – and that her child’s father is not the dashing Raoul, as everyone (including him) has been led to believe, but the Phantom. Christine resists her ex-lover’s pleas to perform his music but gives in when he threatens the child. After numerous complications (e.g., Raoul’s resentment of the Phantom, the boy’s disgust in discovering his parentage), Meg’s jealousy of the Phantom’s attentions toward her friend leads her to threaten the child herself. Confronted by the others, she becomes agitated and moves to shoot herself, only to accidentally kill Christine instead. The boy accepts the Phantom as his true father after hearing his dying mother singing of her love.

The music rests on the dubious premise that the beautiful Christine put out for the deformed Phantom back in Paris, which, unless the kid was conceived by a kiss, goes against what had been presented on stage as well as any normal logic. The sequel essentially rewrites the initial story and reshapes the characters (especially a more brooding Raoul) for its own ends, making for a very different dynamic. It opens with the Phantom emoting Tosca-like to a big portrait of Christine, which deprives us of any buildup to a character that we had presumed dead, and ends with the child’s melodramatic acceptance of a man who he just met that day over the father who has raised him for his entire life. We’re being asked not just to suspend our disbelief but to jettison it altogether.

Lloyd Webber offers nice melodies on occasion (the lyrics, not typically a strong point of his shows, were thankfully all in Japanese here), and the costumes and sets were impressive, most notably a scene with large revolving glass cylinders displaying various freaks. But the all-important story rests on questionable assumptions that demand a lot of the viewer. In the original, Christine’s parting kiss was a sign of her gratitude and compassion, a real and deeply moving gesture. The idea that she had actually slept with the guy puts a completely different spin on that. Maybe it works better for those who haven’t seen the original (and Lloyd Webber insists that this is not really a sequel anyway), though in that case, it’s hard to see who this show is aimed at. A musical doomed by its own poor conception.

The acting overall was fine, especially Ayaka, who has the presence and voice to make this character sympathetic despite the story’s implausibilities. The child playing her son also gave a confident performance, including a surprisingly strong voice in his solo number. Raoul was more stereotypical. The dancers seemed to be going through the motions at times, but the choreography overall was solid.

The proceedings were interrupted when the set failed at the dramatic moment when the Phantom is about to walk through the mirror and reveal himself. The show had to be halted for about 25 minutes, after which the Australian director, Simon Phillips (who devised this revised version in Melbourne in 2012), came out and explained that the show would go on without the curtain that is supposed to hide certain magical effects. He told us humorously that we were getting a special treat, and in fact the slipup was actually more interesting than the show itself, giving us a peek at his techniques. The show had evidently been plagued by set issues in a different spot during the previous day’s dress rehearsal. I guess that’s what happens when shows rely on technology to do their job. The musical ran on well beyond its scheduled 8:55p end time, meaning, due to child labor laws, that the kid didn’t get his well deserved bow. But the show’s problems go well beyond its set. Not recommended.