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rowynLut and I watched "Love Never Dies" on Sunday, which was .... really pretty bad. We saw "Phantom of the Opera" last weekend.
I am going to rant about them, with lots of spoilers, below. Although really, "spoiler" is the wrong word, because the good things about them can't be ruined by revelation, and the story is already so execrable it can't be spoiled further.
I don't like the story of "Phantom": the title character is the only one with any personality to speak of, and he's a monster. He stalks the female protagonist, tries to control her, manipulates everyone, murders multiple people, and destroys the opera house and probably kills more people to cover for kidnapping her at the climax. And we're supposed to feel bad for him because he's been feared all his life for his scarred face but ... yeah. I am not really up to excusing murder because people are mean to you. Most of the people he kills weren't even directly mean to him. They're just random fellows who happened to be in the way at the time.
Anyway. Didn't really like any of the characters, and the plot often made no sense. For two examples: Carlotta, their diva, refuses to perform early on, so they have Christine fill her role. Everyone -- literally everyone -- is like "wow, Christine is so much better than Carlotta."
Next, the Phantom says "I want Christine in the leading role of the next production," and offers a vague threat if the new managers don't comply. Carlotta refuses to play the leading role in the next production. The managers proceed to beg Carlotta to perform, for no apparent reason except "cut off your nose to spite your face".
Second example: there's a scene where Raoul defeats the Phantom in a graveyard duel, and Christine says "don't kill him!" So Raoul walks off with Christine and makes no attempt to, oh, capture the murderer instead. Then, in the next scene, some weeks later, Raoul is plotting to ... capture the Phantom. Oooookay. Like you could've done that in the last scene but you decided to wait until now for drama, I guess.
Still, setting aside the cardboard characters and the incoherent plot, the film was an over-the-top spectacle: gorgeous sets, costuming, dance numbers, etc. The music is fantastic. I got a little bored in the middle as what passed for the story just dragged on and on and they ran out of new music, but the ending was touching.
I have seldom seen a story less in need of sequel, and "Love Never Dies" is definitely the sequel that "Phantom" didn't need. This was a recording of a stage show, and was, I gather, the sequel to the stage musical. It references key events that didn't happen in the film. Either that, or it's set in a Phantom AU, maybe one where he's not a murderer who intentionally destroyed the opera house. (The intro references him being "chased by an angry mob that regards him as being responsible for the opera fire", which made me say to Lut, "Perhaps because he was responsible for the fire?")
Regardless, it's set a decade after the opera house burned down. It's set in Coney Island, where the Phantom is running a creepy carnival-like show under the name of "Mister Y". The choreographer who was his friend in the "Phantom" runs the show, while her daughter Meg is one of the stars. Meg is forced to performs some mediocre musical numbers by way of making Christine look good, which is just depressing all around. The sets were lovely but the music was uniformly meh. I am not sure if the choreography was also meh, because the camera tended to focus on the protagonists whenever some big complex number was happening. So you didn't really get to see the complex numbers. In an effort to make Phantom look more like a romantic hero, the script turns Raoul into an emotionally abusive man who gambled away his fortune and put his family deep in debt. He resents his wife for having a valuable skill (singing) that might bail them out of his mess. OK, so now I hate Raoul AND the Phantom.
In case you might hope, "maybe the Phantom has matured in 10 years", NOPE. When Christine hesitates at his offer to hire her for a single song, he threatens to abduct (and possibly kill) her son if she won't perform for him.
Oh, and if you were thinking "how could I hate the men of this show more?" Ding! We have an answer! Phantom and Raoul make a wager: If Christine performs the song, Raoul will leave her alone forever. If Raoul talks her out of it, Phantom will pay Raoul's debts anyway, plus a bonus.
Neither man tells Christine about the wager, so Christine thinks she choosing to sing a song that will get her family out of debt and then she can get back to her life with her husband.
Oh, and stage manager + daughter are bitterly resentful of Christine because the Phantom is basically dumping everything they worked for into Christine's lap. In case you thought anything might end well for anyone or you were hoping for someone to like.
There is no possible resolution where anyone is happy, which is okay because no one really deserves to be happy. Christine randomly dies at the end. This is probably the best thing that could plausibly happen to her within the constraints of "things anyone who wrote the rest of this garbage fire would think of doing". At least she can't be tormented by the horrible men in her life any more.
If I were the sort to write fix-it fics, I would change the ending to: "Christine, stage manager, and daughter kick Raoul and the Phantom out of their lives, go on to run successful theatre without them." If it needs romance, well, Christine and Meg will make a cute couple. Fin.
I am going to rant about them, with lots of spoilers, below. Although really, "spoiler" is the wrong word, because the good things about them can't be ruined by revelation, and the story is already so execrable it can't be spoiled further.
I don't like the story of "Phantom": the title character is the only one with any personality to speak of, and he's a monster. He stalks the female protagonist, tries to control her, manipulates everyone, murders multiple people, and destroys the opera house and probably kills more people to cover for kidnapping her at the climax. And we're supposed to feel bad for him because he's been feared all his life for his scarred face but ... yeah. I am not really up to excusing murder because people are mean to you. Most of the people he kills weren't even directly mean to him. They're just random fellows who happened to be in the way at the time.
Anyway. Didn't really like any of the characters, and the plot often made no sense. For two examples: Carlotta, their diva, refuses to perform early on, so they have Christine fill her role. Everyone -- literally everyone -- is like "wow, Christine is so much better than Carlotta."
Next, the Phantom says "I want Christine in the leading role of the next production," and offers a vague threat if the new managers don't comply. Carlotta refuses to play the leading role in the next production. The managers proceed to beg Carlotta to perform, for no apparent reason except "cut off your nose to spite your face".
Second example: there's a scene where Raoul defeats the Phantom in a graveyard duel, and Christine says "don't kill him!" So Raoul walks off with Christine and makes no attempt to, oh, capture the murderer instead. Then, in the next scene, some weeks later, Raoul is plotting to ... capture the Phantom. Oooookay. Like you could've done that in the last scene but you decided to wait until now for drama, I guess.
Still, setting aside the cardboard characters and the incoherent plot, the film was an over-the-top spectacle: gorgeous sets, costuming, dance numbers, etc. The music is fantastic. I got a little bored in the middle as what passed for the story just dragged on and on and they ran out of new music, but the ending was touching.
I have seldom seen a story less in need of sequel, and "Love Never Dies" is definitely the sequel that "Phantom" didn't need. This was a recording of a stage show, and was, I gather, the sequel to the stage musical. It references key events that didn't happen in the film. Either that, or it's set in a Phantom AU, maybe one where he's not a murderer who intentionally destroyed the opera house. (The intro references him being "chased by an angry mob that regards him as being responsible for the opera fire", which made me say to Lut, "Perhaps because he was responsible for the fire?")
Regardless, it's set a decade after the opera house burned down. It's set in Coney Island, where the Phantom is running a creepy carnival-like show under the name of "Mister Y". The choreographer who was his friend in the "Phantom" runs the show, while her daughter Meg is one of the stars. Meg is forced to performs some mediocre musical numbers by way of making Christine look good, which is just depressing all around. The sets were lovely but the music was uniformly meh. I am not sure if the choreography was also meh, because the camera tended to focus on the protagonists whenever some big complex number was happening. So you didn't really get to see the complex numbers. In an effort to make Phantom look more like a romantic hero, the script turns Raoul into an emotionally abusive man who gambled away his fortune and put his family deep in debt. He resents his wife for having a valuable skill (singing) that might bail them out of his mess. OK, so now I hate Raoul AND the Phantom.
In case you might hope, "maybe the Phantom has matured in 10 years", NOPE. When Christine hesitates at his offer to hire her for a single song, he threatens to abduct (and possibly kill) her son if she won't perform for him.
Oh, and if you were thinking "how could I hate the men of this show more?" Ding! We have an answer! Phantom and Raoul make a wager: If Christine performs the song, Raoul will leave her alone forever. If Raoul talks her out of it, Phantom will pay Raoul's debts anyway, plus a bonus.
Neither man tells Christine about the wager, so Christine thinks she choosing to sing a song that will get her family out of debt and then she can get back to her life with her husband.
Oh, and stage manager + daughter are bitterly resentful of Christine because the Phantom is basically dumping everything they worked for into Christine's lap. In case you thought anything might end well for anyone or you were hoping for someone to like.
There is no possible resolution where anyone is happy, which is okay because no one really deserves to be happy. Christine randomly dies at the end. This is probably the best thing that could plausibly happen to her within the constraints of "things anyone who wrote the rest of this garbage fire would think of doing". At least she can't be tormented by the horrible men in her life any more.
If I were the sort to write fix-it fics, I would change the ending to: "Christine, stage manager, and daughter kick Raoul and the Phantom out of their lives, go on to run successful theatre without them." If it needs romance, well, Christine and Meg will make a cute couple. Fin.
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Date: 2017-03-20 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-20 09:20 pm (UTC)And Meg and Christine are friends! Making them non-friends is UGH!
...I wound up writing my own fixfic for Phantom. Real ghost. Falls in love with Madam Giry. Very short.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-20 09:29 pm (UTC)Meg and Christine are friends at the start of "Love Never Dies", but at the end Meg kidnaps Christine's son to make the Phantom notice her. And then Meg threatens to shoot herself, and finally accidentally shoots Christine, then runs away. It is seriously awful.
My fixfic for Phantom would start with "seriously your deformity is not *that* hideous". <_<
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Date: 2017-03-20 10:20 pm (UTC)1: Poor chorus girl has been taught to sing really well by Phantom, who also hypnotizes her, I GUESS.
2: Carlotta storms off, and Christine sings in a production.
3: Her old friend, now a rich dude, notices her.
4: Phantom gets jealous, kidnaps her through the mirror.
5: She sees his face, freaks out, and he sends her back.
6: Phantom wants Christine to have everything good and show off his training, and pitches a fit when the new owners don't do what he wants. Spoiler: they don't do what he wants.
7: Chandelier falls, everybody dies. No, wait, only some of the audience die. Christine and Raoul flee to the roof. Raoul proposes. Phantom pitches a fit, because he has been hiding as a gargoyle and overhears everything.
8: Phantom plans elaborate plot to kill everyone he hates and drag Christine down with him again because sure, that'll make her love him! (Or love him again; she was hero-worshipping prior to all this.)
9: Everyone freaks out at dead actor (part of the plot) and that Christine is kidnapped. Raoul follows into the tunnels, guided partly by Madam Giry. He is caught.
10: Christine rolls a critical success on Psychology and sings, "Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!" Kisses him despite his mask being off.
11: Phantom realizes that he can't actually bear to hurt her anymore and sends Christine and Raoul off to escape. Folds himself into a tomb.
12: People burst in to mess with the murderer, but he's gone, and Meg lifts his mask from the now-empty tomb. The End.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-22 01:56 am (UTC)In "Love Never Dies", the Phantom and Christine apparently are supposed to have had sex (consensually! without him blackmailing her or anything, from the sounds of the duet they sing about it) during "Phantom of the Opera". I guess this would have to have been during 4, but apparently it doesn't look like a possible sex scene in the play, either.
I'm gonna go with it's the sequel to an AU. -_-
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Date: 2017-03-22 04:24 am (UTC).......There is like maybe ONE place where there could have been metaphoric sex in the Lloyd Weber Phantom, because he drags her off in a semi-hypnotized daze, they sing about "The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside your/my mind," and then he bids her sing, and she does wordless singing higher and higher, gets to a near-shriek, then faints and he puts her to bed. So I SUPPOSE you could treat the "sing! Sing, my angel of music!" part as some kind of metaphor for orgasm. And it is the next day that she sneaks up on him while he's composing, snatches off his mask, and freaks.
But, um, that's definitely reading a lot into it. Maybe there's something in the book?
If you get a chance to see the stage-play, I would say: go for it. The staging that I saw had some really awesome scenes, and the music is lovely, and there's not a lot of non-singing bits to let one notice so much that the plot is thin in places.
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Date: 2017-03-21 12:23 am (UTC)...I fell asleep through almost the whole thing. Some of the songs we had to play were pretty, though.
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Date: 2017-03-22 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-23 09:30 pm (UTC)Linda has had season tickets at Starlight for many years. Great seats, close enough that you can feel the AC off the stage on hot nights, so I go to some shows that do little for me, but try not to make too big a deal about my opinions. We split the season with another family, so I can pick what interests me, but even half the season often has shows I could do without.