Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom Of The Opera sequel is to shut down in London for four performances while the production undergoes a series of changes.
The theatre mogul launched Love Never Dies, the follow-up to his long-running musical hit, in the West End this spring and the show is set to be rolled out internationally next year, with productions planned for Broadway, as well as Australia and Canada.
Lloyd Webber has now decided to shut down the London show for four performances next month while new lyrics and choreography are added.
The musical impresario admits the changes were made for the show's upcoming incarnation in Sydney in May and he decided to incorporate them into the already-running London production.
He says in a statement, "Some changes were written up over the summer and destined for the Australian production and, as they make improvements to the show, we'd be mad not to put them into the (London production)."
The show will be closed between November 22nd to 25th.
Phantom is the most successful show ever, a production with earnings greater than Star Wars or Titanic, but the critical reaction to the follow-up on its London opening has been distinctly mixed.
The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer gives it four stars, calling it “Lloyd Webber’s finest show since the original Phantom, with a score blessed with superbly haunting melodies and a yearning romanticism that sent shivers racing down my spine.” He points out that, in an era when musical comedies like Hairspray and Legally Blonde reign supreme, a ‘gloomy-doomy’ show like this “seems like a relic of another age.”
Paul Taylor in The Independent goes even further, giving it five stars and acclaiming the “mix of the heart-stopping and the stomach-lurching (a true kinaesthetic experience)” which “characterises some of the best sequences”. He praises the show's “technical excellence” and the fact that “the leading couple sing beautifully together.”
The Times, by contrast, gives the show two stars, taking issue with what it calls a “dismally implausible plot” and a Phantom who has “taken an anger management course since landing in New York.” Benedict Nightingale feels that the show lacks “the menace, the horror, the psychological darkness” of its predecessor.
Michael Billington in The Guardian gives it three stars, finding “much to enjoy” but , like other reviewers finds the plot and lyrics unsatisfying, suggesting that the show’s problems “lie within the book” and that it “lacks… narrative tension”.
Quentin Letts in The Daily Mail also draws attention to disappointing book, what he describes as “the lack of solid story-telling”. His ambivalence shades into criticism when he compares the show to ‘Phantom’, calling it “too much an also-ran to the prequel, and its opening is too stodgy.”
Critics were not particularly taken with Phantom when it first opened either, but it has gone on to be performed in 149 cities, being seen by 100 million people in 14 languages.
Musical master Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but luckily it was caught "in its very early stages," a spokesman disclosed in a statement.
"Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year," it said.
Lloyd Webber, 61, is currently working on a sequel for 'Phantom of the Opera' called 'Lover Never Dies.' It is expected to make its Broadway debut next November. He is also set to judge a BBC talent show next year.
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom Of The Opera sequel is to shut down in London for four performances while the production undergoes a series of changes.
