desperation is a sad thing, it seems.

[rivendellrose]

Entirely disregarding the fact that I consider it nothing more than the tacky last-ditch effort of a failing celebrity to bring back a bit of his lackluster glow by ravaging his own past creative endeavors, I have only one question to ask about Andrew Lloyd Webber's fanfic-sounding sequel to Phantom of the Opera: If he's making such a big deal about how the characters have "matured," why is Christine still running around in the exact same fluffy white nightie she was in twenty some years ago?

The plot looks absolutely abysmal. I grew out of my neurotic-Phantom-fan phase early in high school, but I still have a lot of affection for the show, and... it's pretty painful to think of a tatty sequel to it. I can only hope this thing will die before it wends its way to the west coast. Otherwise I'll have to walk past the Paramount every day during its run and cringe.

Comments

[velleitas.livejournal.com]

Plus, even the title is pretty Awful, with a capital A.

I heard a bit of the music on Ross last Friday and it was pretty dismal. I didn't even listen to all of it; I put the TV on mute. I just hope we don't have the really crazy Phans over here? I saw a documentary (if you want to call it that) on PotO and it was pretty terrifying.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

No kidding.

I've been avoiding the music like the plague, on the basis that it's all just a funny joke until I actually hear it.

There's a few nutballs of the "I see it EVERY TIME IT'S IN THE REGION!!!!" variety (one of my old coworkers was one), but for the most part, yeah, I think the real crazies are elsewhere. Which... yeah, that's a good thing. I don't know much about the 'fandom,' but I can easily imagine. Honestly, I'm guessing about like Twilight fandom. :P

[icebluenothing.livejournal.com]

*blink*

*blink*

Coney Island?

..... Okay, I think I'm just going to assume that was an Onion article I just read.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts, too. Coney Island - not really a place you associate with passionate romance and music.

[lorannah.livejournal.com]

As a Raoul fan - I suspect this is not the sequel for me.

[kusanivy.livejournal.com]

No, no you don't. :P

He acts more like the Phantom than the Phantom does. He also, inexplicably, sounds far older than Erik (which is why I still hold Erik is in fact a timelord - only explaination for the age reversal)

[gaslightgallows]

I approve of this explanation. :B

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

...The Master, The Doctor, The Rani, The Phantom... Yeah, I could see it. This has all sorts of crack-fic potential.

So, the organ is his Tardis?

[gaslightgallows]

If you're a Raoul fan, stay away from this one. He's made out to be nothing but an drunken, irredeemable douche.

Hell, I'm a hardcore E/C shipper, and even I think this portrayal is way off base!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Granted, I always find it awkward when characters meet for the first time since childhood and fall instantly in love and we're meant to assume that of course they'll be happy together, but...

I continue to say, this whole thing reads like the worst kind of fanfic. Seriously. A twelve-year-old somewhere wants her fic back.

[gaslightgallows]

Oh, sonofabitch...

I read the Forsyth book this is based on as soon as it was published (about 10 years ago). It was abysmal, and the backlash was so ferocious that ALW initially said he wasn't going to do the sequel. But as his last few shows haven't done too smashingly...

Aside from the obvious WRONG that this entails upon the integrity of the whole story, I have two major bones to pick with Sir Andrew:

1) The original musical takes place in 1861, the movie in 1870. The Forsyth book took place in the early 1900s. This sequel takes place at 'the turn of the 20th century.' Even allowing the phrase 'turn of the century' to encompass everything from 1890 to 1919, at minimum that's still 20 years--so exactly how is this sequel set 10 years after the musical? And how is Christine's son only 10 if he's also supposed to be Erik's?

2) MADAME GIRY IS THE VILLAIN WHAT.

*sigh* I can't hate it properly until I've seen it. And I'm only 3 hours from NYC and Broadway.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I... did not so much read the book as picked it up and immediately put it back down. I might have gotten through a single chapter. It was just too awful to finish. And that was in middle school. *shudders*


2) MADAME GIRY IS THE VILLAIN WHAT.

WAIT, WHAT? How does this... how.... no. No, no, no, this is clearly all some kind of very complicated joke. It's opening on April 1, right? A one-time, one-night-only gig? Because that would explain everything.

...I think I'm just going to firmly believe that, whatever else the world tells me. Because I just can't handle all of this stupidity.

(Plz to write down everything about how awful it is and post a scathing review? Because I, myself, am never going to touch this thing, but I've got the world's worst case of train-wreck syndrome going on, now...)

[gaslightgallows]

I read it when I was in high school and made my husband read it. I loathed it on principle; he said it wasn't that bad until the very end when it all exploded in a giant cloud of WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!

Yes, Madame Giry is the villain. And Meg is apparently in love with the Phantom? Buh?Although I'm really glad they took out the stuff about Mammon and the ex-pleasure-boy-opium-addict servent. No, I did not make that up.

It's opening on April 1, right? A one-time, one-night-only gig?

Actually, it already opened in the West End, and it's slated to open on Broadway in November. And get this: the actor playing the Phantom is the same one who played Christine's father in the movie! (And by 'played,' I actually mean 'appeared in a photograph.')

I'm DLing the 2-disc soundtrack tonight; from what I've heard of the previews they've got posted on Amazon, the review will indeed be scathing--it sounded more like Sondheim than Lloyd Webber. Which is not a bad thing, I like Sondheim, it's just not what I expect from a Phantom musical. I want Erik, not Sweeney Todd! Also, the lyricist should be taken out and shot. No beauty in the music, no poetry in the lyrics... and that's just from the previews.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I never saw the show (not ALW's biggest fan) but I love me the book, and I wrote a Phantom quest on a MUD that I was on.
From what little I've seen of this, ALW is no Leroux.

[gaslightgallows]

The original musical was actually pretty good, and it gave the Phantom some dignity, which almost none of the film versions had the decency to do. I always appreciated ALW for that.

But this... this can never be forgiven.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I like the original musical well enough - it's a nostalgia thing, I was in love with it as a teenager, it was the first big show I ever saw - but... well, I've never quite forgiven ALW for cribbing every lyric for Cats directly out of T.S. Eliot, honestly. And he teeters constantly between "good popular musical" music and "holy god will someone turn down the trite."

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I thought that was kind of the point of Cats. But yeah, I know that teetering. Rowan Atkinson has a punchline that I adore, and if you haven't already heard it I would share it with you.

[irishninja.livejournal.com]

What? WHAT? O_o

We went to see the show a couple years ago and loved it, and we plan to go to the Vegas version after we get married. This is such a great show, a sequel can only make it worse. -_-

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

...I'm sorry. I'm particularly sorry since the Vegas production is apparently the one they're stealing Christine from to put on this piece of crap.

Hopefully this won't mean they'll curtain the original while the sequel is trying to get attention.

[irishninja.livejournal.com]

Oh no! That would suck so badly!!! :\

I can't imagine the Venetian letting the final curtain fall like that, though. They must have a multi-year contract to put on the show. So we'll just have to keep hoping it's going to be there in September. :D

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Did news of this thing just break today? I can't figure out why else I'd have heard about it on the radio AND seen it pop up on flists, etc. all at the same time. Still can't believe it's for real because everything I hear about it makes it sound like something swiped off ff.net, written by an especially obsessed 14-year-old. I mean, Coney Island? Seriously?? Someone wanna explain to me how Erik made that trip?

Doesn't help that I've been SO over Phantom for at least 15 years, but good lord, what is ALW thinking (except, apparently, that the odds of a hit are so remote that he's booked a very small theater...)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

So, I heard about it a long time ago, and promptly either forgot or blocked the information because it was just too horrifyingly bad to contemplate. And then, yeah, I guess it's just opened off Broadway recently and will open on Broadway this fall, hence the media blitz.

The worst thing is, ALW didn't make up the shit about Coney Island and all that (or any of the plot) - it's from a fantastically crappy novel that's been published for quite a while.

So yeah.

As for the theater thing, it's actually pretty standard, from what I know, to start out a large musical show at a smaller theater and then build from there. A friend of mine saw the first run of Wicked back in the day, when it was running in San Francisco in small theaters before it went on to Broadway. In that case there were even some changes made to the soundtrack and so on before it moved on - not sure how common that is. But yeah, the idea as I understand it is that if the show is going to flop, it's better for it to flop off Broadway... and that if it builds excitement, it'll be a bigger hit once it's on Broadway.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

The Adelphi is in London, so it's not actually anywhere near Broadway at the moment, or so I'm given to understand from the radio, website, etc. (You're absolutely right about shows starting smaller before B'way--I saw Lily Tomlin several years ago here in Princeton before The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe went back to NYC for its revival. I'm not sure the Adelphi is the London equivalent of off-Broad, though.)

I heard about the book, too. Honestly, I can't figure out what the hell is going on here. Who bankrolled this insanity, for a start??

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Huh! I hadn't heard the actual details on where it was (or possibly I skimmed over that bit of the things I've read - I'm good at missing bits like that). And, totally randomly, I'm jealous you got to see Lily Tomlin live! I haven't seen her in much, but she always seems very fun.

As far as funding... on the one hand, ALW does have a fair track record in terms of popularity in musicals, so I'm sure some financiers would be willing to back a show based solely on his reputation and the well-known popularity of the original. Sort of like with movies, how if a movie does really well the studios are always champing at the bit to fund a sequel even if it's completely ass. And then to make matters worse, I'm sure ALW himself isn't exactly poor. I doubt he could fund this whole thing on his own, but I wouldn't be surprised if, if necessary, he couldn't front a bit of the cash himself if he really wanted to, and I wouldn't be surprised either if ego alone weren't enough to convince him it'd be worthwhile.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Lily Tomlin rocks. If you ever get the chance, go! :)

I'm of the understanding that ALW's rep is not what it once was in terms of a guaranteed musical hit. I don't recall Sunset Boulevard or The Woman in White doing all that well, just as two examples. I kind of suspect that he has to be fronting a lot of the cash himself, but I also can't help but hope that his star is falling and people with actual talent will get to provide us with some better work from here on out!