Phixing Love Never Dies (audio only podcast)

[@soleil1953]

I used to *hate* LND but I don’t mind it too much anymore. I like to pretend it doesn’t exist but sometimes it’s fun to think about. Beauty underneath is quite the bop.

[@LittleLotteWanders]

Yaaas he's back! We need to collab again soon!

[@whatdoyousuppose]

yaaaaaas love it when the two of you collab! 😍

[@PhantomReviews]

We totes do! On what, I dont know, but one day...

[@josephst.george7841]

This show's plot may need alot of fixing, but the music is prerty damn good for the most part

[@RRyleM]

My version of Love Never Dies has a Phantom redemption arc and it includes: 1. Madam Giry and Meg having an actual positive relationship with the Phantom but Meg is mostly absent from this version. 2. Raoul is a good person and is rightfully suspicious of the Phantom since he was almost killed by him. He does change his mind later on. 3. Christine notices a young performer at the Phantom’s park who has potential to be a successful singer. 4. An investigator who is looking for the Phantom to arrest for his crimes and possibly more personal reasons and has a connection with the young performer 5. Phantom plays with the idea of getting with Christine but when they meet, it’s made clear that she has no interest in him. 7. Christine offers to sing only if the Phantom helps the girl she met earlier. It’s probably not the type of melodrama that phans would get into and reminds me a lot of classic show biz musicals, but it is a big ask to make this show work as you said

[@mieshocked1450]

I LOVED it, except for the Raoul's redemption part (hate him). Anyway, this young new singer, how old is she? Cause she could be Erik's new love... and i'll like to see her happy with Erik and making the detective angry as he's connected with her (Leave. Erik. Alone). Much better than LND.

[@mieshocked1450]

Btw, did you plan Christine to prove she actually cares about Erik again? Even though she doesn't want him as a husband? Like, he took care of her and taugh her to sing. I imagine that she does have a good feeling about him despiting everything between them.

[@madhatterster]

My idea was that Christine had come to Manhattan and she was being stalked by a fake Phantom. Two Phantom musicals, two Phantoms. It draws the real one out of hiding to protect her. This is like Edwardian era The Bodyguard.

[@madhatterster]

This also means you get another chandelier incident, perpetrated by the fake Phantom.

[@mieshocked1450]

I always tried to forget that Love Never Dies actually exist... but i couldn't. The songs are phenomenal and phantastic, unlike the plot.

[@mackenzietastan9201]

OMG! Phantom Reviewer! You're back! I love all your reviews. Thank you for posting this and all your other content. I really appreciate the thought that goes into all your commentaries. I'm a huge Phantom fan and you've provided me with hours of entertainment.

[@srstriker6420]

Yeah I wonder if he has Watched Murders In The Rue Morgue 1971, along with Scooby Doo, the Raccoons, Batman TAS and the real ghostbusters

[@AliciaNyblade]

Cliffhanger ending: After Christine leaves him a second time and his amusement park is in ruins, Erik begins performing again, desperate for cash. He sings and does magic tricks, much like he's described by Leroux. One night, he somehow is unmasked onstage, the audience reacts with horror, and he thinks he's finished. But then, he's approached by a man who tells Erik that his mistress was quite taken with the performance. "If you would oblige my lady, she requests your presence in a private meeting," the man concludes. "Who are you," Erik asks, surprised, "And for whom do you work?" "My name, sir," the man answers in a coolly formal tone and with a slight bow, "Is Barkilphedro. And I serve Her Grace, the Duchess Josiana." The End There ya go, Lloyd Webber, a set up for a third "Phantom" musical that's also a crossover! You're welcome!

[@tiffanystewart9265]

love it

[@AliciaNyblade]

@@tiffanystewart9265 Thanks! Though, of course, I was kidding. Seeing how senile ALW is getting with his work, or at the very least that no one dares to give him constructive criticism or edits anymore, I'd hate to see what he'd do with "The Man Who Laughs" now.

[@tiffanystewart9265]

@@AliciaNyblade lol yw

[@tiffanystewart9265]

@@AliciaNyblade u should write a fanfic

[@jasminnemcdonald94A]

So how does Operetta fit into that?? Where does she come in??

[@amycollins5984]

I always thought that story would be about a New York girl who needs money to help her family and get a small job in the theatre.

[@Equus21]

Love your content, I know the day I see Phantom news-I'm going to hop onto your channel :)

[@Coldheart44]

I actually like the visuals of the show but i did think the plot could have been better. Your review actually got me into buying a blu-ray. I love your podcast, would listen to it while i draw. Keep up the good work.

[@sarahisavampire]

Great commentary! Glad you’re back!

[@a.t.m873]

Good to hear from you and I completely agree with your suggestions

[@mahelttaiyono1013]

This had some great improvements! You know how you think something is fine until you see how it could be? Yeah, that was me with LND until I listened to this haha. Perhaps that could be Christine's reasoning for not seeing how Raoul had changed since POTO?

[@jamiehopkins2271]

It's 2020 also the year of COVID-19 the theatres were pretty much dead but people are still hating Love never dies. Guess Hate never dies is the correct name LOL

[@jamesperkins4632]

Dear Reviewer, WOW this was a surprise, but well welcomed video tonight I have not yet seen LND, but I do feel it is very hard to follow the original ALW PotO. But I do feel that it could be amazing, if done good. I remember in the new Sherlock Holmes book THE ANGEL OF THE OPERA, Holmes moves Erik to England and hinted that he falls for a blind musician that was introduced n the prologue of the book. Maybe if they had just done something similar and introduced a new love for Erik and we could watch him fall in love and start a new, and possibly better, life. But your version sounds amazing and would love to see it. Stay well and stay amazing. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

[@SpencerDragonMonster]

I never got the pervy interpretation of "Beauty Underneath" as Erik "seducing" Gustav. More like he's recognizing a kindred spirit in this kid he's realized is his son, and they're rockin' out an' broin' out about it (if you'll pardon the familial mixed metaphor). I think the big problems all come down to how Act 1 character-assassinates away Erik's character-development/redemption-arc from the original. Keep him morally ambiguous. If he were come into his own and rise to a position of a power at Coney Island, *of course* he'd be up on Christine's career/marital/financial troubles, and that coupled with his longing to still hear her sing once more, *of course* he'd create this opportunity for her, and being Erik, *of course* he'd greet their arrival in such mysterious dramatic fashion, and of course he and Christine would share a reunion where all those old complicated, messy feelings come back. Where it all falls apart, where the character-arc-assassination comes in, is where he starts threatening Gustav. What'd be far more dramatically interesting would be that Christine is uncertain about is true motivations/state of mind, and so are we as the audience. So when Gustav goes missing the first time, there's a genuine moment of dread/uncertainty...making it all the more satisfying when we find out, nah, those two are hitting it off great. And it makes it all the more of a headflip when we find out that the real new threat comes from those Erik's been trusting/surrounding himself with this whole time...creating a dramatic irony in that now HE'S the target of a deranged, tortured stalker. I've got more thoughts on Act 2/Raoul, but I'll get back to that later.

[@SpencerDragonMonster]

Pretty much, I feel, the most damning flaws aren't in the broad strokes of the plot, but all the details that drag it down, and it's a little baffling to me that no one in charge has noticed how easily all that shit could be very easily corrected.

[@mieshocked1450]

Wait, who thinks something *dirty* about Erik and his son? My God these people are perv... and the "irony that now Erik is the tortured stalked", like if he once was like that. No.

[@juliyaavidor3965]

Have You read Unsung? A solo for the living? The choices that define us? Yes', it can absolutely be better....

[@srstriker6420]

When are you going to do review on the Batman episode Birds of a Feather, Scooby Doo Backstage Rage, Stage fright and the Phantom of the sewers, the Real Ghostbusters and the Raccoons episode the Phantom in Sneers Mansion?

[@Tarabara]

See now, yours I would watch! My husband got Love Never Dies on DVD but I just can't bring myself to watch it. I had joined a message site around the time the 2004 movie came out and when Love Never Dies came out I read other people's reviews of the show, along with the synopsis and the lyrics to the songs. With all that, I just haven't been interested because the story just doesn't sound right to me. I think your changes could get me to watch it though.

[@meganchichester9000]

2020 isn’t completely sh%t now :,)

[@jasminnemcdonald94A]

My suggestion: Have Christine shoot Ms. Flack instead of the other way around. That way, Christine still lives and marries the Phantom. From there, she and the Phantom return to France where she has a daughter named Operetta. And like the Phantom, she was born deformed and disfigured in the face. So the Phantom gives her his mask he made for her and teaches her how to sing just like Christine.

[@MalakiaLaGattaNera]

I have seen Love Never Dies 3 times before it closed in London, only a few months before they recorded the 25th anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall and I am possibly the biggest stan of the LND London Production that there's on the planet (I enjoy a few things from the Australian production but overall I really, really dislike the story changes and set design XD). I know the show has problems, it always had problems and even when it was still performing you could feel in the audience reaction that some parts weren't really working as intended, especially the ending and some questionable scene choices in-between. After so many years, I've come up with at least 10 different ways in which to 'fix' the show but in most of them the common factor is that I really really don't like the fact that Erik isn't finding any sort of joy in his new life now that he has basically everything he ever wanted except Christine. He's rich, respected, has people working for him, people that stuck with him through thick and thin showing him absolute loyalty, those who visit the coney island's luna park adore his creations and the freaks are grateful to him because 'even them can dare to walk among men' in Phantasma. Not to mention that the original London production costumes for Fleck, Gangle and Squelch made them look like their deformities/injuries were fixed by Erik with mechanical prosthetics which was SUPER cool and should've been elaborated on somehow in the story. This show could've been the chance to show the Phantom at his best, not a pathetic recluse anymore but the genius, the artist, the absolute badass we always knew he could be. I feel like his character could've really benefited from such a change, because then showing him fall prey to his old habits once again would've been more sad and tragic. Of course, other adjustments to the plot would have to be made in order to make this new and improved Erik work. I would personally keep Meg as the 'phangirl', and even the whole Beneath a Moonless sky debacle except that the Phantom and Christine (as responsible adults and not cardboard cut-outs out of a gothic romance novel ) would handle things differently and hopefully better. AND, very important thing here, I would replace 'once upon another time', which is boring, repetitive and unwelcomed with a whole new number, or even just a short dialogue, in which the Phantom finally de-mystifies himself in Christine's eyes going 'Oh, and by the way... name's Erik.' Because these two idiots didn''t even properly introduced themselves until now if we have to believe Webber XD. Also, I would TOTALLY bring in the Persian (let's remove Mme Giry, let's say she died in the meantime lol) and maybe make him the new source of conflict, for he finally caught up with Erik after all these years and -at first- doesn't think he has changed and that he CAN'T change. Poor Daroga has been erased from PotO canon for so long...

[@PhantomReviews]

Wow, you have some great ideas there. I love the "Phantom fixes the freaks deformities with prosthetics" thing, plus bringing the Daroga as an antagonist who will screw up his empire? Love it. Way better than my idea. Dont know where the songs would fit, maybe Beauty Underneath is now a song to the Daroga to show off all his awesome stuff to his old buddy

[@phantomess1870]

I enjoy it for the most part. I prefer the soundtrack of the London cast was better though.

[@jasminnemcdonald94A]

So how did Operetta (daughter of the POTO) came into this picture?? Forgive me. I've been watching "Monster High" a lot. I wanted to know how and when Operetta was born. She can't be Christine's daughter because she wasn't even in the womb. Or did the Phantom found someone who looks like Christine??

[@leadingblind1629]

You already know I don't really think LND needs much tweaking lol. Are you Welsh? Whatever you do to your voice + accent makes it harder to understand you. I never used to have this problem. Maybe you can lighten the effect? Great, fun video.

[@hannahllewellyn163]

Hello Erik phantom reviewer 2020 💗🌼❤️☺️😈🌹💐