Now I’m just thinking of a phantom of the opera show where every character is just a Christinified version of that character. We got Raul Christine, Phantom Christine, Meg Christine, Primadona Christine, Christine Christine…
I admit, once I made my CAT a Phantom costume for Halloween, and dressed as his Christine, with the leash from his harness ending in a collar around my neck. We know who owns who in this house. 😼
Christine sleeping with the Phantom minutes after the original story was over is fucking hilarious It's like after the curtains fell, she was like "Oh hey I gotta go pick up some stuff at my Ex's place, don't worry I'm not gonna sleep with him or anything"
@@Tareltonlives Been a hot minute since I've seen TLJ, but didn't he abandon the Jedi _after_ the Ben Solo incident? Which had to have been at least 15-20 years after the original trilogy?
I'd SO read that. It could either go the "NOW we can genuinely feel empathy for a Phantom" route, or the "such a tragedy she ended up becoming the very thing that hurt her" route. Shit, I might write it myself, I'm feeling hyped!
she also wears a mask and the whole show you're like "oh no, what happened to her" and then it's revealed she's just aged, has some wrinkles and got shamed for it and now feels hideous (definitely didn't steal that from batman the animated series)
How did literally NO ONE involved in the making of this musical ever stop and think, "Hm, maybe having a TEN YEAR OLD CHILD emphatically, repeatedly yell 'YES' in response to the phantom asking 'Are you ready for what I'm about to give you?' isn't a great idea."
The thing I hate about Love Never Dies is that Phantom is such a beautiful departure from love stories made for women where toxic romance is glorified. The entire theme of the show is that darkness is exciting and alluring and sexy, but when exposed to it for too long, it drives Christine mad. It’s acknowledged that Christine’s attachment to the phantom is largely because he came along at the right time to fill the hole left in her heart by her father dying. Although she feels warmth for him, because she is kind and she is pure, she teaches him that he’s been seeing himself as the victim this whole time because his face is ugly, but the real reason no one can love him is because his heart has grown ugly as he has stewed in his own persecution complex. Honestly a commentary on incels truly ahead of its time. In the end she pursues a healthy relationship and leaves him crying on the ground. But the message behind Love Never Dies retcons and reverses the eNTIre message of the original and goes “um no actually the excitement you feel around a toxic partner is actually true love” and then they make everyone else in Christine’s life so horrible that the Phantom starts to look good by comparison and then she gets shot and dies. Cool.
"You're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole."
I don’t really agree, though I desperately wish that I could, that the content of Phantom fully divorces itself from admonishing the Erick by the end. Yes, the text directly very much lays out in plain English that Erick is a murdering narcissist with a chip on his shoulder as large as the chunk of his flesh peeled from his face. However, it still, to the very end, wants to give the him not just an explanation, but an excuse. The second act constantly plays with Christine’s paranoia (“Twisted in Every Way”) and somehow unrelenting lust (“Past the Point of No Return”). “Track Down This Murderer” and “Down Once More” mirror each other sonically and thematically, just like the mob that chases the Beast and his violent attempt at escape where we’re supposed to sympathize with this unfair generalization. In only the last 5 minutes of the show does he realize that, oops, he was the asshole all along, and dare I say it??, a murderer. And even so, there is a little more than a hint that Christine’s pity and compassion is one out of true adoration, rather than coerced admiring. The direction that LND went was the cemented descent into incel degeneration that was kind of hinted at in Phantom. I sincerely believe that ALW wrote what he knew, figuratively, in the development of the libretto. He was teetering on the edge of self-awareness and self-pity, subconsciously or consciously. This is huge speculation, but I think his failing relationship and divorce from Sarah pushed him firmly in the wrong direction. Really, it could have been a moment of incredible growth. if he had wanted to reconcile in his mind what went wrong, LND could have been a truer character study of an abusive person who makes an effort to actually fight their demons for the love of their partner. Not necessarily for the hope of reunion, but to honor a love long lost. A love that never dies, not because the love of another can fix someone, but the loss of another is often and unfortunately the slap in the face that people need to change, be it distance, divorce, or death. (But that’s just me “writing what I know” so to speak.)
If the women I was ready to sacrifice my life for was still thirsting after the said person/serial killer who tried to end my life I’d probably be a drunk as well
on a more serious note, this is actually by far the most compelling reason i've heard for Raoul being a drunk in the first place. it's like, not only is the spin on his character rly fanficy, but could you please give me any reason as to *why* he turned to alcohol in the first place?! Like say whatever you want abt Raoul but he nvr seemed very mentally unstable in the first one, not to mention that apparently christine cheated on him before and nvr told him and then proceeded to marry him just for socioeconomic reasons. i was just thinking how the groundwork laid in LND, how just generally bad, if anything lends itself way more to make Raoul a sympathetic monster than the phantom, and imo it prob would have at least been way more interesting and likeable if the story ended up being about Raoul and Christine fixing their marriage and their family dynamic. There's already hints where raoul is given *some* character development and sympathy meanwhile the phantom's over here kidnapping on innocent child, and I just think that would at least work way better. (and i also confess that Ive always loved Raoul--i saw the movie first--so I would also like that way better personally😂)
I know this was one year ago but I absolutely despise what they did to Raoul's character. He was so lovable in the book and I never really deemed him as narcissistic (although he is kinda spoiled and naive but he did have character development). I really hate how we're supposed to look at the phantom and christine's story as romantic
@@SM-ky6pb I meaaaan... I don't know if I'd call him lovable in the book. Raoul literally calls Christine a $lut and is overall kind of a d0uche (before his character arc). But I wholeheartedly agree, there was literally no motivation behind making Raoul a perpetual drunk and gambler other than to make Christine and the Phantom the obvious choice. OP's comment is something I maybe would've liked to see? Cause at least there's valid motivation
He also ignores Christine's boundaries in a casual way, and never really stops. They do make a point about him always entering her dressing room w/o knocking and when she's not there, and going through her things, all without caring when she asks him not to. Even before he suspects anything is going on. And with showing how Raoul actually causes the buildup to the Phantom's kidnapping/explosion, by never listening to Christine-- even after she told him about the Phantom-- to give it a few days, let her calm Erik down, and stop snooping/invading, etc. That’s actually explicit in the text. But yeah, he is likable…otherwise. In a naive wide eyed rich kid… way. The play does him a bit better.
When the original Persian, a typical ‘19th- century (not technically as the book is from early twentieth century but you know) foreign guide who knows more’, is still more progressive than every subsequent version of the character, then you know something’s gone wrong…
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The grossest thing about this is how post-divorce, ALW wrote/commissioned a story in which: - The young singer, a role originated by his ex-wife, regrets not choosing the genius composer; - She confesses that she still loves him; - And then she dies
@BK Beatty yeah, but then Lloyd Webber couldn’t punish a female character for not being nice to the sad man who just wanted to love her, and we can’t have that. (I saw Bad Cinderella on Broadway, and between that and Love Never Dies I feel like I got an insight into Lord Andy’s mind I didn’t want.)
Kinda reminded about how Placido Domingo commissioned Gian-Carlo Menotti to write an opera about the artist Fransisco Goya for him to star in. But the opera didn't go over very well so he went over to Maury Yeston (the guy who wrote that other Phantom musical) and commissioned him to write another musical about Goya.
And he had it changed...in Extremely minor pointless ways that didn't solve the biggest problems, which makes me think LND's worst points are all from Sir Andy himself
@@Olivia-dg4fb isn't he a tory who flew in from the US to the UK just to vote in favour of welfare cuts? Edit: nvm he ended up not doing it. He's still a tory tho
1. if Christine doesn't know the full significance of performing, her choice to perform doesn't carry any weight 2. it's hilarious that everyone assumes Gustav must be the Phantom's son because he's musically gifted. Hello?! His mother is a world-famous soprano?!
I mean the script in its entirety treats Christine (and tbh the rest of the female characters) as an afterthought so no wonder Gustav's talent has to be credited to his father as if it's the only logical explanation. Watching the Phantom trying to put two and two together like some sort of off-brand Sherlock is worth it though. His "*gasp* he's just ten years old1!1!!!1"/"omg he plays like me!!1!1!" scenes are still unintentional comedy gold, so I'm glad Love Never Dies exists in the trashfire form that it does.
If Christine doesn't know the weight of her choice, it only comes down to "who has more control over her by any means (force, manipulation, whatever), wins".
"The Phantom of the Opera" is a supernatural entity like Freddy Krueger or Candyman that will disappear from existence if Lindsay goes too long without talking about it.
Just imagine you’re the Phantom’s actor’s kid and then it’s your 10th birthday... *Knocks on the door* - Happy birthday, my child! - Thanks Dad! - Today you are... - Wait... NOPE! DAD! I KNOW YOU’RE THE PHANTOM IN LOVE NEVER DIES BUT PLEASE... - TEN... YEARS... OLD! *Goes face first into cake in sheer cringe*
I'm not like a humongous fan of Phantom of the Opera, but I feel like there's a reason he's Phantom of the Opera and not Phantom of the Carny Freakshow. Like, oh no, this horrifying circus sideshow also has a phantom... I thought it was just a terrible geek parade
Yeah, it's a bit of a step down from haunting the Paris Opera house. Plus, he doesn't even seem to try to hide himself at all in this show. He's not mysterious or magical as a gothic, villainous figure typically is, he's just... there.
Somewhere in there is a cool idea about how the people who were deemed "other" by society were super talented and that together they could create something truly beautiful for all. But we didn't get that at all.
Love the fact Erik "so touch starved that he died from a forehead kiss" is apparently so gifted that on his first night, my dude was clapping cheeks to the tempo of 120bpm. That Wap's got power-
Basically, the internet taking over Broadway. 99% of all fanfictions are garbage. And that's really only because fanfiction is not a true expression of art, nor a dedicated continuation of the original material. It is someone literally vomiting their inner fantasies, all over the web, and writing it the way that a horny teenager would write it, with no actual talent for storytelling.
@@TheSecondVersion The big lipped alligator moment was Lindsey's thing from the beginning and she was pretty proud because it got her a mention on TvTropes. Don't take that away from her
@@TheSecondVersion I feel like she has a bunch of meme moments, even though she doesn't repeat them like NC does. It's mostly us the peanut gallery. Like on a video for "Beneath a Moonless Sky" someone recently commented, "Stamina. Phanima" and got a nice reply like, "welcome fellow Lindsey Ellis watcher." On a recent upload of the "give me the gun Meg" video I quoted Hal Prince's famous line about CATS and got a bunch likes and replies also quoting from other Lindsay Ellis videos. (Like "I'm losing to a bird.")
Why couldn't Webber save that weirdly orgasmic sounding song about "tasting/accepting/embracing the beauty underneath-YES!" for the Phantom reseducing Christine? WHY have him sing like that to his own son?!
I actually just realized that song feels like it was written as the sequel version of "The Phantom of the Opera" (a really charged, rock opera number). As for why it's being sung to a CHILD... I got nothing.
Bro I legit thought that song was FIRE as a dumb 13 year old, I showed it to my mom and told her a bit too vagualey what the context was and she was horrified 😭😂
A couple of notes: 1. I love how Lindsay has been dunking on “beneath a moonless sky” for over a decade 2. That song with the phantom and the 10 year old is the most disturbing thing I have seen in a long time 3. “GIVE ME THE GUN MEG”
@@overlydramaticpanda I am so glad I wasn't the only one to notice this; I was listening rather than watching during that section, and it's goddamn *disturbing*
@@TheSpearkan “thinking quickly, he whipped out his dick and successfully stopped the stray bullet from hitting any Parisian orphans…but at great personal cost.” 🤣
@@overlydramaticpanda Agreed! The first time I listened to this song I was so appalled--I wasn't impressed with the show up to that point, but that song tipped this musical from "disappointing" to "wtf." Ofc, I then had to share this one song with my friends who enjoy musicals so I could cackle watching the changing expressions on their faces as they listened to it.
@@rancidkippa4589 I'm pretty sure Nellachronism went through a whole twitter fever dream about this during lockdown. The clearest thing I remember was a reference to Raoul's 'career' in the navy.
other sentences the Phantom could have used as the Masterful Negotiationer that he is "You better shot us or you are going to jail, Meg!" " No Meg, shooting the child wont solve your Problems...aim for the real problem here..." "Meg! Are you only doing this because Christine completly replaced you in my Eyes?" "dont hurt that child! he is the Product of my passionate lovemaking with this woman right here" "Dont do it Peg...Peggy? Maggie? or whatever your name is ...Christine , Love of my life, what is that womans name?"
That also would have been a better ending. Phantom is all "If you must" and then when Meg's brains have painted the balcony he shrugs it off because he fucking loves solving all his problems with death.
So...it looks like Meg is the star of the Phantom's super-commercial 'Murican sellout of his music writing talent. But they never communicate, so like...he writes her all these goofy up-tempo numbers instead of the chromatic weirdness of "Don Juan Triumphant" and she's - I guess mad that the phantom doesn't looOOOooove her? Seriously I haven't laughed out loud at a video so much in a long time!
I almost read it as an attempted "I also cant be like Christine, I understand you, I'm also not as awesome as her". Hence, we. But yknow, still obviously terrible approach
This whole love child thing just gets me. In the original show, there's literally a time skip while Christine is in the phantom's lair (in between Music of the Night and Stranger than you Dreamt It) during which they totally could have knocked metaphorical boots. Yes, it's suggested Christine is waking up after falling unconscious in the previous song, but she could have just been asleep after they did the horizontal tango. The movie even played with this idea by having her wake up without her stockings on. And she wasn't even a couple with Raoul at that point! Still makes infinity more sense than, "Oh, the whole ending is null and void now because as soon as the play ended she changed her mind and booked it straight back to the phantom and they totally had loads of crazy sex you guys."
I guess they didn’t because it would’ve maybe implied to some audiences that he had raped her, which would’ve interfered with their hot steamy romance.
after Christine wakes up, there's the scene of basically entire cast going nuts because she's gone since "last night". Eric also says they have to go back because they will be looking for her. the thing would've looked different if there actually was a time skip there
Idk, I'd take a LOT of issue with that because the phantom is meant to be somewhat sypathetic. The original story (both the book and musical) invite us to empathise with him. You're idea in practice would very intensly suggest that he SA-ed Christine, which would make that basically impossible
"Chose beauty and youth- over genius and art." Like the Phantom wasn't a raging murderer and Christine was just some flighty airhead who was "taken" with a good looking dude. YOU HUNG A MAN FROM THE RAFTERS PHANTOM-
Ugg wamman. Always choosing some jerk Chad like Roul who’s empathetic and financially stable and tries to save you from your stalker and who you have fond childhood memories with over the nice guys like serial murder phantom. So shallow.
@@doll_dress_swap12 I mean, that's why he had to develop a raging alcohol/gambling addiction; because all good-looking, socially outgoing, and emotionally stable men are just truly Chads in disguise and not a nIcE guY like Andrew Lloyd Web- IMEAN- THE PHANTOM-
"My favorite sequel is a fanfiction that was published by a mysterious author like ten years ago." Oh, so the fanfic is TEEEEN YEEEEEAAARS OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!
@@ilovetolovemylove a comment by _combustible-lemons_ actually mentions it. It’s entitled “a stroll on sunday” that’s published on ao3! (where they found it at least)
In all honesty, love never dies seems like it would have been an enjoyable AO3 fic. It's rare for that fanfic energy to make it to a mainstream production
Nah, man. I've read a livrary's worth of fanfic that's definitely better than this. I'd say this is specifically Fifty Shades/My Immortal/Born to be Bred(???) quality of fanfic big brain.
@@xxwolfrocksxx1829 It's real. I had to look it up because--despite my experience with the highs and lows of fanfiction--I still had to double-check. But yeah, it exists.
@xxwolfrocksxx1829 -- You'll wanna watch Lindsay's Omegaverse / Addison Cain vids. And after you do, you may perhaps find yourself contemplating a screen name change...
The thing that always makes me laugh is when Gustav goes missing and there's a fakeout where you think Raoul might have kidnapped him, so the Phantom is all like "what kind of monster would hurt another man's child for revenge?" and it's like YOU!. You were totally down with threatening Gustav 15 minutes ago, before you realized he was yours.
The character assassination of Raoul. Unreal. The man who literally stayed with this woman despite being either out of her mind, or is targeted by a murderous stalker is now a drunk abusive gambler????
do a caravan of garbage for the Lego Skywalker saga playing The Complete Saga. I know that's unrelated but I wanna see u play it👉🏻👈🏻 or better yet do a caravan of garbage of each lego star wars game, I miss Caravan of Garbage video games
I was wondering why that letter sounded like someone mocking JK Rowling and then I was like "Ooooooh!. It's Abigail's 'incestuous conservative sister of an arsonist' voice!"
Raoul being an inexplicitly terrible person despite being the opposite in the original musical gives me big "just found out my high school sweetheart got married so I'm going to write a musical where her new husband is terrible and she comes back to me" vibes. Move on Richard. Edit: Just remembered that the first play starts with Roul and Christine old and married and financially stable bidding for the big chandelier at an auction. Richard. She's happy. Get a hobby.
It's not too hard to draw the line between Sarah Brightman leaving ALW and the Phantom being presumably perceived as romantic by ALW in Love Never Dies...
One of the best sequels of all time, 'Shrek 2', really illustrates your point about good sequels not disregarding where the previous entry left off. An early scene is Shrek & Fiona enjoying their honeymoon, running from angry mobs with pitchforks in soft focus. Being reviled for being ogres isn't a source of shame or resentment; because they have each other it doesn't even dampen their mood. This scene fundamentally couldn't happen if the sequel disregarded how their character arcs developed.
Imagine if Shrek 2 ignored the character development and had everyone regress and become worse like LND did. (That was kinda what Shrek 3 did with them rejecting being good leaders of a kingdom despite Fiona and Shrek making amazing leaders, but we pretend Shrek 3 didn't happen and Shrek 4 is the 3rd one.)
Gaston leRoux's day job was as a newspaper journalist. Phantom of the Opera was based on a real sequence of events, when the chandelier at the Garnier theater fell, crushing an audience member, an upcoming prima donna went missing, and a skeleton was discovered at the edge of the lake under the theater. In reality, the three events were nothing to do with each other - the chandelier was a tragic accident, the skeleton and the disappearance were unrelated coincidences. LeRoux was well aware of that, but recognized that making a conspiracy theory tying the events together would make for a compelling gothic thriller. The music box is based on _Jolly Chimp,_ a battery-operated doll designed in post-ww2 Japan. It's a total anachronism.
What Leroux did was actually very clever. He not only told a bloody good tale, he predicted the whole QAnon school of “Tie it all together, IT MEANS SOMETHING!!!”
@t heoscout I don't know that anyone knows who the skeleton was, or ever will. It might have been someone who drowned in the swamp in the Middle Ages for all I know. I also don't know anything about celebrities in 19th century France, so even if I knew anything about the singer, the only context I would have for her is the book itself. Given how huge the Garnier is, the scandal around Christine and Raoul might have been artistic license.
I always had this theory that Love Never Dies is Lord Andy's attempt to give himself a happy ending. To him, Brightman is his Christine (even today when he talks about her it's clear he is obsessed) and after the divorce, he was the phantom (a genius composer punching above his weight dating wise). The sequel makes a lot more sense if you look at it through that lens.
No, no, it's just about a brilliant genius composer that every woman around him was hopelessly in love with, whose beloved brilliant performer he made happen left him for another man who was terrible and ruined her life and wasted her talent, until the brilliant genius composer made a show so brilliant and genius she couldn't help but come back to perform it and falls in love with his genius brilliance?
TBF basically everyone’s character was assassinated except Phantom, who the show inexplicably decides to try and rehabilitate by just ignoring his murders.
Love Never Dies is fanfiction brought to life. It only made it this far because ALW has his name on it. The first time I heard it I got to Beneath a Moonless Sky and went “what is this shit?”
The bad kind, where the author has no grasp on good story telling, English is their barely-understood second language, and dyslexia is their middle name.
@@noahkarpinski1824 I thought Rings of power IS the worst fanfiction brought to life (it undermines everything that was written by original author and while making The Hobbits look good in comparison - and I would call it "The Star wars prequel syndrome")
@@noahkarpinski1824 For a second I thought you meant A Very Potter Musical and I got very upset. That IS actual fanfiction AND it's better than any other Harry Potter work.
And it certainly wouldn't be the last fanfiction either. Because a mere two months after Lindsay published this video, we got The Matrix Resurrections. Which, to my utter joy, shares a LOT of plot similarities to Love Never Dies, only much better written and a lot more self-aware about itself. And it's made all the better by the fact that Lana Wachowski is a known Phantom contributor (*coughs* V for Vendetta *coughs*). I've since spent the last few months writing an extended essay on their relations. 😎🌹
This is the thing that gets me more than anything - Love Never Dies is simply not a great song. It just isn't as good as anything in the original musical. And all of Meg's songs are just fucking annoying.
I like to think her (what I imagine to be) toddler, even in the womb, had the wisdom and intuition to know that what she had experienced was like the opposite of playing Mozart for a fetus.
Having the Phantom become the successful leader of a Coney Island freak show could have worked as its own thing, without reintroducing Christine and Raoul. A story about a fleeing Phantom having to start from scratch and now with a flicker of empathy building a family of choice of people like himself could have been a compelling way to go.
Or becoming obsessed with a new ingenue (a la the tv show You) and his conflict becomes the tragic realization that he hasn't really learned anything about love and destroys everything he touches... And he's tempted to go back to his dark, murderous ways since he can't be truly happy... But in the end sacrifices himself instead. This is just off the cuff, but I think this progression works for the character.
As far as character growth from the first one goes, expand more on Phantom and the Girys relationship. Madame Giry also came off as having something with him (explored in the movie a bit. Is it love? A motherly or big sister figure trying to protect him? Were they a thing before he became obsessed with Christine? Did she find his possessiveness frightening and escape to find a husband but could never escape him unlike Christine?) and Meg was shown to never be really afraid of him just wary and curious. Terrified at the attacks but also tempted by the darkness to ask Christine about her teacher and trying to follow into the underground. Meg is the star of Phantasma, she's the one writing the music and trying to showcase she's been learning some tricks but she'll never be a natural. Maybe he really is the distant father figure she so desperately wants to please but he's never even watching. They'd have some interaction in this version though or maybe that's the point why they never interact directly just keeping touch through Giry. She'd probably have more interactions with the other circus people though. Then maybe towards the end of the first half, we get news about Christine coming. Maybe Raoul is with her, maybe the reason why he's so sad at the beginning of PotO is because he lost her years ago and that's why he wanted the music box so bad to lay at the gravesite because it brought back memories of what brought them together however briefly. Either way she still has Gustav and maybe she's the one trying to rekindle things with Mr. Y because she feels she made the wrong choice with Raoul (either she's broke since she left him or he's kept her from the stage and now she feels she's suffocating as a trophy wife or that the love just didn't last once things were peaceful) and this becomes a dilemma for Phantom since on the one hand he's got his muse and the girl of his dreams back in his life, on the other he's dine so much to move on with his life and has to remember she's the one who left him. Is it out of nostalgia? Is it because he's successful? Is it because of their shared love for music and not actual intimacy? He knows he could get hurt again. I suppose then is the tension of either miscommunication or jealousy ringing it's ugly head or something where it's Erik being the one torn between what he had versus what he has and then further tensions between the girls about Christine's motives for showing up like this and trying to take away everything they've worked for (but it makes more sense if we expanded more in the first half). Maybe in the end Erik realizes how much Meg means to him as the girl he helped raise over the son he never knew. Maybe the fears of jealousy and him leaving them for Christine are put to rest with her and Gustav joining the Phantasma family. Maybe things still play out like they did with Christine's accidental death symbolically officially allowing Erik to move on from the past. Hell maybe he could be the big man and even tell Christine no so they can both learn to move on. What happened all those years ago was lightning in a bottle but she'll sing for him one last time before going. Just something to retain his arc from the first show. And I think making it his decision while showing how he's grown more self confident and toned down from his murderous ways through this found family would have made him more sympathetic if we're supposed to be rooting for him.
I mean, if the story proceeds that Christine's compassion inspired him to use the rest of his life to better the lives of others who are unfortunately maligned by society, it would be a compelling premise, but it still needs a central conflict that ties into that so it isn't ancillary like it is in LND.
I feel like a better way to sequal-ize Phantom of the Opera would be the "poetic justice" or "reversal" style story where the Phantom, trying to go legit, is stalked by a female admirer who has developed a similarly toxic obsession with him after the first play, and how he contends with that. Perhaps he wrestles with the darker side of himself that he's tried to put behind him. His growth as a character is challenged and tested.
What made phantom so appealing to me was that there is an actual Palais Garnier in Paris that had some random rumours about a phantom haunting the place in the past, a box reserved only for the phantom, an underground “river” etc. While Gaston’s story is fictional, it has basis in real myths from the past, and has the atmosphere of the haunting essence surrounding the Palais Garnier. The Phantom is mysterious, he’s some unknown magical force surrounded by tragedy. Phantom of the Opera is not just about some characters in a love triangle, it’s about the haunting atmosphere, the tragic love. To strip that away and make the phantom just some guy in america gets rid of what made the original so alluring
Is it deeply creepy to anyone else that Weber wrote a story about a brilliant genius composer that every woman around him was hopelessly in love with, whose beloved brilliant performer left him for another man who was terrible and ruined her life and wasted her talent and turned her against him, until the brilliant genius composer made a show so brilliant and genius she couldn't help but come back to perform it and fall in love with his genius brilliance again?
What I find especially interesting by the finale is that Christine’s death isn’t really the result of anything she had done or Erick had done. It was just the result of a just wild B-plot with no underlying logic and coherency that just violently collided with the A-plot. It feels like it’s written for sadness sake; star crossed lovers and whatnot. You’d think ALW, in his obvious contempt for his failed relationship and desire for reconciliation, would essentially make Christine cause her own death. What does that say?? I really don’t know.
@@glass.hammer Given the tenor of the Phantom-Christine relationship, it seems more sad than angry, so punishing her would feel excessive. Maybe it's more a realisation that it's over, permanently, can can't come back? Or he just really needed the show to end and threw together some drama so the plot could stop, and it was weird because the plot had also barely actually started.
the existence of LND just shows that ALW totally forgot about the first damn scene in Phantom with an older Madame Giry and older Raoul, who clearly still has a bunch of money
Unless after LND Erik and Gustave either died or run away and Raoul get over alcoholism and someway earns more money and Madam Giry actually gets Erik's business?!? I haven't watch both musicals but is this good enough for a fanfic
Makes me wonder how much of LND maps one to one with ALWs inner and outer life. Which, or rather how many, of the characters are actually representations of aspects of ALWs psyche?
The sequel is like watching your friend get back with their toxic ex, but we're supposed to be happy for them. In reality you're like "yeah I know the d is good but he's an asshole remember? And he's totally love bombing you right now"
@@SylentVoidkeeper Great idea, but I have to admit to loving Andrew Scott as Jim. He was just way too much fun. None of his plot might have fully made sense, but his acting was absolutely worth it.
Probably because the very similar _Tomorrow Never Dies_ was the name of a Bond movie. "Love" is also part of the title of _From Russia With Love_ and _The Spy Who Loved Me._
I love that the story of Love Never dies (from the phantoms pov) is basically the same as the metanarrative of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s relationship with Phantom Of The Opera. He spends ten years thinking about it, tries to do more with it, and like in the show, he should probably have just let it be.
No, but it’s honestly shocking how well it works. The Phantom (ALW) can’t give up on Christine (Phantom of the Opera), but the most he can get is Meg (Love Never Dies) Due to Meg’s “Watch me! Watch me! Watch me!” nature, Christine dies and the Phantom is left traumatized and sad.
lol even in phantom of the opera ALW is written to be phantom considering that Christine is written to be played by ALW's wife before they got divorced. it is funny and cruel that ALW kinda becomes the phantom in some sad asf ways.
@Blair Bart ngl, Ben and Anna killed it. Considering the type of a clusterfuck of a plot they had to work with, they were amazing, and, oddly, had far better chemistry than Sierra and Ramin did who are pretty much the poster couple of POTO casting. 💁♀️
I'm obsessed with the kid spending a whole song enthusiastically agreeing to see the "beauty underneath" and then running away screaming the second he sees a glimpse of the phantom's face
Just what was Webber thinking. The ending of Phantom is breathtaking; and the arc Erik goes through is amazing. He loved Christine so much he knew he had to let her go. WHY WOULD YOU UNDO THAT.
EXACTLY wasn’t the entire point that he realized “oh shit i am actively hurting you, you should probably leave now because i’m slowly realizing that’s the only way you’ll really be happy”
@@crimsonmaverick8237 especially the one and on,y Michael Crawfords performance, I saw a bootleg on TH-cam of it, and while it wasn’t if the best quality obviously, the pain and cries he lets out when he realizes he can never be with Christine, and then to ultimately do something to atone for his sins and let her go, just a beautifully perfect period. This monstrosity as far as I’m concerned is not canon. I refuse to recognize it as such.
Joseph Misinec - Time travel plot solely used to shamelessly wallow in the original story for the length of two stage shows, instead of (as mentioned repeatedly in this video) using the established world as a spring board for new adventures with new characters. (Also, Albus and Scorpius as a couple had ALL the buildup and then was paid off with a last minute “no homo” because we can’t have gays now.)
What's crazy is that the implied "other" possible reading of that line appears to be the reason for having a little boy be part of the story at all, ie that very uncomfortable song, and the weird "relationship" he has with the phantom... my brain, at least, is asking "why is this kid even here?" and unfortunately I can't come to any other conclusion lol.
The third Phantom (Phantom of the Custody Battle: Love Never Settles Out of Court) will feature the Phantom and Raul fighting over who gets to raise Gustav. Since DNA tests don't exist yet, they make a bet. If the Phantom can teach the boy to sing opera in a month, then he gets custody of Gustav. If not, then Erik leaves alone.
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose Yes as @Serplus said, but instead of donating the full amount all at once, you can also make _recurring_ payments and let the team know you are paying towards getting the mug - this is how I am gonna get _something_ I just haven't decided yet what 😅
@@serpi5 are you telling me she spent $250 on that mug??? I’ve only recently started watching her (recent considering she’s been around for a while, I would say I’ve been watching about a year) and she doesn’t strike me as a fanfic lover. Lol I, for the record, am a huge fan of fanfiction and I’ve been thinking about donating for a while now.
Here’s my pitch for Phantom of the Opera 2 that no one asked for: the Phantom faked his death, moves to New York, changes his identity and writes a Broadway musical retelling of his life story glorifying himself as a tragic hero and his romance with Christine as a healthy and beautiful relationship undone by his enemies, resulting in basically the musical equivalent of The Room, and Noises Off/The Play That Goes Wrong-esque hilarity ensues as he tries to stage this monstrosity
YES!!!! Then he drags Christine to play herself and his ploys are foiled due to a various of comedic mishaps of both the show going wrong and Raoul getting in the way with his over-eager super supportive loving husband role TM. Foiled so thoroughly that Christine and Raoul set off back to Paris after the failed show run completely unaware that the Phantom had been in the shadows all this time.
@@stephanieclark8327 And then the phantom lets one rip for the first time in his life... giving up on pretentions of being a Supernatural Entity, for Phantoms cannot let one rip, as that is a benefit only to the living. XD
It turns out that Erik's musical genius does not extend to writing or directing or getting along well with the number of people needed to make a stage show happen. The show does include a lot of very impressive special effects though.
"I want to write a surrealist noir musical." "But what if people aren't interested?" "I'll put that guy into it that everyone likes." "...Hugh Jackman?" "No I mean the Phantom of the Opera, people love that guy."
Hey Lindsay, I know you're retired from TH-cam but I wanted to say that I read Axiom's End recently and I was blown away. It felt so much like old-school sci-fi that's about culture and humanity and understanding rather than pew pew spaceships. I will definitely be reading your next book. As an aspiring writer myself, this is super encouraging :).
Usually when cats pull dick-moves like that (gif of cat staring at owner while slowly pushing glass over kitchen counter's edge onto hardwood floor, anyone??), we are reminded that cats are independent, inpredictable, still half-wild adorable evil geniuses that can't ever be fully trusted. >.> Yet here comes this cat, inadvertently stumbling over the line from cool-cat villain to accidental "good guy". Not the hero we asked for, but the hero we needed...
He was too busy planning Christine's re-kidnapping and it's requiered song, he didn't have time for anything better. Maybe he remebered he had a dead line, blindly picked a song from his rejected pile, and kept on planning.
We are all now burdened with knowledge. I didn't want to know this exists. I love the original Phantom of the Opera, and Raul and Christine singing "All I Ask Of You" for me feels like an allegory for depression, and having people there during your darkest moments. And now I have to live with the knowledge that Raul is a drunk, a gambler, and a horrible father. Yippee.
I hope Lindsay is doing better whatever she decides to do in the future-I hope she finds something that keeps her happy. Thank you for everything you've done in this platform, it was a pleasure.
@@garretdrake2347 I'm pretty sure Lindsay has tended to *not* discuss Doug Walker and her former affiliations with Channel Awesome...somehow, that doesn't really align with the idea that "she spent her entire career trying to cancel doug walker"
@@warlordofbritannia yeah its a bunch of fake woke children who heard there favorite tublr blog complain about how she didnt like soul therefore she racist or some dome white progressive crap like that
This is a good example of how you can create something about a topic you're passionate about and people unfamiliar or uninterested will still thoroughly enjoy it. The video, not the musical.
Just to put in perspective how bad the sequel is, I once knew a guy who was so absolutely obsessed with Phantom of the Opera that he spent all his disposable income, thousands of dollars, on seeing the show in the theatre over and over again, and buying all manner of Phantom merchandise... and even he hated Love Never Dies. He even organized a boycott that was titled "Love Should Die." (LSD for short)
Javert didn't really shatter his pelvis falling onto that fountain from a thousand feet high... He's back with a burning desire for revenge/sex with Jean Valjean. I will write this. Pay me.
Now we know that Lindsay has quit TH-cam, and that this is her last ever video, it makes perfect sense to end it with this, she finally covered this musical, with her being maybe the biggest fan of phantom (or Phan of the opera). Good luck to her. She needs to do this, for the sake of her mental health. She owes us nothing. She provided so much joy to us for over a decade, for free. Good luck to her with whatever she wants to do. And hopefully the sociopath mob will stop trying to ruin people's lives on twitter
What the fuck? Why did she quit? I mean, everyone deserves to retire, so if it's genuinely that she wants to take a break, then good for her. I just hope it's not something stupid as fuck, or actually something that comes from Twitter (which is itself stupid as fuck, and we as a society need to honestly ignore that entire platform). Edit: Actually now I realize that it could be TH-cam as an organization's bullshit as well. What with the hiding dislikes, lack of transparency, and general political/ad-friendly/family-friendly nonsense, chasing off so many of the actually creative people on the site. EDIT 2: WAIT will she still be on things like Nebula??? Because if so, I'll move there or wherever to support her!
"Phan of the Opera" is pretty good, lol. I agree with everything else you said. I loved Lindsay's work for the last... twelve years, I think? And if she's done, well, that's her right, though I wish for her sake it was under better circumstances.
The pan up shot of Phantom staring at Christine after Gustave arrives is the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. He’s supposed to look menacing and hurt but he actually just ends up looking like a seventh grade boy who discovered his crush is going with someone else to the fall dance
so I went to see the original POTO yesterday for the 2nd time (thanks for that Lindsay) and you know what's not helpful? remembering Lindsay saying ''he hits it and quits it like 20 times'' and giggling like hell during melodramatic scenes
“We can’t all be Christine”
High school theatre kids at a party would beg to differ.
This is vastly underrated comment.
Now I’m just thinking of a phantom of the opera show where every character is just a Christinified version of that character. We got Raul Christine, Phantom Christine, Meg Christine, Primadona Christine, Christine Christine…
I admit, once I made my CAT a Phantom costume for Halloween, and dressed as his Christine, with the leash from his harness ending in a collar around my neck.
We know who owns who in this house. 😼
@@neuralmute w h a
(The sound of 20 teenage voices aiming at that high E note)
The Phantom determines that Gustav is his son because he's musical. Because of course there's no musical talent on his mother's side of the family.
Nah singing isn't genetic lol just playing the piano
lol, excellent point.
Erik is such a dick.
Hence the punnet squares. Cos I guess being musical is...recessive?
Apparently Christine sucked at singing before the Phantom trained her, so who knows honestly
@@justyouraveragecorgi But her father was a violinist.
My wife and I saw a showing of this on tour. At the end she asked me "Was there anyone to root for?" And I answered "The gun."
Spot on 😂
Excellent answer
Oh, the good old gun. The only thing that gave the show any joy and laughter.
*Replays the scene of Meg shooting Christine by accident*
"~Give me the gun, Meg~"
😂
Christine sleeping with the Phantom minutes after the original story was over is fucking hilarious
It's like after the curtains fell, she was like "Oh hey I gotta go pick up some stuff at my Ex's place, don't worry I'm not gonna sleep with him or anything"
"That is an extremely specific denial but I suppose I believe you."
It's like that infamous Luke abandoning the Jedi, oh, 5 minutes after Return of the Jedi
@@Tareltonlives Been a hot minute since I've seen TLJ, but didn't he abandon the Jedi _after_ the Ben Solo incident? Which had to have been at least 15-20 years after the original trilogy?
@@timothymclean I know: I'm saying Love Never Dies would be basically 10 minutes rather than 20 years
@@Tareltonlives Ah. Guess I'm too used to people making sh*t up to sh*t on TLJ.
Something about the Phantom singing "Give me the gun, Meg" actually broke me.
Hundredth like
🎵You don’t want to do this🎵
🎶You have so much to liiiiiive for!🎶
"Give me the hurt and the pain and the gun, Meg"
I just like to imagine that what if SWAT Team Hostage Negotiators have to sing to the perp to get them to calm down.
yeah me too 😔
“We can’t all be Like Christine” has the grace and emotional understanding of “Shut up Meg.”
This needs to br higher
It's "Shut up Meg," but wearing a pretty mask to sound more sophisticated. Or, well, half a mask at least.
"Shut up Meg, give me the gun!♫
Funny, "Shut up, Meg" was my review for this show
I’m screaming
my pitch for a phantom sequel would involve christine becoming a new phantom because she's pissed off that she can't get any roles once she hits 40
Ngl, I would read that.
I'd SO read that. It could either go the "NOW we can genuinely feel empathy for a Phantom" route, or the "such a tragedy she ended up becoming the very thing that hurt her" route.
Shit, I might write it myself, I'm feeling hyped!
she also wears a mask and the whole show you're like "oh no, what happened to her" and then it's revealed she's just aged, has some wrinkles and got shamed for it and now feels hideous (definitely didn't steal that from batman the animated series)
Take my money!
Is this a thing in theatre? I know it's definitely a thing in movies and TV.
Opinion: "Only ten years OOOOOLD" is the musical theater equivalent of "Somehow Palpatine returned"
That is correct
You’re right and you should say it.
"Luke Skywalker is missing"
"Put down the gun Meg!"
"Ten years OOOOOOOLD" walked so "Somehow, Palpatine returned" could fly.
@BK Beatty the milk was blue actually, I don’t know shit about Star Wars but I know my alien milks
Raoul and Erik raising their dead love interest’s child is the spin-off sitcom series that we deserve.
One and a Half Phantoms (And a dickless man)
Maybe that'll be the third instalment in the 'Phantom' series lol
Babe, wake up, new Enemies-to-Lovers ship just dropped.
@@gwendolynstata3775 you can't comment this and not drop the ao3 link
@@gwendolynstata3775 thanks for telling us... I guess
How did literally NO ONE involved in the making of this musical ever stop and think, "Hm, maybe having a TEN YEAR OLD CHILD emphatically, repeatedly yell 'YES' in response to the phantom asking 'Are you ready for what I'm about to give you?' isn't a great idea."
every time Lindsay replays the clip i lose 50% of my hp
😳 my face never strayed from this expression the whole time. Sounds so wrong
I just violently spat out my drink, how did I not catch that?!
All I could think of was Dee in it's always sunny singing "tiny boy, baby boy, little boy i neeeeed yoooooou"
oh im sure a lot did...sadly the only person that Mattered ..Lord Andrew didnt.
The thing I hate about Love Never Dies is that Phantom is such a beautiful departure from love stories made for women where toxic romance is glorified. The entire theme of the show is that darkness is exciting and alluring and sexy, but when exposed to it for too long, it drives Christine mad.
It’s acknowledged that Christine’s attachment to the phantom is largely because he came along at the right time to fill the hole left in her heart by her father dying.
Although she feels warmth for him, because she is kind and she is pure, she teaches him that he’s been seeing himself as the victim this whole time because his face is ugly, but the real reason no one can love him is because his heart has grown ugly as he has stewed in his own persecution complex. Honestly a commentary on incels truly ahead of its time.
In the end she pursues a healthy relationship and leaves him crying on the ground.
But the message behind Love Never Dies retcons and reverses the eNTIre message of the original and goes “um no actually the excitement you feel around a toxic partner is actually true love” and then they make everyone else in Christine’s life so horrible that the Phantom starts to look good by comparison and then she gets shot and dies. Cool.
@@SpoopySquid oh shit 😬
"You're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole."
I don’t really agree, though I desperately wish that I could, that the content of Phantom fully divorces itself from admonishing the Erick by the end. Yes, the text directly very much lays out in plain English that Erick is a murdering narcissist with a chip on his shoulder as large as the chunk of his flesh peeled from his face. However, it still, to the very end, wants to give the him not just an explanation, but an excuse. The second act constantly plays with Christine’s paranoia (“Twisted in Every Way”) and somehow unrelenting lust (“Past the Point of No Return”). “Track Down This Murderer” and “Down Once More” mirror each other sonically and thematically, just like the mob that chases the Beast and his violent attempt at escape where we’re supposed to sympathize with this unfair generalization. In only the last 5 minutes of the show does he realize that, oops, he was the asshole all along, and dare I say it??, a murderer. And even so, there is a little more than a hint that Christine’s pity and compassion is one out of true adoration, rather than coerced admiring.
The direction that LND went was the cemented descent into incel degeneration that was kind of hinted at in Phantom.
I sincerely believe that ALW wrote what he knew, figuratively, in the development of the libretto. He was teetering on the edge of self-awareness and self-pity, subconsciously or consciously. This is huge speculation, but I think his failing relationship and divorce from Sarah pushed him firmly in the wrong direction. Really, it could have been a moment of incredible growth. if he had wanted to reconcile in his mind what went wrong, LND could have been a truer character study of an abusive person who makes an effort to actually fight their demons for the love of their partner. Not necessarily for the hope of reunion, but to honor a love long lost. A love that never dies, not because the love of another can fix someone, but the loss of another is often and unfortunately the slap in the face that people need to change, be it distance, divorce, or death. (But that’s just me “writing what I know” so to speak.)
HOLY CRAP BEAUTIFUL , well said
It's like every bad fanfiction that demonized demonized Canon pairing to make their OTP work
If the women I was ready to sacrifice my life for was still thirsting after the said person/serial killer who tried to end my life I’d probably be a drunk as well
on a more serious note, this is actually by far the most compelling reason i've heard for Raoul being a drunk in the first place. it's like, not only is the spin on his character rly fanficy, but could you please give me any reason as to *why* he turned to alcohol in the first place?! Like say whatever you want abt Raoul but he nvr seemed very mentally unstable in the first one, not to mention that apparently christine cheated on him before and nvr told him and then proceeded to marry him just for socioeconomic reasons. i was just thinking how the groundwork laid in LND, how just generally bad, if anything lends itself way more to make Raoul a sympathetic monster than the phantom, and imo it prob would have at least been way more interesting and likeable if the story ended up being about Raoul and Christine fixing their marriage and their family dynamic. There's already hints where raoul is given *some* character development and sympathy meanwhile the phantom's over here kidnapping on innocent child, and I just think that would at least work way better. (and i also confess that Ive always loved Raoul--i saw the movie first--so I would also like that way better personally😂)
oscar
I know this was one year ago but I absolutely despise what they did to Raoul's character. He was so lovable in the book and I never really deemed him as narcissistic (although he is kinda spoiled and naive but he did have character development). I really hate how we're supposed to look at the phantom and christine's story as romantic
@@SM-ky6pb I meaaaan... I don't know if I'd call him lovable in the book. Raoul literally calls Christine a $lut and is overall kind of a d0uche (before his character arc). But I wholeheartedly agree, there was literally no motivation behind making Raoul a perpetual drunk and gambler other than to make Christine and the Phantom the obvious choice. OP's comment is something I maybe would've liked to see? Cause at least there's valid motivation
He also ignores Christine's boundaries in a casual way, and never really stops. They do make a point about him always entering her dressing room w/o knocking and when she's not there, and going through her things, all without caring when she asks him not to. Even before he suspects anything is going on. And with showing how Raoul actually causes the buildup to the Phantom's kidnapping/explosion, by never listening to Christine-- even after she told him about the Phantom-- to give it a few days, let her calm Erik down, and stop snooping/invading, etc. That’s actually explicit in the text.
But yeah, he is likable…otherwise. In a naive wide eyed rich kid… way. The play does him a bit better.
And once again Leroux's century-old version of the Persian is SOMEHOW the most progressive representation of the character thus far.
When the original Persian, a typical ‘19th- century (not technically as the book is from early twentieth century but you know) foreign guide who knows more’, is still more progressive than every subsequent version of the character, then you know something’s gone wrong…
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@@Boredmom482 I think this guy had a stroke.
@@imveryangryitsnotbutter lmao it looks like my kid got a hold of my phone 🤣🤣
#justiceforNadir
The grossest thing about this is how post-divorce, ALW wrote/commissioned a story in which:
- The young singer, a role originated by his ex-wife, regrets not choosing the genius composer;
- She confesses that she still loves him;
- And then she dies
Jesus that makes it so much worse
Wow. And I thought Twilight and Rise of Skywalker had painfully misogynistic "storytelling".
Wait wait….I think you’re onto something here.
Yikes
Oh…..oh damn.
"See how I glitter"
"I'm losing to a bird!"
"I ate the whole plate"
...
and now "Give me the gun Meg"
“Hal, it’s about cats”
The quartet is complete
More like "Ten years OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD"
@@warlordofbritannia I knew I was forgetting one!
Where's "I'm directly beneath the enemy's scrotum"?
Okay, but giving the Phantom an entire song about hyping up taking off his mask only for his son to deliver the hottest burn ever is hilarious.
@BK Beatty why.
@BK Beatty yeah, but then Lloyd Webber couldn’t punish a female character for not being nice to the sad man who just wanted to love her, and we can’t have that.
(I saw Bad Cinderella on Broadway, and between that and Love Never Dies I feel like I got an insight into Lord Andy’s mind I didn’t want.)
I laughed honestly
@@bigjedimulletBig Andy must’ve forgotten all the murders, property destruction, and death threats while writing this
It's absolutely fantastic.
ALW commissioning an author to write his self-insert Phantom fanfic and then hating the finished product is the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard
You’d think that would put into perspective how utterly demented his perspective on his failed marriage was. But, nope, son of a bitch doubled down.
Kinda reminded about how Placido Domingo commissioned Gian-Carlo Menotti to write an opera about the artist Fransisco Goya for him to star in.
But the opera didn't go over very well so he went over to Maury Yeston (the guy who wrote that other Phantom musical) and commissioned him to write another musical about Goya.
A trainwreck only surpassed by Cats (2019)
And he had it changed...in Extremely minor pointless ways that didn't solve the biggest problems, which makes me think LND's worst points are all from Sir Andy himself
@@glass.hammer or when his cat, Oscar, deleted the score for it and he had to rewrite it...
I was told that Oscar as later hit by a car.
“They gave Andrew Lloyd Webber total artistic control” is a sentence that can never ever EVER have a good conclusion
I mean, can’t be much worse than giving Tom Hooper total creative control
“Do you want Cats? Because that’s how we got Cats.”
@@kimberlyterasaki4843 I hope Cats made everyone collectively decide that he can never have full control again. God my dislike for him grows everyday.
@@Olivia-dg4fb isn't he a tory who flew in from the US to the UK just to vote in favour of welfare cuts?
Edit: nvm he ended up not doing it. He's still a tory tho
@@PristianoPenaldoSUIIII I didn't know he wanted to do that! Okay now I am good with saying I hate him.
1. if Christine doesn't know the full significance of performing, her choice to perform doesn't carry any weight
2. it's hilarious that everyone assumes Gustav must be the Phantom's son because he's musically gifted. Hello?! His mother is a world-famous soprano?!
And her Dad was a world-famous violinist!
Melissa beat me to it.
I mean the script in its entirety treats Christine (and tbh the rest of the female characters) as an afterthought so no wonder Gustav's talent has to be credited to his father as if it's the only logical explanation. Watching the Phantom trying to put two and two together like some sort of off-brand Sherlock is worth it though. His "*gasp* he's just ten years old1!1!!!1"/"omg he plays like me!!1!1!" scenes are still unintentional comedy gold, so I'm glad Love Never Dies exists in the trashfire form that it does.
If Christine doesn't know the weight of her choice, it only comes down to "who has more control over her by any means (force, manipulation, whatever), wins".
I think it was more the fact that Gustave is also a nightmare fetishist that makes the Phantom think he's his son.
Love Never Dies has the same energy as a direct-to-DVD Disney sequel
That's an insult to _Pooh's Grand Adventure._
@@mariic2oh my God somebody else remembered that masterpiece
@@rwilcox prince be like: I can't go down the stairs? Ok. *Yeets himself out a window*
At least the bad ones
I prefer the Hunchback of Notre Dame II over love never dies
"despite his virgin status he hits it and quits it like 30 times in one night. stamina. phamina." i am SOBBING
Teh Masterful Virgin, back when Phanwank was a thing.
It builds up after not doing it for years. That's what I heard anyway!
Ol' Phanty singing an entire duet about turning her into a splooge filled eclair. Truly one for the ages.
@@Moonhermit- LOL LOL LOL So romantic
The Cosmopolitan magazine cover at 12:49 that keeps bringing up the sex doll broke me.
"So, Christine dies..."
Well she's not named Christine Live-ae is she?
YOOOOOOOU. best comment
Please exit the building now
That right there that is a real knee slapped buddy pal friend
/angry thumb's up Now, don't do that again, or I'll stifle a laugh in your direction EXTRA hard!
HAHAHA amazing
Boy, that cast is trying so hard with so little. Gotta admire it
Same with the costume and set design. Ngl, the show looks gorgeous
Yeah everyone really went all in on this 😅
@@karinmaria6455 the aussie show design was stunning. can't say the same about the original sadly :(
Those performers sang Beneath a Moonless Sky so straight faced and seriously, they deserve all the awards
@@unluckyone1655 all 8 minutes of it
This musical is more than…
TENNNNNNNNN YEARSSSSSSSS OLDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!
Lol. That's so bad, and yet still so good of a joke. XD
Oh my God....such unnecessary dramatic notes for a few silly words.
I cackled at this.
Omg 😆
I was hoping someone would make this joke. You have not dissapointed!
Imagine being so stone cold that you sing a ballad called "Love Never Dies" while actively planning on leaving your hubby for a serial killer
A serial killer who threatened to harm/kill her child and only backed off when he realized that it was his kid too
You’ve never been to divorce court
oh my gosh I NEVER noticed that 👀
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MAMA XD That BURN!!! I can smell the barbecue from here!! (Spain :D )
"The Phantom of the Opera" is a supernatural entity like Freddy Krueger or Candyman that will disappear from existence if Lindsay goes too long without talking about it.
You are not wrong
"It was you, Lindsay, it was always you."
Yes
so...never?
Funny since Robert Englund played The Phantom in the 1989 Horror version of Phantom of the Opera.
Lindsay: "...filmed ten years ago."
Me: "Wait, no don't..."
Phantom: "TEEEN YEEARS OOOOOOOOOOOOLD."
Just imagine you’re the Phantom’s actor’s kid and then it’s your 10th birthday...
*Knocks on the door*
- Happy birthday, my child!
- Thanks Dad!
- Today you are...
- Wait... NOPE! DAD! I KNOW YOU’RE THE PHANTOM IN LOVE NEVER DIES BUT PLEASE...
- TEN... YEARS... OLD!
*Goes face first into cake in sheer cringe*
I could hear Lindsay laughing maniacally when that realisation popped into her head.
She was sitting on that joke for a while.
It made me cackle very loudly
@@jcav9410 I plan on doing EXACTLY this next year
I'm not like a humongous fan of Phantom of the Opera, but I feel like there's a reason he's Phantom of the Opera and not Phantom of the Carny Freakshow. Like, oh no, this horrifying circus sideshow also has a phantom... I thought it was just a terrible geek parade
Yeah, it's a bit of a step down from haunting the Paris Opera house. Plus, he doesn't even seem to try to hide himself at all in this show. He's not mysterious or magical as a gothic, villainous figure typically is, he's just... there.
Somewhere in there is a cool idea about how the people who were deemed "other" by society were super talented and that together they could create something truly beautiful for all. But we didn't get that at all.
@@halo2d Isn't that basically The Greatest Showman?
Didn't KISS make that movie? Lololol
@@starlabradshaw2969 Nah, it was Brian De Palma lol
Love the fact Erik "so touch starved that he died from a forehead kiss" is apparently so gifted that on his first night, my dude was clapping cheeks to the tempo of 120bpm. That Wap's got power-
WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS I WAS DRINKING WATER AND U ALMOST K*LLED ME
i want this comment framed on my wall it's BRILLIANT
Rewatching the vid and I find THIS hiding in the comments. Bless you for giving me a truly good laugh
What the fuck kind of genius is this
😂
No Cbat needed, either
Love Never Dies is the epitome of bad fanfiction where everyone is horribly out of character all for the sake of the author's OTP.
It is the Metroid: Other M of Musicals.
Cursed Child.
Basically, the internet taking over Broadway. 99% of all fanfictions are garbage. And that's really only because fanfiction is not a true expression of art, nor a dedicated continuation of the original material. It is someone literally vomiting their inner fantasies, all over the web, and writing it the way that a horny teenager would write it, with no actual talent for storytelling.
@@jacob4920 just how dead is the ok boomer meme, because it feels appropriate
@@jacob4920 Wow. It’s just fanfiction dude, it’s not that deep.
Christine sighed, her luminous orbs turning toward the moon. “Erik would never treat me this way”
Luminous orbs that turn to look at things? What is she, a frickin' BEHOLDER?
I'd like to imagine that her breasts turned to face the moon, but she didn't. They just snake right out of her chest.
@@didiercollard snek boob
Dark Balls of Sight
"Be quiet I'm trying to get drunk and spend money."
The Phantom singing "Give me the gun Meg" is such a perfect example of a sequel missing the tone of the original.
Nostalgia Critic had "OF COURSE" and "BIG LIPPED ALLIGATOR MOMENT"
Lindsey needs " *Give me the gun Meg* " in her running gag repertoire
Has very similar energy to "She had a *gun*, Anna."
@@TheSecondVersion The big lipped alligator moment was Lindsey's thing from the beginning and she was pretty proud because it got her a mention on TvTropes. Don't take that away from her
@@TheSecondVersion I feel like she has a bunch of meme moments, even though she doesn't repeat them like NC does. It's mostly us the peanut gallery.
Like on a video for "Beneath a Moonless Sky" someone recently commented, "Stamina. Phanima" and got a nice reply like, "welcome fellow Lindsey Ellis watcher."
On a recent upload of the "give me the gun Meg" video I quoted Hal Prince's famous line about CATS and got a bunch likes and replies also quoting from other Lindsay Ellis videos. (Like "I'm losing to a bird.")
Nah American Psycho 2 misses the point even harder
Why couldn't Webber save that weirdly orgasmic sounding song about "tasting/accepting/embracing the beauty underneath-YES!" for the Phantom reseducing Christine? WHY have him sing like that to his own son?!
Well then, he’d have to be critical of the Phantom’s actions. And we can’t have that, now can we?
I actually just realized that song feels like it was written as the sequel version of "The Phantom of the Opera" (a really charged, rock opera number). As for why it's being sung to a CHILD... I got nothing.
thank you for putting it into words why this song always made me uncomfy
Bro I legit thought that song was FIRE as a dumb 13 year old, I showed it to my mom and told her a bit too vagualey what the context was and she was horrified 😭😂
I nearly had a stroke from laughter too
I guess Raoul knows he's in Love Never Dies and that's why he drinks some more.
I mean you can’t blame him. I’d drink to if I was in love never dies
😂😂😂😂
A couple of notes:
1. I love how Lindsay has been dunking on “beneath a moonless sky” for over a decade
2. That song with the phantom and the 10 year old is the most disturbing thing I have seen in a long time
3. “GIVE ME THE GUN MEG”
4: Raoul got his dick shot off by performing a heroic deed in Paris.
Re: your second point, the version on the OLCR is arguably even worse. The kid honestly gets *far* too into saying "yes".
@@overlydramaticpanda I am so glad I wasn't the only one to notice this; I was listening rather than watching during that section, and it's goddamn *disturbing*
@@TheSpearkan “thinking quickly, he whipped out his dick and successfully stopped the stray bullet from hitting any Parisian orphans…but at great personal cost.” 🤣
@@overlydramaticpanda Agreed! The first time I listened to this song I was so appalled--I wasn't impressed with the show up to that point, but that song tipped this musical from "disappointing" to "wtf." Ofc, I then had to share this one song with my friends who enjoy musicals so I could cackle watching the changing expressions on their faces as they listened to it.
The show's reputation got it so many nicknames...my favorite is "Paint Never Dries."
Oh my god, you made my morning. Thank you. XD
I'd totally watch paint never dries
I support a Two man and half based spinoff about Raoul and Erik doing their best to look happy together in front of Gustav
Would have been a better idea than adding Aston Kutcher
You know, I see the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers potential there
@@rancidkippa4589 OH MY GOD
@@rancidkippa4589 I'm pretty sure Nellachronism went through a whole twitter fever dream about this during lockdown. The clearest thing I remember was a reference to Raoul's 'career' in the navy.
time to check ao3
“We can’t… all be… like… Christine.”
Masterful negotiation
"Give me the gun, Meg" is a hilariously delivered line, no doubt, but it can't hold a candle to the pure poetry of this line.
To be fair, he did make Charisma his dump stat.
"Marcia Marcia Marcia"
"Jan this isn't about you"
"It never is!"
Bardic Inspiration should definitely use the line, if they haven't already.
other sentences the Phantom could have used as the Masterful Negotiationer that he is
"You better shot us or you are going to jail, Meg!"
" No Meg, shooting the child wont solve your Problems...aim for the real problem here..."
"Meg! Are you only doing this because Christine completly replaced you in my Eyes?"
"dont hurt that child! he is the Product of my passionate lovemaking with this woman right here"
"Dont do it Peg...Peggy? Maggie? or whatever your name is ...Christine , Love of my life, what is that womans name?"
"We can't all be like Christine."
...wooooooooow. Are we sure the Phantom wasn't secretly TRYING to get her to shoot herself after all?
That also would have been a better ending. Phantom is all "If you must" and then when Meg's brains have painted the balcony he shrugs it off because he fucking loves solving all his problems with death.
So...it looks like Meg is the star of the Phantom's super-commercial 'Murican sellout of his music writing talent. But they never communicate, so like...he writes her all these goofy up-tempo numbers instead of the chromatic weirdness of "Don Juan Triumphant" and she's - I guess mad that the phantom doesn't looOOOooove her?
Seriously I haven't laughed out loud at a video so much in a long time!
It would be more in character at least.
I almost read it as an attempted "I also cant be like Christine, I understand you, I'm also not as awesome as her". Hence, we.
But yknow, still obviously terrible approach
@@FFKonoko me too-which is why it’s exactly the WRONG thing to say, because it still involves Christine.
This whole love child thing just gets me. In the original show, there's literally a time skip while Christine is in the phantom's lair (in between Music of the Night and Stranger than you Dreamt It) during which they totally could have knocked metaphorical boots. Yes, it's suggested Christine is waking up after falling unconscious in the previous song, but she could have just been asleep after they did the horizontal tango. The movie even played with this idea by having her wake up without her stockings on. And she wasn't even a couple with Raoul at that point!
Still makes infinity more sense than, "Oh, the whole ending is null and void now because as soon as the play ended she changed her mind and booked it straight back to the phantom and they totally had loads of crazy sex you guys."
I guess they didn’t because it would’ve maybe implied to some audiences that he had raped her, which would’ve interfered with their hot steamy romance.
honestly, this is genius. i have not thought of this before and now i shall let it live rent free in my brain
I have a feeling they don’t go with this because she also at that time thought he might be her dads ghost 😂
after Christine wakes up, there's the scene of basically entire cast going nuts because she's gone since "last night". Eric also says they have to go back because they will be looking for her. the thing would've looked different if there actually was a time skip there
Idk, I'd take a LOT of issue with that because the phantom is meant to be somewhat sypathetic. The original story (both the book and musical) invite us to empathise with him. You're idea in practice would very intensly suggest that he SA-ed Christine, which would make that basically impossible
"Chose beauty and youth- over genius and art." Like the Phantom wasn't a raging murderer and Christine was just some flighty airhead who was "taken" with a good looking dude. YOU HUNG A MAN FROM THE RAFTERS PHANTOM-
Ugg wamman. Always choosing some jerk Chad like Roul who’s empathetic and financially stable and tries to save you from your stalker and who you have fond childhood memories with over the nice guys like serial murder phantom. So shallow.
@@doll_dress_swap12 TRUUU
@@doll_dress_swap12 I mean, that's why he had to develop a raging alcohol/gambling addiction; because all good-looking, socially outgoing, and emotionally stable men are just truly Chads in disguise and not a nIcE guY like Andrew Lloyd Web- IMEAN- THE PHANTOM-
@@laurena9563 ya...
And he was the one who left her. Literally in the same musical he explicitly states that she came and found him and he ran away while she was asleep.
"Cosmo's top 10 positions to try beneath a moonless sky" is getting underappreciated in this comment section
Had to pause the video to read all the captions.
That visual _sent me_ to the moon and back
Time stamp?
@@skepticmoderate5790 12:47 It’s great
Every part of that frame is gold lmaooo
"My favorite sequel is a fanfiction that was published by a mysterious author like ten years ago."
Oh, so the fanfic is TEEEEN YEEEEEAAARS OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!
can't believe Lindsay didn't drop the name of the fic 😤
@@ilovetolovemylove a comment by _combustible-lemons_ actually mentions it. It’s entitled “a stroll on sunday” that’s published on ao3! (where they found it at least)
@@bluestone_alley1617 now I'm hoping Angelina and Lindsay drop more fic recommendations because Stroll On A Sunday was everything 😭
AKSKDFKFKSKSKDDKS
In all honesty, love never dies seems like it would have been an enjoyable AO3 fic. It's rare for that fanfic energy to make it to a mainstream production
Nah, man. I've read a livrary's worth of fanfic that's definitely better than this. I'd say this is specifically Fifty Shades/My Immortal/Born to be Bred(???) quality of fanfic big brain.
@@NachoCheeseDorito-Kun I'mmmm sorry, born to be WHAT?
@@xxwolfrocksxx1829 It's real. I had to look it up because--despite my experience with the highs and lows of fanfiction--I still had to double-check. But yeah, it exists.
@xxwolfrocksxx1829 -- You'll wanna watch Lindsay's Omegaverse / Addison Cain vids. And after you do, you may perhaps find yourself contemplating a screen name change...
It's "Love Never Dies" and season 2 of Good Omens so far
“So this show ends with the Phantom of the Opera negotiating a hostage crisis” is an iconic quote.
Imagine if things like this happened with other famous musical characters. “Sweeney Todd busts a food tampering scheme”.
"Give me the gun Meg" deserves to be a running gag
@@merrittanimation7721 All of the Cats defuse a bomb
@@merrittanimation7721 Jean Valjean stops a dude from commiting tax evasion
When it was on in London, everyone (critics, fans, and industry professionals alike) called it Paint Never Dries.
Specifically the West End Whingers, but it certainly caught the imagination.
That's gold Jerry
"...So he spends most of the novel being confused in French." What a marvellous sentence
[French noises intensify]
Confused AND french
@@Charon.1 Upon a rewatch you are correct, but I think the (wrong) thing I heard was funnier
The thing that always makes me laugh is when Gustav goes missing and there's a fakeout where you think Raoul might have kidnapped him, so the Phantom is all like "what kind of monster would hurt another man's child for revenge?" and it's like YOU!. You were totally down with threatening Gustav 15 minutes ago, before you realized he was yours.
literally. LND cannon phantom just backslides so hard with the character development
Yes but who would hurt *me* and *my* child? Only a bad person, that's who.
The character assassination of Raoul. Unreal. The man who literally stayed with this woman despite being either out of her mind, or is targeted by a murderous stalker is now a drunk abusive gambler????
Oh, so that's where Sarah J. Maas got the idea for her sequels.
It's Cursed Child all over again
Justice for Raoul.
And are we also going to ignore the “ALW is bad at maths”, because if this is ten years later, Gustav should be…nine.
that's what i was thinking! does this all take place like a week before his birthday??
Not to mention the first play being set in, like, the 1880s, and this one in the 1920s.
@@DillonExner They thought "FORTY YEARS OOOLLDDDD" didn't sound good so they changed it to ten
@@DillonExner Love Never Dies takes place in 1907, but yeah, weird. 👍
@@santheshark Yeah, that confusion is from the style of the musical acts being a bit more flapperesque than the early Ziegfeld follies style.
As someone who saw the Melbourne production in 2011 I can confirm this was probably the story
hey seggsy(•:
do a caravan of garbage for the Lego Skywalker saga playing The Complete Saga. I know that's unrelated but I wanna see u play it👉🏻👈🏻 or better yet do a caravan of garbage of each lego star wars game, I miss Caravan of Garbage video games
Mr Sunday and Lindsay Ellis crossover? I must be dreaming! (to be fair it's 5am here so anything is possible...)
I love when people I'm a fan of comment on each other.
I love you and everything you do James but you’re not verified so I do not trust anything you’re saying
When I walked out of that theater... I literally said, "Love should die," and then burst into tears. No joke it was that bad.
😂😂😂
Sometimes…your ship becoming canon is the worst thing that can happen to you
@@minastone155I'm sorry but this brings me back to my starco trauma
I saw it live and we call it Paint never dries.
@@madeline6951not a spn fan but they got it BAD with their super hell gay ship.
"Coming back for the sequel" is an understatement for how thoroughly I am coming back for the sequel
Mommy?
Lindsey on KJB when
Mommy? I mean mommy? I mean mommy? I mean mommy? I mean mommy? I mean mommy?
I was wondering why that letter sounded like someone mocking JK Rowling and then I was like "Ooooooh!. It's Abigail's 'incestuous conservative sister of an arsonist' voice!"
You're my fave ❤️✨
Raoul being an inexplicitly terrible person despite being the opposite in the original musical gives me big "just found out my high school sweetheart got married so I'm going to write a musical where her new husband is terrible and she comes back to me" vibes. Move on Richard.
Edit: Just remembered that the first play starts with Roul and Christine old and married and financially stable bidding for the big chandelier at an auction. Richard. She's happy. Get a hobby.
how did I never consider the opening scene of the first show you're so right 💀
This means she came back to life
She is officially Jesus
Isn't it just old Raoul?
So glad someone commented this lol raoul becoming a terrible person doesnt add up to me
It's not too hard to draw the line between Sarah Brightman leaving ALW and the Phantom being presumably perceived as romantic by ALW in Love Never Dies...
One of the best sequels of all time, 'Shrek 2', really illustrates your point about good sequels not disregarding where the previous entry left off.
An early scene is Shrek & Fiona enjoying their honeymoon, running from angry mobs with pitchforks in soft focus. Being reviled for being ogres isn't a source of shame or resentment; because they have each other it doesn't even dampen their mood. This scene fundamentally couldn't happen if the sequel disregarded how their character arcs developed.
Shrek 2 truly was a great sequel.
Unironically, Shrek 2 is such a good sequel that it's just as good, if not better, than the original.
Imagine if Shrek 2 ignored the character development and had everyone regress and become worse like LND did. (That was kinda what Shrek 3 did with them rejecting being good leaders of a kingdom despite Fiona and Shrek making amazing leaders, but we pretend Shrek 3 didn't happen and Shrek 4 is the 3rd one.)
👏👏👏
Sounds like Schaffrillas Productions… and it’s great
Gaston leRoux's day job was as a newspaper journalist. Phantom of the Opera was based on a real sequence of events, when the chandelier at the Garnier theater fell, crushing an audience member, an upcoming prima donna went missing, and a skeleton was discovered at the edge of the lake under the theater. In reality, the three events were nothing to do with each other - the chandelier was a tragic accident, the skeleton and the disappearance were unrelated coincidences. LeRoux was well aware of that, but recognized that making a conspiracy theory tying the events together would make for a compelling gothic thriller.
The music box is based on _Jolly Chimp,_ a battery-operated doll designed in post-ww2 Japan. It's a total anachronism.
What Leroux did was actually very clever. He not only told a bloody good tale, he predicted the whole QAnon school of “Tie it all together, IT MEANS SOMETHING!!!”
@Sailormac2 LeRoux didn't invent that, not by a long shot. Conspiracy theories have always been a thing
Who did the skeleton belong to and who went missing?
@t heoscout I don't know that anyone knows who the skeleton was, or ever will. It might have been someone who drowned in the swamp in the Middle Ages for all I know. I also don't know anything about celebrities in 19th century France, so even if I knew anything about the singer, the only context I would have for her is the book itself. Given how huge the Garnier is, the scandal around Christine and Raoul might have been artistic license.
@@notoriouswhitemoth Where'd you learn the thing from? I wanna know more. Thanks btw!
LND 🤝 Cursed Child
"What if villain but has secret baby?" plots that we all got out of our system on ffn decades ago
Does Rise of Skywalker counts as one of these?
@@anyanP Rise of Skywalker doesn't exist. Keep that madness sealed.
@@anyanP At least I don't wish death on Lord Andy...yet.
If I had a nickel every time...
I can't believe this shit happened 3 times!
I always had this theory that Love Never Dies is Lord Andy's attempt to give himself a happy ending. To him, Brightman is his Christine (even today when he talks about her it's clear he is obsessed) and after the divorce, he was the phantom (a genius composer punching above his weight dating wise). The sequel makes a lot more sense if you look at it through that lens.
Yup, this checks out
Exactly. He wrote a self-insert fanfic where his ex realizes she was crazy to leave him and his genius.
Straight up Christine goes “but he’s such a good composer I MUST star in his show!”
No, no, it's just about a brilliant genius composer that every woman around him was hopelessly in love with, whose beloved brilliant performer he made happen left him for another man who was terrible and ruined her life and wasted her talent, until the brilliant genius composer made a show so brilliant and genius she couldn't help but come back to perform it and falls in love with his genius brilliance?
Yep. I’ve been saying for years that LND is his self-insert fix-it fanfic.
the absolute _character assassination_ of meg is easily one of the most heinous aspects of love never dies in my opinion.
Was there really that much of a character to assassinate?
@@bluefire9147 I agree. Raoul is a sweetheart in both the original AND in the books. But here he suddenly becomes a piece of shit? How?
Raoul surely gets it worse. Even the wink-wink-here-you-go-Phantom-stans movie made him a sad useless puppy but still a kind person.
Tfw your character is so assassinated that you assassinate the protagonist.
TBF basically everyone’s character was assassinated except Phantom, who the show inexplicably decides to try and rehabilitate by just ignoring his murders.
Love Never Dies is fanfiction brought to life. It only made it this far because ALW has his name on it. The first time I heard it I got to Beneath a Moonless Sky and went “what is this shit?”
Still a masterpiece compared to the Harry Potter stageshow
Now THAT is actual fanfiction
The bad kind, where the author has no grasp on good story telling, English is their barely-understood second language, and dyslexia is their middle name.
@@noahkarpinski1824 I thought Rings of power IS the worst fanfiction brought to life (it undermines everything that was written by original author and while making The Hobbits look good in comparison - and I would call it "The Star wars prequel syndrome")
@@noahkarpinski1824 For a second I thought you meant A Very Potter Musical and I got very upset. That IS actual fanfiction AND it's better than any other Harry Potter work.
And it certainly wouldn't be the last fanfiction either. Because a mere two months after Lindsay published this video, we got The Matrix Resurrections. Which, to my utter joy, shares a LOT of plot similarities to Love Never Dies, only much better written and a lot more self-aware about itself. And it's made all the better by the fact that Lana Wachowski is a known Phantom contributor (*coughs* V for Vendetta *coughs*). I've since spent the last few months writing an extended essay on their relations. 😎🌹
Being that Erick wrote trash songs, I guess it makes sense he’s impressed by a ten year old playing chopsticks
🤣🤣🤣
“He plays just like me-“
"And he's a hack, just like me!"
He doesn’t play friggin chopsticks it’s a joke for the review.
This is the thing that gets me more than anything - Love Never Dies is simply not a great song. It just isn't as good as anything in the original musical. And all of Meg's songs are just fucking annoying.
I love the editor's note: "I saw it while six months pregnant with my daughter. We are no longer on speaking terms." I wheezed
I like to think her (what I imagine to be) toddler, even in the womb, had the wisdom and intuition to know that what she had experienced was like the opposite of playing Mozart for a fetus.
Should've been "pregnant with my damn baby."
The notes throughout were excellent but this one stood out
Lol tragic
@@tabbyslimejulie my dumbass thought lindsay was pregnant
Having the Phantom become the successful leader of a Coney Island freak show could have worked as its own thing, without reintroducing Christine and Raoul. A story about a fleeing Phantom having to start from scratch and now with a flicker of empathy building a family of choice of people like himself could have been a compelling way to go.
Or becoming obsessed with a new ingenue (a la the tv show You) and his conflict becomes the tragic realization that he hasn't really learned anything about love and destroys everything he touches... And he's tempted to go back to his dark, murderous ways since he can't be truly happy... But in the end sacrifices himself instead. This is just off the cuff, but I think this progression works for the character.
@@phoenixfreefall the two of you just wrote a more compelling story than ALW has ever done in his life... nice
Just the idea of found family would've been better than LND
As far as character growth from the first one goes, expand more on Phantom and the Girys relationship. Madame Giry also came off as having something with him (explored in the movie a bit. Is it love? A motherly or big sister figure trying to protect him? Were they a thing before he became obsessed with Christine? Did she find his possessiveness frightening and escape to find a husband but could never escape him unlike Christine?) and Meg was shown to never be really afraid of him just wary and curious. Terrified at the attacks but also tempted by the darkness to ask Christine about her teacher and trying to follow into the underground.
Meg is the star of Phantasma, she's the one writing the music and trying to showcase she's been learning some tricks but she'll never be a natural. Maybe he really is the distant father figure she so desperately wants to please but he's never even watching. They'd have some interaction in this version though or maybe that's the point why they never interact directly just keeping touch through Giry. She'd probably have more interactions with the other circus people though.
Then maybe towards the end of the first half, we get news about Christine coming. Maybe Raoul is with her, maybe the reason why he's so sad at the beginning of PotO is because he lost her years ago and that's why he wanted the music box so bad to lay at the gravesite because it brought back memories of what brought them together however briefly. Either way she still has Gustav and maybe she's the one trying to rekindle things with Mr. Y because she feels she made the wrong choice with Raoul (either she's broke since she left him or he's kept her from the stage and now she feels she's suffocating as a trophy wife or that the love just didn't last once things were peaceful) and this becomes a dilemma for Phantom since on the one hand he's got his muse and the girl of his dreams back in his life, on the other he's dine so much to move on with his life and has to remember she's the one who left him. Is it out of nostalgia? Is it because he's successful? Is it because of their shared love for music and not actual intimacy? He knows he could get hurt again.
I suppose then is the tension of either miscommunication or jealousy ringing it's ugly head or something where it's Erik being the one torn between what he had versus what he has and then further tensions between the girls about Christine's motives for showing up like this and trying to take away everything they've worked for (but it makes more sense if we expanded more in the first half). Maybe in the end Erik realizes how much Meg means to him as the girl he helped raise over the son he never knew. Maybe the fears of jealousy and him leaving them for Christine are put to rest with her and Gustav joining the Phantasma family. Maybe things still play out like they did with Christine's accidental death symbolically officially allowing Erik to move on from the past. Hell maybe he could be the big man and even tell Christine no so they can both learn to move on. What happened all those years ago was lightning in a bottle but she'll sing for him one last time before going.
Just something to retain his arc from the first show. And I think making it his decision while showing how he's grown more self confident and toned down from his murderous ways through this found family would have made him more sympathetic if we're supposed to be rooting for him.
I mean, if the story proceeds that Christine's compassion inspired him to use the rest of his life to better the lives of others who are unfortunately maligned by society, it would be a compelling premise, but it still needs a central conflict that ties into that so it isn't ancillary like it is in LND.
I feel like a better way to sequal-ize Phantom of the Opera would be the "poetic justice" or "reversal" style story where the Phantom, trying to go legit, is stalked by a female admirer who has developed a similarly toxic obsession with him after the first play, and how he contends with that. Perhaps he wrestles with the darker side of himself that he's tried to put behind him. His growth as a character is challenged and tested.
And the obsessive female fan has to be Meg. It's too perfect to not do.
I wish I was a writer, I'd love to take a crack at a story like that. That's fantastic dude! Maybe you should write it
That would be AWESOME and a much better sequel than this!
@@alim.9801 Go for it! Being a writer's not some divinely bestowed gift, it's something anyone can do if they're willing to strive for it.
I would PAY for this! Not so fun is it anymore, eh buddy?
We should really celebrate Weber’s cat Otto for trying to destroy this musical. At least someone heard The Beauty Underneath and tried to stop it!
That cat was jellicle as fuck
Well ironically he shared his full name with the Angel of Mercy according to Lindsay. So...yes we should celebrate him. 😉🐈
"Love Never Dies"
But Christine is not so lucky.
Love never dies but lovers rot all the time.
i made a horrible strangled laughing sound when i read it and now my throat hurts real bad. thank you
Much like the latest Bond, the name seems to be a deliberate misnomer.
HELP WHY DID THIS KILL ME SDFGHJKLKJHGDFGHJ
Alright people, assume the positions: She’s talking about Phantom again.
Alright this is happening! Its happening! Everybody stay calm!
I live in New Jersey. Now with Broadway shows back, the advertisements are everywhere. Especially Phantom.
th-cam.com/video/m6grVB1xT1I/w-d-xo.html
See how she glitters!
@@m.r.2066 I'm losing to a BIRD!
What made phantom so appealing to me was that there is an actual Palais Garnier in Paris that had some random rumours about a phantom haunting the place in the past, a box reserved only for the phantom, an underground “river” etc. While Gaston’s story is fictional, it has basis in real myths from the past, and has the atmosphere of the haunting essence surrounding the Palais Garnier. The Phantom is mysterious, he’s some unknown magical force surrounded by tragedy. Phantom of the Opera is not just about some characters in a love triangle, it’s about the haunting atmosphere, the tragic love. To strip that away and make the phantom just some guy in america gets rid of what made the original so alluring
Is it deeply creepy to anyone else that Weber wrote a story about a brilliant genius composer that every woman around him was hopelessly in love with, whose beloved brilliant performer left him for another man who was terrible and ruined her life and wasted her talent and turned her against him, until the brilliant genius composer made a show so brilliant and genius she couldn't help but come back to perform it and fall in love with his genius brilliance again?
Yep
Remember, she also died at the end.
What I find especially interesting by the finale is that Christine’s death isn’t really the result of anything she had done or Erick had done. It was just the result of a just wild B-plot with no underlying logic and coherency that just violently collided with the A-plot. It feels like it’s written for sadness sake; star crossed lovers and whatnot.
You’d think ALW, in his obvious contempt for his failed relationship and desire for reconciliation, would essentially make Christine cause her own death. What does that say?? I really don’t know.
Oh yeah. to the point of hating the original author so he can hijack the story to be about him.
@@glass.hammer Given the tenor of the Phantom-Christine relationship, it seems more sad than angry, so punishing her would feel excessive. Maybe it's more a realisation that it's over, permanently, can can't come back? Or he just really needed the show to end and threw together some drama so the plot could stop, and it was weird because the plot had also barely actually started.
the existence of LND just shows that ALW totally forgot about the first damn scene in Phantom with an older Madame Giry and older Raoul, who clearly still has a bunch of money
Unless after LND Erik and Gustave either died or run away and Raoul get over alcoholism and someway earns more money and Madam Giry actually gets Erik's business?!? I haven't watch both musicals but is this good enough for a fanfic
Also, that scene which takes place two years *before* the events of LND.
@@theShaggy i guess LND is an alternate universe
@@ruupuu8862 Well, it *was* originally going to be called "Phantom: Once Upon Another Time," so you could be onto something there
Guess they had life insurance?
ALW putting Christine and the Phantom together says so much about his post-divorce life.
Makes me wonder how much of LND maps one to one with ALWs inner and outer life. Which, or rather how many, of the characters are actually representations of aspects of ALWs psyche?
And then Christine gets shot...
"Give me the gun said the phantom of the opera" is one of my all time favorite lindsay lines
The sequel is like watching your friend get back with their toxic ex, but we're supposed to be happy for them. In reality you're like "yeah I know the d is good but he's an asshole remember? And he's totally love bombing you right now"
I love this analogy 😂
Or the last two seasons of Sherlock. I like to pretend they don't exist.
@@Nadia1989 There were more than two seasons of Sherlock? Not in my universe there weren't!
@@neuralmute I'd prefer we just get rid of everything but the unaired pilot episode.
@@SylentVoidkeeper Great idea, but I have to admit to loving Andrew Scott as Jim. He was just way too much fun. None of his plot might have fully made sense, but his acting was absolutely worth it.
"Love never dies" sounds more like a James Bond movie then a sequel to phantom of the opera.
Probably because the very similar _Tomorrow Never Dies_ was the name of a Bond movie. "Love" is also part of the title of _From Russia With Love_ and _The Spy Who Loved Me._
Honestly I saw every ad for love never dies all over Australia and only now figured out it was a sequel to phantom
THANK YOU!,
Originally it was going to be called "Phantom: Once Upon Another Time", which made it sound like a Disney movie. >
@@KryssLaBryn ugh seriously? Just call it Phantom of the Opera 2: Electric Boogaloo
22:41 Only that the sitcom would be named Two And A Half Faces instead
This comment is UNDERAPPRECIATED 😤😤
I love that the story of Love Never dies (from the phantoms pov) is basically the same as the metanarrative of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s relationship with Phantom Of The Opera. He spends ten years thinking about it, tries to do more with it, and like in the show, he should probably have just let it be.
No, but it’s honestly shocking how well it works. The Phantom (ALW) can’t give up on Christine (Phantom of the Opera), but the most he can get is Meg (Love Never Dies)
Due to Meg’s “Watch me! Watch me! Watch me!” nature, Christine dies and the Phantom is left traumatized and sad.
lol even in phantom of the opera ALW is written to be phantom considering that Christine is written to be played by ALW's wife before they got divorced.
it is funny and cruel that ALW kinda becomes the phantom in some sad asf ways.
I literally gasped in delight when I saw the title. I never get tired of hearing you talk about this glorious garbage.
Haha same
@@DyslexicMitochondria heh
@Blair Bart it really isn't. I've read better post-POTO fanfics than what ALW had written here.
@Blair Bart ngl, Ben and Anna killed it. Considering the type of a clusterfuck of a plot they had to work with, they were amazing, and, oddly, had far better chemistry than Sierra and Ramin did who are pretty much the poster couple of POTO casting. 💁♀️
Same
I’m convinced that Love Never Dies is actually written by the Phantom in universe
I'm obsessed with the kid spending a whole song enthusiastically agreeing to see the "beauty underneath" and then running away screaming the second he sees a glimpse of the phantom's face
The song would be kind of fun if he wasn’t singing TO A TEN YEAR OLD “You can TAKE it!”
@@coffeeavenger "YES!"
@@coffeeavenger TEN YEARS OOOOooLLLLLDDdddd
LOOLL
After seeing many legitimately creepy and weird things...it's the face that's once again apparently a step too far.
Just what was Webber thinking. The ending of Phantom is breathtaking; and the arc Erik goes through is amazing. He loved Christine so much he knew he had to let her go. WHY WOULD YOU UNDO THAT.
I would say money, but A) Andy doesn't need the money, and B) this show didn't make him any money. Certainly not Phantom-level money.
EXACTLY wasn’t the entire point that he realized “oh shit i am actively hurting you, you should probably leave now because i’m slowly realizing that’s the only way you’ll really be happy”
@@crimsonmaverick8237 especially the one and on,y Michael Crawfords performance, I saw a bootleg on TH-cam of it, and while it wasn’t if the best quality obviously, the pain and cries he lets out when he realizes he can never be with Christine, and then to ultimately do something to atone for his sins and let her go, just a beautifully perfect period. This monstrosity as far as I’m concerned is not canon. I refuse to recognize it as such.
If Cursed Child is a fanfiction, then Love Never Dies is a wattpad fanfiction
Christ, that’s high praise
Honestly I would switch the two. yes, I dislike cursed child that much 😂
They’re from the same nightmare
@@soleil1953 please vent about it
I want to know why
Joseph Misinec - Time travel plot solely used to shamelessly wallow in the original story for the length of two stage shows, instead of (as mentioned repeatedly in this video) using the established world as a spring board for new adventures with new characters. (Also, Albus and Scorpius as a couple had ALL the buildup and then was paid off with a last minute “no homo” because we can’t have gays now.)
"He basically Michael Jacksons the kid." That is such a loaded sentence.
what lindsay is referring to is not what came to my mind omg
What's crazy is that the implied "other" possible reading of that line appears to be the reason for having a little boy be part of the story at all, ie that very uncomfortable song, and the weird "relationship" he has with the phantom... my brain, at least, is asking "why is this kid even here?" and unfortunately I can't come to any other conclusion lol.
Lol! As a Michael Jackson fan, it's so true.
I wasn't looking at the screen, so I interpreted it as 'turns the kid into Michael Jackson'.
No it's not. We all know she's talking about hanging the kid over the edge, unless you are being willfully ignorant.
The third Phantom (Phantom of the Custody Battle: Love Never Settles Out of Court) will feature the Phantom and Raul fighting over who gets to raise Gustav. Since DNA tests don't exist yet, they make a bet. If the Phantom can teach the boy to sing opera in a month, then he gets custody of Gustav. If not, then Erik leaves alone.
+
May I humbly suggest an alternative film title: My Fair Laddy
++
♫Give me the phone number for the baby sitter, Meg
Ugh Lindsay Ellis did so much for this site. I miss her so much as an essayist, but I hope she's 10000x happier now.
She has actually produced more essays to Nebula.
Sipping of the AO3 mug while shading publishing really is the definition of poetry.
Amen
As a fellow AO3 supporter & member I WANT THAT MUG. ✨☕
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose its the AO3 gift item if you donate $250
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose Yes as @Serplus said, but instead of donating the full amount all at once, you can also make _recurring_ payments and let the team know you are paying towards getting the mug - this is how I am gonna get _something_ I just haven't decided yet what 😅
@@serpi5 are you telling me she spent $250 on that mug??? I’ve only recently started watching her (recent considering she’s been around for a while, I would say I’ve been watching about a year) and she doesn’t strike me as a fanfic lover. Lol
I, for the record, am a huge fan of fanfiction and I’ve been thinking about donating for a while now.
Here’s my pitch for Phantom of the Opera 2 that no one asked for: the Phantom faked his death, moves to New York, changes his identity and writes a Broadway musical retelling of his life story glorifying himself as a tragic hero and his romance with Christine as a healthy and beautiful relationship undone by his enemies, resulting in basically the musical equivalent of The Room, and Noises Off/The Play That Goes Wrong-esque hilarity ensues as he tries to stage this monstrosity
YES!!!! Then he drags Christine to play herself and his ploys are foiled due to a various of comedic mishaps of both the show going wrong and Raoul getting in the way with his over-eager super supportive loving husband role TM. Foiled so thoroughly that Christine and Raoul set off back to Paris after the failed show run completely unaware that the Phantom had been in the shadows all this time.
@@stephanieclark8327 And then the phantom lets one rip for the first time in his life... giving up on pretentions of being a Supernatural Entity, for Phantoms cannot let one rip, as that is a benefit only to the living. XD
YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, CHRISTINE!
so essentially he becomes the Phantom of his own Opera
It turns out that Erik's musical genius does not extend to writing or directing or getting along well with the number of people needed to make a stage show happen. The show does include a lot of very impressive special effects though.
"I want to write a surrealist noir musical."
"But what if people aren't interested?"
"I'll put that guy into it that everyone likes."
"...Hugh Jackman?"
"No I mean the Phantom of the Opera, people love that guy."
Hey Lindsay, I know you're retired from TH-cam but I wanted to say that I read Axiom's End recently and I was blown away. It felt so much like old-school sci-fi that's about culture and humanity and understanding rather than pew pew spaceships. I will definitely be reading your next book. As an aspiring writer myself, this is super encouraging :).
ALW's cat deleting the entire music he had written to that point for Love never dies is probably my favorite phantom trivia..
I admired the hell out of his cat when I heard that.
hal it's about cats
@@hoppytoad79 That cat is a fucking hero.
Usually when cats pull dick-moves like that (gif of cat staring at owner while slowly pushing glass over kitchen counter's edge onto hardwood floor, anyone??), we are reminded that cats are independent, inpredictable, still half-wild adorable evil geniuses that can't ever be fully trusted. >.> Yet here comes this cat, inadvertently stumbling over the line from cool-cat villain to accidental "good guy". Not the hero we asked for, but the hero we needed...
*typo -- unpredictable
100% convinced that Bathing Beauties was the Phantom's equivalent of the classic "Fuck it, I need an easy paycheck" song.
He was too busy planning Christine's re-kidnapping and it's requiered song, he didn't have time for anything better. Maybe he remebered he had a dead line, blindly picked a song from his rejected pile, and kept on planning.
I'd rather believe that it was a genuine passion project of his, because I find it funny.
@@blkloislane It would fit with how Andrew Lloyd Webber projects end up going. 😆
“Now be quiet, I’m trying to get drunk and spend money.”
- An absolute CHAD
“Eric would never treat me like this.”
@@g.k684 "eric would dick me down for _hours_ at a time."
"what?"
"nothing"
@@malum9478 “Again and again and again”
I mean that's how I'm passing the days at college (don't be me, kids)
We are all now burdened with knowledge. I didn't want to know this exists.
I love the original Phantom of the Opera, and Raul and Christine singing "All I Ask Of You" for me feels like an allegory for depression, and having people there during your darkest moments.
And now I have to live with the knowledge that Raul is a drunk, a gambler, and a horrible father. Yippee.
I hope Lindsay is doing better whatever she decides to do in the future-I hope she finds something that keeps her happy. Thank you for everything you've done in this platform, it was a pleasure.
@@rescatooor didn't know the pieces of shit who feed of the misery of others lurk in this comment section but what do you know!
What happened?
@@garretdrake2347 lol get dunk'd on
@@garretdrake2347
I'm pretty sure Lindsay has tended to *not* discuss Doug Walker and her former affiliations with Channel Awesome...somehow, that doesn't really align with the idea that "she spent her entire career trying to cancel doug walker"
@@warlordofbritannia yeah its a bunch of fake woke children who heard there favorite tublr blog complain about how she didnt like soul therefore she racist or some dome white progressive crap like that
This is a good example of how you can create something about a topic you're passionate about and people unfamiliar or uninterested will still thoroughly enjoy it. The video, not the musical.
Because of Lindsey I dream of one day buying Broadway tickets to Phantom of The Opera. Never seen it, but now I can't wait to see it! 😁
Another good example is Jenny's brony video. I cri everytiem
Just to put in perspective how bad the sequel is, I once knew a guy who was so absolutely obsessed with Phantom of the Opera that he spent all his disposable income, thousands of dollars, on seeing the show in the theatre over and over again, and buying all manner of Phantom merchandise... and even he hated Love Never Dies. He even organized a boycott that was titled "Love Should Die." (LSD for short)
I FORGOT ABOUT LOVE SHOULD DIE AHAHAHA
Or as I lovingly call it... "paint never dries"
@Alyssa So basically just a whole different sequel instead.
"Love Never Dies" is the equivalent of Jean Valjean coming back to life with paper mache wings and tap dancing his way off the stage.
Javert didn't really shatter his pelvis falling onto that fountain from a thousand feet high... He's back with a burning desire for revenge/sex with Jean Valjean. I will write this. Pay me.
He comes back with a tattoo on his arm that says " *24600* "
"Les Miserables 2: Edge of Tomorrow"
Now we know that Lindsay has quit TH-cam, and that this is her last ever video, it makes perfect sense to end it with this, she finally covered this musical, with her being maybe the biggest fan of phantom (or Phan of the opera). Good luck to her. She needs to do this, for the sake of her mental health. She owes us nothing. She provided so much joy to us for over a decade, for free. Good luck to her with whatever she wants to do. And hopefully the sociopath mob will stop trying to ruin people's lives on twitter
What the fuck? Why did she quit? I mean, everyone deserves to retire, so if it's genuinely that she wants to take a break, then good for her. I just hope it's not something stupid as fuck, or actually something that comes from Twitter (which is itself stupid as fuck, and we as a society need to honestly ignore that entire platform).
Edit: Actually now I realize that it could be TH-cam as an organization's bullshit as well. What with the hiding dislikes, lack of transparency, and general political/ad-friendly/family-friendly nonsense, chasing off so many of the actually creative people on the site.
EDIT 2: WAIT will she still be on things like Nebula??? Because if so, I'll move there or wherever to support her!
"Phan of the opera"
I simultaneously groaned and snorted at that, thx
@@Wallychans helped? They were always there, hidden in Tumblr and immigrating to Twitter after.
"Phan of the Opera" is pretty good, lol.
I agree with everything else you said. I loved Lindsay's work for the last... twelve years, I think? And if she's done, well, that's her right, though I wish for her sake it was under better circumstances.
I had no idea she quit TH-cam. She'll be missed dearly. I love this video and I'm glad we have it and that the final vid was this.
Oh dude I can't wait for the third one, Love Never Dies Hard
+
"Yippie-ki-yay-motherphantom!"
and the follow up to that, Love Never Dies With a Vengeance.
ho ho *hooooooo*--sustained note-- i now have a machine gun, tooooooo!
Or the one after that: You Only Love Twice!
The pan up shot of Phantom staring at Christine after Gustave arrives is the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. He’s supposed to look menacing and hurt but he actually just ends up looking like a seventh grade boy who discovered his crush is going with someone else to the fall dance
so I went to see the original POTO yesterday for the 2nd time (thanks for that Lindsay) and you know what's not helpful? remembering Lindsay saying ''he hits it and quits it like 20 times'' and giggling like hell during melodramatic scenes