I had the opportunity last week to see Love Never Dies, designed as a sequel to the Phantom of the Opera and it prompted this reflection on story. The cast did a wonderful job performing, the music was great, I really enjoyed the scenery and the idea of the phantom working within a circus amidst a collection of grotesqueries was very intriguing and yet it didn’t work. The story didn’t line up with the identity of the characters that came in the original Phantom of the Opera. In the original Phantom the relationship from Christine’s perspective is one of fascination at times, at times she conflates the identity of the phantom and her father, she frequently fears and is at times confused by her relationship to this character but from her side there is never any indication of love. Even in the final act there is a song where Christine defiantly states “Have you purged yourself at last of your lust for blood, am I now to be free to your lust for flesh” to which the phantom answers “this fate which condemned me to wallow in blood has also denied me the joys of the flesh.” Christine can express compassion and pity but there is never an indication of romantic or sexual love. Yet in Love Never Dies the assumption is there that there was a) romantic love from Christine’s side b)that the phantom fled from her when he had a chance at the relationship and c) (spoiler alert) that it produced a child who is a central to the plot of the second musical. In short here (and in other places) the story didn’t work and so everything else couldn’t make the production anything more than a flawed story with good music and some good elements. Story matters. I had some thoughts that a story set ten years later when the relationship between Raoul and Christine has cooled and nostalgia set in had some possibilities to become something but in this case the disjunction between the original story and the sequel were too great. The original story has the privilege of setting up the rules, the nature of the characters and the storyline which the sequel must be compatible with. Love Never Dies could only be successful in my view by taking a long look at the story and the characters who are a part of it.
Categories
- Biblical Reflections
- Book Reviews
- Church
- Creativity Project
- Culture
- Deuteronomy
- Ecclesiastes
- Esther
- Exodus
- Ezekiel
- Faith in a Digital Age
- Gospel of John
- Gospel of Mark
- Gospel of Matthew
- Haggai
- Healing the Broken Republic
- Historical Reflections
- Jeremiah
- Media and Music Reflections
- Poetry
- Psalms
- Psychology and Philosophy
- Re-imagining Church
- Religious Art
- Revelation
- Sermons
- Short Fiction
- Theology
- Uncategorized
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
Meta
- authority
- Babylonian Exile
- Book of Psalms
- book of Revelation
- Brene Brown
- brokenness
- Christianity
- Covenant
- Creation
- Creativity
- Crucifixion
- Death
- Depression
- Deuteronomy
- divorce
- Ecclesiastes
- Esther
- Exodus
- faith
- Forgiveness
- Gospel of Matthew
- Grace
- healing
- Healings of Jesus
- Hope
- identity
- Imagination
- introtopoetry
- Israel
- James Tissot
- Jeremiah
- Jesus
- Joy
- Justice
- Kingdom of Heaven
- lament
- Law
- life
- Magic
- Martin Luther
- Matthew
- Matthew 5
- Matthew 9
- Miracles of Jesus
- Moses
- Old Testament
- Oppression
- Persian Empire
- Poetry
- politics
- praise
- Prayer
- Prophets
- Psalms
- Reconciliation
- relationships
- religion
- Resurrection
- Revelation
- righteousness
- Roman Empire
- Sabbath
- sacrifice
- Sermon on the Mount
- shame
- Sin
- Slavery
- struggle
- Tabernacle
- Ten Commandments
- Torah
- Trust
- wisdom
- Work
- worship