Since I’m not a big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan I wasn’t dying to get the DVD releases of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA 25TH ANNIVERSARY AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL and LOVE NEVER DIES. So I decided to wait and see if the DVDs were release here in Portugal and they were, last week.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed seeing the 25th Anniversary Celebration of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. As for LOVE NEVES DIES, it has a few good songs, but that’s it.

You can read my full reviews at my blog http://themusicalchronicles.blogspot.com/

I loved the 25 anniversary dvd! I think it's the best dvd of the show we here in Podunk are likely to get. The changes made were understandable, considering the venue.

As for Love Never Dies, well. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of a sequel, let alone this story. I did buy the OCR and listened to it a few times. As you said, a few good songs, but a whacked-out story. After watching the DVD, I was confused. These are the characters I loved from before? Raoul, the strong, upstanding, clearheaded, sane member of this trio was turned into a drunken bitter fool? A travesty. Christine, the innocent who pitied the Phantom, but loved Raoul, cheated on her man the night before they got married? And, worst of all, the Phantom. My dearly beloved sociopath who learned of the power of love, and finally showed some compassion of his own in the final minutes of POTO, spent the next 10 years reverting back to his old self centered, obsessive, jackassitude?

What happens to Gustave? Does he get raised by 'my two dads'?

I think they're saving that for the third musical in the trilogy. Raoul and Erik become co-parents of young Gustave. Although they initially hate each other, they begin to support each other through their grief. Raoul is entranced by Erik's music. Erik is entranced by Raoul's side burns. They fall in love. Raoul pays for Erik to get plastic surgery. What they don't realize is that Christine really didn't die. Madame Giry and Meg found her and nursed her back to health. The method that they had to use, though, rendered her horribly disfigured. It is now ten years later, and Christine has taken residency underneath the Opera House. A twenty year old Gustave has now become an opera singer.

Jaspar, I would pay to see that third musical!! LOL!

Excellent! And a better plot than Love Never Dies...

I love it!

Christine, who has gone bonkers because that's what happens when you're disfigured, sends the monkey music box, laden with explosives, to Erik, who gets killed. She bumps off Raoul using the punjab lasso that he encountered at the end of POTO. Gustave gets revenge against Meg by singing unnaturally high and shattering the chandelier as she stands under it.

Or maybe, Christine is a ghost, Raoul gets bitten by a werewolf, and the Phantom gets attacked by Lestat. The three have to learn to live together in a crummy house. No, wait...

Yes! Somebody get Webber to write this!