Love Never Dies (Phantom 2) - Broadway- Page 2

#26Love Never Dies (Phantom 2) - Broadway

I can't resist chiming in, having seen the Australian version of LND on Blu-Ray.

The book is loosely based on "The Phantom of Manhattan," by Frederick Forsyth, who failed to catch on that many phans are WOMEN who half-believe that we could reform him.

I think that the following "tweaks" would vastly improve the show:
1) Mme. Giry has always been creepy in the play. It's only in the movie that she's a nice person. It's not surprising that Mme. Giry would go nuts.
2) Meg Giry was sweet in the original. Instead of having her go nuts, make her mother be the one that sets off a chain of violence.
3) Raoul should not have been such a schmuck. He can be a nice guy and still get drunk, possibly because he suspects he's losing Christine to you-know-who.
4) Christine and the Phantom had a pre-existing relationship of some kind, when he was teaching her music. Her being in love with the Phantom is not hard to picture.
5) The Phantom has a lot of flaws, but rape isn't one of them: "This face, the infection that poisons our love, has also denied me the joys of the flesh." Some actors play Christine as being conflicted -- Mary Michael Patterson looked back longingly at the Phantom. Christine is French and a performer, so she wouldn't hold Victorian morals.
6) In light of #5, how about this? Raoul is pressuring her to set a wedding date and his parents are pressuring him to break it off. He sends word to her that he has news for her. She shows up and he hands her a note in Raoul's writing that he has stolen. In it Raoul promises his parents he'll think about breaking up with her. She knows it's Raoul's writing, and she flies into his arms. Then, SHE sneaks off because she knows that she can't stay with him.
7) The next month, Raoul is dithering, and she's caught on that she's pregnant. She convinces Raoul to elope. His parents are furious. When Gustave is born, she has complications, leading the doctors to tell her that she'll never have another baby.
Raoul never "bonds" with Gustave, because Gustave is too sensitive. He likes music (not sports) and loves art and architecture.
9) The Phantom lures Christine to NY, but deep down she knows. She never tells Raoul the truth about Gustave, especially because she couldn't have Raoul's child.
10) At the end, it is Giry who goes nuts. She sets a fire after locking Gustave in, and the Phantom dies saving Gustave's life. Christine, Raoul, and Gustave go home.