Broadcast on ITV1 on December 14th at 7:30 pm The 2011 Royal Variety Show took places at the Lowry Theatre Salford Keys early December in the presence of HRH Princess Anne. West End Stars performing included Adam Cooper and the cast of Singin’ in the Rain which had rave reviews at the Chichester Festival Thetre earlier this year and is due to open in London’s West End at the Palace Theatre in February. Four West End leading men who did not appear in the ITV1 billing also made an appearance:  Ramin Karimloo who has just taken over the role of Jean Valjean from Alfie Boe in Les Miserables:John Owen-Jones who is currently the Phantom of the Opera and is shortly leaving the show to play the role on a national tour which starts next year: Simon Bowman who has played Jean Valjean and the Phantom and Earl Carpenter who has been playing the role of Khasoggi in We Will Rock You and is currently in  rehearsals to take over the role of Phantom from Owen-Jones and also play it in the latter half of the tour. They were joined by Nicole Scherzinger who was spotted having dinner with Lord Lloyd Webber before the show.  She was introduced by the Lord as “performing alongside the cast of Phantom of the Opera”.  She is known to be a Phantom fan and has made a recording of “Love Never Dies”.  She said: “It was an honour to be in his company. To be asked to sing Phantom Of The Opera is amazing. I’m so excited to be performing again.”

Sierra Boggess in Rebecca The Musical http://www.loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk/sierra-boggess/sierra-boggess-in-rebecca-the-musical

It’s now official that Sierra Boggess will be in Rebecca The Musical on Broadway! Sierra Boggess Sierra Boggess who originated the role of Christine Daae in Love Never Dies, and has been workshopping the Broadway version of  the European production of Rebecca, has been confirmed to play the lead female role –  which isn’t Rebecca herself, that character is dead from the start of the story. Sierra’s role will be the heroine dubbed as “I” in the new musical adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. De Winter’s second wife. Rebecca The Musical with Sierra Boggess “I” in Rebecca “I” is what we call the story’s main protagonist and narrator, because we never learn her given name. A shy, self-conscious young woman from a lower-middle class background, she begins the novel as a paid companion to Mrs. Van Hopper, a wealthy American woman. In Monte Carlo, she meets and marries the older, wealthy Maxim de Winter, and becomes “Mrs. De Winter,” mistress of Manderley. Rebecca The Musical Dates Rebecca The Musical  has booked the Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway for a run beginning on March 27, 2012. Jointly directed by Michael Blakemore and Francesca Zambello, the production will open on April 22nd 2012. Sierra made her Broadway debut creating the lead role of Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Rebecca will be  It will be a reunion for Sierra and her The Little Mermaid director, Francesca Zambello. Sierra Boggess on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/sierra_boggess

Great news that Sierra Boggess from Love Never Dies is to star in Rebecca the musical on Broadway http://rebeccamusical.co.uk/38/sierra-boggess-to-star-in-rebecca/

Our two originating actors for Love Never Dies, Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess starred in the Phantom of The Opera 25th anniversary show at the Albert Hall this month. The performances took place at the Royal Albert Hall London on October 1st and 2nd 2011 with Ramin Karimloo playing the Phantom and Sierra Boggess as Christine. The pair, who performed together in the Adelphi Theatre’s Phantom sequel Love Never Dies, performed one show on October 1st and a further two shows on October 2nd. Karimloo and Boggess were joined on stage by Barry James as Monsieur Firmin, Liz Robertson as Madame Giry, Gareth Snook as Monsieur André and Wynne Evans as Piangi as well as special guests and a 200-person-strong supporting cast and orchestra. Producer Cameron Mackintosh said: “It is amazing to think that the extraordinary success of The Phantom of the Opera is about to celebrate 25 years. The success of the show has become the stuff of theatrical legend so Andrew and I felt we needed to create a really special performance to celebrate the 25th anniversary. One of the great strengths of The Phantom of the Opera is that being set in an opera house, its production is totally theatrical. So we felt that there could be no better 19th Century theatrical auditorium in London for this occasion than the Royal Albert Hall.”

Royal Albert Hall

Love Never Dies will be filmed and released on DVD at some date yet to be announced, Andrew Lloyd Webber told the New York Times. The US newspaper didn’t specify whether Lloyd Webber plans to film the Melbourne or London production of Love Never Dies, but it does seem that a New York arrival may not be imminent.

Love Never Dies’ Phantom Ramin Karimloo confirmed his performance schedule in the show for after  the cast change on 5th March. Ramin extended his contract for six months until 3rd September 2011, but he has a new reduced new performance schedule playing the role of Phantom in Love Never Dies London for six shows a week,  probably with Mondays and Thursdays off. Ramin also mentioned a record deal and some show dates for his group the Sheytoons.  If you’re lucky enough to have seen them perform you’ll know they are great songwriters.

According to a report by Variety magazine, Cameron Mackintosh is launching a tour of The Phantom of the Opera in 2012, with the tour director for Les Miserables directing the production. Mackintosh told Daily Variety the Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster will be produced in an all-new version. Directed by Laurence Connor, it will feature new sets and costumes by Paul Brown and lighting by three-time Olivier Award winner Paule Constable. Mackintosh said the production will open at a regional UK house. The tour of Phantom is something that has been mooted in the West End for some time. It is the 25th Anniversary of Phantom in October this year with rumours of a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall. So a tour next year would make sense. Also Ramin Karimloo who has just extended his contract to play the Phantom in Love Never Dies has been tweeting that he has an exciting project lined up for next year  

The Love Never Dies London cast changes tonight 9th March 2011 at the Adelphi Theatre. David Thaxton, who is nominated in this year’s Olivier Awards for his role in Passion, replaces Joseph Millson as Raoul, Celia Graham takes over from Sierra Boggess as Christine and Haley Flaherty will replace Summer Strallen as Meg. Ramin Karimloo stays on as the Phantom.

From the 5th March 2011, Love Never Dies gets a new Raoul in the form of David Thaxton taking over the role from Joseph Millsom. David Thaxton Sierra Boggess is also leaving the cast, to head for Broadway where the former Christine will star in Master Class with Tyne Daly. The role of Christine in Love Never Dies will be taken over by the current Christine’s understudy, Celia Graham. Other changes are that Celia Graham (who is currently Christine’s understudy) will take over the role from Sierra Boggess who is heading to Broadway to star in Master Class with Tyne Daly. Ramin Karimloo stays on as The Phantom extending his contract for an undsiclosed period, but he’ll be one of the few Love Never Dies originators since Summer Strallen  is also leaving to go on a tour of Top Hat the Musical with Tom Chambers. Haley Flaherty (Rocky Horror Show, Mamma Mia, Follies, Grease, Chicago, Saturday Night Fever) is taking over as the new Meg Giry.

After a great opening in London, an acclaimed first year and a partial redesign and rewrite, Love Never Dies takes its first step away from the Adelphi Theatre soon as the Australian production opens in Melbourne in June 2011. Love Never Dies Australian Cast Love Never Dies Australia Cast The Australian Christine is to be played by a previous Christine from The Phantom Of The Opera. Anna O’Byrne has already played the part to great acclaim in an Australian tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Anna is an award-winning classically trained singer, and has performed as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and appeared in works by Mozart, Puccini and Ibert for The Victorian Opera, Victorian College of the Arts and Victorian Youth Opera. The Phantom  in the new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is being played by Ben Lewis. Ben’s previous stage credits include the original Australian cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical, Sir Galahad in the original Australian cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot, two-seasons as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Urinetown with Sydney Theatre Company and Polites in The Odyssey for Black Swan and the Malthouse. Performances begin in Melbourne on May 29th 2011 at the Regent Theatre. Tags: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Anna O'Byrne, Australia, Ben Lewis, Christine, Love Never Dies, Melbourne, musical, Phantom of the Opera, the phantom of the opera This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 at 5:30 am and is filed under Love Never Dies, Phantom of the Opera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. via loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Posted via email from Love Never Dies

After a great opening in London, an acclaimed first year and a partial redesign and rewrite, Love Never Dies takes its first step away from the Adelphi Theatre soon as the Australian production opens in Melbourne in June 2011. Love Never Dies Australian Cast Love Never Dies Australia Cast The Australian Christine is to be played by a previous Christine from The Phantom Of The Opera. Anna O’Byrne has already played the part to great acclaim in an Australian tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Anna is an award-winning classically trained singer, and has performed as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and appeared in works by Mozart, Puccini and Ibert for The Victorian Opera, Victorian College of the Arts and Victorian Youth Opera. The Phantom  in the new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is being played by Ben Lewis. Ben’s previous stage credits include the original Australian cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical, Sir Galahad in the original Australian cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot, two-seasons as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Urinetown with Sydney Theatre Company and Polites in The Odyssey for Black Swan and the Malthouse.

Performances begin in Melbourne on May 29th 2011 at the Regent Theatre.

Ramin Karimloo (the Phantom) and Sierra Boggess (Christine) will be starring in a concert on Friday Night is Music Night broadcast on Friday 17th December on BBC Radio 2 from 8:00pm-10:00pm. If you miss it on the night and you are a UK resident don;t worry because you will be able to log in to the BBC Radio “Listen again” service, the iPLayer – a link to the exact show will be provided here later. Ramin and Sierra from Love Never Dies sing a selection of music about the masked men of stage and screen with a programme that includes songs from Robin Hood, William Tell, The Masked Ball, Batman and Spiderman. Andrew Lloyd Webber gets to introduce the pieces from his own shows including The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies with Ramin and Sierra accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Simon Lee.

Love Never Dies is closing for four days in London from Monday 22nd to Thursday 25th November so that a number of changes can be made.  Performances will then resume again on Friday 26th November. The reason for these drastic measures is to bring about what really amounts to a restaging of the show, with Bill Kenwright as the new Director and Bill Deamer the Choreographer instead of Jack O’Brien and Jerry Mitchell. Love Never Dies in London  has also just extended its booking period by another two months at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End to 28th May 2011. Love Never Dies heads for Australia in May 2011 premiering in Melbourne’s Regent Theatre.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies will have its Australian premiere in Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in May 2011. Lloyd Webber said the Australian production will have its own unique stamp, produced by his Asia Pacific representative Tim McFarlane and directed by Melbourne’s Simon Phillips with  a new design by Sydney based Gabriela Tylesova. Nationwide auditions will begin on Monday October 25th - the same day tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster. Ramin Karimloo who is playing the Phantom in Love Never Dies at London's Adelphi Theatre  recently announced that he will be leaving the show next year (no date yet fixed) to join the show when it opens in Toronto which is meant to be the pre-Broadway stop over.  Maybe he'll now be heading for Melbourne?via wwwmusicaltheatrenews.blogspot.com Part speculation, but I doubt if Ramin Karimloo is doing the Autralian opening so soon before being committed to the Toronto production of Love Never Dies Posted via email from Love Never Dies

Another great set of photographs by Estefania y Arantxa Álvarez, this time of Ramin Karimloo who plays the Phantom in Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

Love Never Dies By the time many people read this the free tickets competition will be over, so I’ll write about why I think you might like to consider Love Never Dies theatre breaks anyway. I guess you may have already seen The Phantom of The Opera ? The most successful piece of live entertainment ever, it’s been on long enough. Or maybe your parents enjoyed it thirty years ago when Michael Crawford played the Phantom. Well Love Never Dies is a continuation of the story, but with completely new twists. The scene is set ten years after the incident at the Paris Opera House, and the Phantom is now presiding over a huge entertainment complex at Coney Island, New York. He manages to manipulate Christine and Raoul into sailing across the Atlantic and into his lair. But there’s much more than that… Some of the music in Love Never Dies comes from the operetta genre, some from light entertainment and some even from a rock background. This is the fusion which Andrew Lloyd Webber does so well. The staging, sets and costumes are magnificent, so you really do see a big musical theatre event up there on the big stage. This is certainly not one of your small cast and minimalist aesthetics plays, like many even in the West End, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess are both star quality singers in the lead roles and it’s nice to hear the full orchestra getting a proper work out. Love Never Dies Did I mention the free tickets? Love Never Dies Tickets Competition One pair of top price tickets have been donated. That’s worth around £180 normally. Now, you’d need to be able to get to the London Adelphi Theatre for tomorrow night, Saturday 9th October 2010. So if you are in London anyway, and can clear out all of your prior engagements to be free then you’d do well to nip over and quickly enter the simple competition on the Love Never Dies blog. The odds are not against you! Here’s the link again… http://www.loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks If you don’t have easy access to the capital then buying London theatre breaks packages with the tickets and convenient hotel room plus optional discount rail travel is nearly always the best way to go.

Other London Theatre Breaks to see West End Musicals

The Wizard of Oz The Phantom Of The Opera Les Miserables Ghost

If you are very quick and can make it to London’s West End for Saturday 9th October 2010 you could very well win two free tickets to see Love Never Dies at the Adelphi. There’s a quick fire competition over on the Love Never Dies blog to win two top price tickets and all you have to do is leave a comment. Love Never Dies continues the story of the Phantom of The Opera with Raoul, Christine and the Phantom ten years later set in Coney Island, New York around 1910. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s big musical has been running in London since February 2010 and is due to open in Australia and Toronto soon, then eventually Broadway, New York. Easily one of the best big musicals in London, Love Never Dies is a feast for eyes and the ears from the start and keeps your interest right the way through with some very clever changes of tone and scene. To win two tickets urgently, you’ll need to go over to the Love Never Dies blog right away and leave a comment saying why you’d like to see the show on Saturday. Here’s the link again: http://loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Good luck!

Love Never Dies Tickets Competition was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

We have some free tickets for Love Never Dies to give to you as a prize! Are you free on Saturday night, 9th October? If so you can enter the competition here on the Love Never Dies blog and stand a very good chance of winning a pair of top price tickets for the Saturday Night performance at the Adelphi Theatre on London, with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess – I’ve seen it and it’s by far the best show in London for the present, with beautiful music, spectacle, and set design. You’ll love it whether you’ve already seen Phantom of The Opera or not, makes no difference. The top price tickets to this hugely popular musical theatre show have been kindly provided by TheatreBreaks.com To enter the competition all you have to do is leave a comment here on this blog, saying why you’d like to see Love Never Dies on Saturday. You can post it either on this competition post below, or anywhere else on the blog within the next 23 hours starting from now, Friday 8th October at midday. At 11.00am on Saturday, tomorrow, the day of the show, the winner will be chosen, notified by email by Saturday afternoon and two Love Never Dies tickets will be arranged to be collected from the box office with the lucky winners’ names on them!

A stunning set of photographs of Sierra Boggess as Christine in Love Never Dies, taken by photographer Estefania y Arantxa Álvarez and added to Flickr with a Creative Commons License.