Beauty and Pain Mark Love Never Dies, a Sequel to Phantom of the Opera

If you look hard enough, you can very often find beauty in the midst of pain. And in the case of Love Never Dies, which opened this week at Dallas Summer Musicals, unexpected pain emerges in the midst of beauty.

Set in 1907 as a continuation to the story of The Phantom of the Opera, this fully-sung musical is visually stunning with spectacular feather-topped costumes and elaborate set design depicting Mister Y's circus-like Phantasma attraction on Coney Island. With semi-macabre elements like pass-through mirrors, dramatic lighting, a curiosity-inducing carousel, and turn-of-the-century circus performers, the show's creative oddities elicit a whimsically-exotic ambience.

Tucked just beneath the surface, however, is an unsavory and implausible plot line which takes unsettling turns and leaves viewers more-than-mildly stressed and on edge from the opening number to the bitter end. This reunited group of friends once bound by common compassion has now become a disjointed collection of tormented souls who inexplicably turn on one another in uncharacteristically random fashion.

Ah, but such is the nature of opera ... and the reason that Love Never Dies should no doubt be approached more as an angsty opera and less like a happy-go-lucky piece of musical theater. A great introduction for the newbie arts patron who wants to dip his/her toe into the possibility of one day becoming a seasoned operagoer, Love Never Dies offers drama, suspense, booming voices, and hiiiiigh notes aplenty without the standard four-hour commitment to Wagner.

The North American tour of Love Never Dies runs July 24 - August 5, 2018 at the Music Hall at Fair Park and August 7-12, 2018 at Bass Performance Hall. Single tickets start at $20 for the Dallas engagement and $44 for the Fort Worth engagement.

For full details including video trailer, see:

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies Makes North Texas Premiere

For tickets and show times, visit:
Dallas Summer Musicals | Love Never Dies