{"id":431052,"date":"2011-05-27T01:06:43","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T01:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/27\/love-never-dies-but-its-hurting\/"},"modified":"2011-05-27T01:06:43","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T01:06:43","slug":"love-never-dies-but-its-hurting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/27\/love-never-dies-but-its-hurting\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Never Dies… but it’s hurting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Baz Bamigboye<\/a><\/p>\n

Last updated at 2:06 AM on 27th May 2011<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Empty<\/p>\n

Empty seats: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is struggling at the box office<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Andrew Lloyd Webber is battling to keep his musical Love Never Dies running in the West End, even though it has lost \u00a34million and stands little chance of recouping its costs.<\/p>\n

Plans were well advanced to close the sequel to the phenomenally successful Phantom Of The Opera by the end of the summer, and replace it with something that might make some money.<\/p>\n

But the composer has been buoyed by a new version of Love Never Dies that has its first night in Melbourne tomorrow. It has been directed by Simon Phillips, who headed the creative team behind the Priscilla musical.<\/p>\n

\u2018There is no decision to close the show in London,\u2019 an executive involved with Love Never Dies, which opened at the Adelphi in London just over a year ago, now tells me.<\/p>\n

For a show that should have been a sure-fire hit, it has been beset by some of the bloodiest behind-the-scenes shenanigans seen in the West End.<\/p>\n

The Adelphi is jointly owned by Lloyd Webber\u2019s Really Useful Group and the New York-based Nederlander Organisation.<\/p>\n

Nick Scandalios, who runs theatre operations for Nederlander, has wanted a production to replace the loss-making Love Never Dies.<\/p>\n

To that end, Scandalios and his associates were working on a proposed revival of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical Camelot.<\/p>\n

The idea was for the show to star Robert Lindsay (he had been approached), and for it to be directed by David Leveaux.<\/p>\n

Camelot, about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, has a dull and weighty book, but the plan had been to cut it back and concentrate on the songs, which include If Ever I Would Leave You and I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight.<\/p>\n

But Camelot\u2019s on hold now \u2014 for how long, no one knows.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re just about to phone Scandalios and tell him not to close Love Never Dies because the Melbourne version is previewing very well,\u2019 the executive close to LND told me.<\/p>\n

Lloyd Webber wants to introduce into the Adelphi show all the advances he and Phillips made in Melbourne. But that would mean shutting it down (again, because you may recall it was closed for a week earlier this year while Bill Kenwright \u2018redirected\u2019 it) and giving it new sets, costumes and cast.<\/p>\n

Even harder would be persuading the public to shell out between \u00a350 to \u00a367.50 for an untested product (although there are heavily reduced seat prices to be had).<\/p>\n

Many of those who worked on LND in London blame Lloyd Webber himself for its failure to take off. They insist that during rehearsals and previews last year the impresario refused to allow a single note of his score to be cut, which meant there could be no changes to the show\u2019s structure. It\u2019s easy to understand why Lloyd Webber wouldn\u2019t want to cut his score \u2014 it\u2019s one of the most beautiful he\u2019s ever written.<\/p>\n

But his recalcitrance caused mayhem behind the scenes and led to director Jack O\u2019Brien, designer Bob Crowley and others asking lawyers to intervene.<\/p>\n

Love Never Dies cost \u00a35.5\u2009million to put on and has returned about \u00a31.3million to investors. Its producers aren\u2019t allowed to raise further funds to keep the show running, so the Really Useful Group has for months been funding it itself. To do so, they slashed running costs by \u00a315,000 a week.<\/p>\n

The producers admitted to investors recently: \u2018All of us are devastated that a project so full of promise has come to this pass. It\u2019s hard to explain fully.\u2019<\/p>\n

Indeed it is. Really Useful claim they can afford to keep Love Never Dies running because it\u2019s \u2018haemorrhaging peanuts\u2019 rather than haemorrhaging to death.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

Tim Rice is adapting the James Jones novel From Here To Eternity for the stage<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tim Rice has a rule that musicals should be no longer than two-and-a-half hours, which may be a problem when it comes to adapting James Jones\u2019s novel From Here To Eternity.
It\u2019s a 900-page paperback, but Rice (right) and his collaborators on the musical version of the novel \u2014 about life in a U.S. military fort on the Hawaiian island of Oahu before Pearl Harbour \u2014 will fit as much as possible into that time.
The 1953 film version \u2014 starring Burt Lancaster \u2014 gets the storyline over very well, although Rice explained that the stage show is based on the book, not\u00a0Daniel Taradash\u2019s movie screenplay.
It\u2019s taken several years to secure full stage rights. \u2018It\u2019s only really now that we are all gung-ho,\u2019 Rice told me. He is producer and co-lyricist with Stuart Brayson, who composed the score, while Bill Oakes wrote the show\u2019s book.
Rice has been working with director Tamara Harvey to structure the story. He joked that he needed help because\u00a0 \u2018I\u2019m a bit of an old codger these days.\u2019
Nonsense. I saw Rice at a splendid bash Cameron Mackintosh threw recently to celebrate his 30-year business partnership with Nick Allott at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel, and he was full of vigour.
Who\u2019ll be in it? \u2018George Clooney sings, doesn\u2019t he?\u2019 Rice said. He\u2019s kidding. We\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Continue reading here:
\nLove Never Dies… but it’s hurting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Baz Bamigboye Last updated at 2:06 AM on 27th May 2011 Empty seats: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is struggling at the box office Andrew Lloyd Webber is battling to keep his musical Love Never Dies running in the West End, even though it has lost \u00a34million and stands little chance of recouping its costs. Plans were well advanced to close the sequel to the phenomenally successful Phantom Of The Opera by the end of the summer, and replace it with something that might make some money. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":416857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-431052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"\nLove Never Dies... but it's hurting - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/27\/love-never-dies-but-its-hurting\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Love Never Dies... but it's hurting - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Baz Bamigboye Last updated at 2:06 AM on 27th May 2011 Empty seats: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies is struggling at the box office Andrew Lloyd Webber is battling to keep his musical Love Never Dies running in the West End, even though it has lost \u00a34million and stands little chance of recouping its costs. 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