So happy to see these bootleg clips so that we have the optunity to know what was happened then on the original London Production. LND already evolve that much and we can still take a peek of what it originally looked like. This scene now already be a so blinking peacock stage. I love this show and never image to watch it live, but I am so luck to watch it live in Shanghai Cast 2023.
I have to say I wish they would have kept THIS blocking of this scene for the Australian Version and Newer versions of this show because I must say it’s played way hotter here LOL This is basically Erik throwing all of his seductive energy at Christine to try and convince her to sing, and I like how Ramin so smoothly comes up behind her like a cat, sings in her ear, pulls away whenever she reaches for him. It is very much a game of seduction between them, and he leaves her completely melting for him here…I feel some of that is lost in the updated versions I’ve seen. And it’s important that we see Christine’s resolve to resist him completely crumble here…and I still feel Ramin and Sierra brought that point across the best.
I just love how much fun Ramin is obviously having, he loves playing the Phantom and it shows LOL I also love how his confidence is just through the roof since he knows Gustave is his son and that he has Christine’s heart, he’s just enjoying making poor Raoul squirm and we the audience is in on it with Erik, which makes this scene work so well. 😆
This whole musical is obviously terrible, but Ramin somehow makes at least tolerable lol. He's clearly not taking it too seriously which makes a huge difference. If the whole thing were played out in that way, it might actually be kind of fun...
I disagree, first off Ramin is NOT capable of not giving a part his absolute all…everything I’ve seen him in he’s giving it 100%. And just watch the finale of LND’s and watch him scream in agony when Christine dies in his arms and try and tell me he isn’t taking the roll seriously….because his reaction is the most gut twistingly REAL reaction of absolute grief I’ve yet seen by a Phantom Actor performing that scene. And secondly…while the London Version of Love Never Dies was definitely a ‘work in progress’ to put it mildly (the Australian Production really helped to ‘clean it up’ a lot) from all the interviews with him and Sierra where they talk about Love Never Dies, and Ramin has said on his Podcast that it was a fully year they were recording the Album before they even got it on stage, a full year of him and Sierra working their absolute tails off to learn the new material. Remember they were the original cast of a brand new musical…so yeah you bet your bones they were taking the material seriously! They wouldn’t have been chosen to headline Webbers brand new musical if they weren’t.
This whole song is a ridiculous, frankly gross dick wagging contest, but I can't help but love it? The counterpoint is fun, and Ramin makes it pretty silly, which fits the absurdity of it. It's a true "so bad its good"
Really? 🤨 I think Beneath a Moonless Sky is an absolutely beautiful love song, even if you hate LND…I’ve never seen anyone serious criticize the music in it (other then ‘Bathing Beauty’ which admittedly is cringe LOL).
@@sunflower-xi5ct I've seen plenty of criticism of it, and I just can't bring myself to like it. The music is pretty, but the lyrics just put jt under for me. I can't help but read it as saying "they only did it because Christine couldn't see the Phantom's face" with the multiple references to not being able to see, and "I felt no longer shy" with no other context. It makes the context of Christine's decision seem even more ridiculous. Let's disregard the complex feelings Christine held for him, apparently the problem was that he didn't wear a bag on his head. The rest of the lyrics don't inspire much either, they're a relatively generic description of "we made love" without anything that really ties to these two characters. Take that with the obvious lack of context as to why Christine went back, and I just can't being myself to like it much. I think a rewrite could make it a lot better. For example, the reason Christine came back could be built upon. She's clearly devestated to leave him at the end of the original show, as though this is someone who's been put her through hell, she still cares about him. There's a lot to play with there. And for the rest of it, it could be a lot more elegant and/or reference the story more specifically instead of reading like it could be from any love story. Obviously I don't intend this as criticism of anyone who likes this song, I can see why people enjoy it and regardless, everyone is allowed to like what they want. This is just how I read it and why I feel like it's a trashfire...
Well in the end Erik knows he had her heart, and that she was going to stay with him…and he got his son, Gustave, the living legacy of their love, who will be with him now for the rest of his days. So even though Christine died, the Phantom got something in the end…the acceptance of his own flesh and blood, which is actually rather beautiful.
The Casting of Michael Crawford in the Original Role of the Phantom is Only because Ramin was just 8 Yrs Old at the Beginning & Casting of the Show of Shows, and Thanks to the Genuis Talents of Sir Webber it Stuck around Long Enough to Show the World the "Real" Phantom, lol......IMO ❤
0:40 i do love the reflection in the mirror behind them, it feels like we can see the truth behind this bet. Are these two gentlemen talking about who is the one Christine would choose or is this a bet between a monster who knew he would definitely win the game and a drunk, pathetic husband? We wouldn't know, but the reflection shows us both sides.
I love when the intertwine of the hands at 04:55 remember the similar enlace at The Point of No Return performed also by Sierra and Ramin. Is beautiful!
Yes! the entwined fingers seems to be a thing both Ramin And Sierras Phantom and Christine do throughout the whole show to symbolize sexual intimacy with each other. The first time she grabbed his hands like that was during Point of No Return in POTO when Christine sings ’how long should we two wait before we’re one?’ And then she does it with him again right here as they sing ‘and the world around us fell away..’ right before the ‘and I took you, and I begged you’ etc…so we had the question posed in POTO and answered here in LNDs. By the way, I LOVE that little smile of utter bliss Ramin’s Phantom gives during that moment as the two of them just fall back into the memory ❤ But the symbolism continues because after ‘Once Upon Another Time’, they both hold their hands up to each other in longing but they don’t touch…because as the song says they can’t belong to each other again. And then later on when he comes to her before the performance and turns op all of his seduction abilities to the absolute max to try and get her to sing for him…Christine holds her hands out to him in a reverse Point of No Return moment, almost begging him to take them, but he doesn’t because she must sing for him first before he’ll give himself to her again. So this whole theme of the Phantom and Christine grabbing hands and lacing their fingers together as a sexual thing is throughout the whole London Show, I wish they had kept it for the Australian production.
This is the first Love never Dies thing Ive ever seen and like...HUH?! I mean Sierra Bogges and Ramin Karimloo are obviously amazing and their chemistry has me dead, but what is even going on😂 Was NOT expecting Christine and Erik to sing about their one night stand. Also they HAVE A CHILD?!?
LOL Yep the general gist of it is that Christine returned to the Phantom some time after the Original Show, and the two of them ultimately end up doing the ‘deed’ LOL and then he freaks out and high tails it off to America with the Giry’s because he’s terrified of facing Christine after what they did because he’s still a disfigured man on the run from the law. While in the meantime Christine finds herself pregnant with the Phantoms kid (Gustave) she marries Raoul t and hides her ‘secret’ and ten years later Raoul has blown all their money due to a gambling addiction while the Phantom has become a successful businessman who now owns all of Coney Island, but he can’t write his music without her …so he finds a way to lure her back to him. That’s the basic premise of the story, yes it’s very fan fictiony but my little Phantom/Christine shipper heart can’t help but love it despite all its flaws, so sue me 😆 Unfortunately if you want to watch the whole show you’ll have to look up the Australian Version with Ben Lewis and Anna O Byrne as they never professionally filmed the Original London Version with Ramin and Sierra 😤 however the sets and costumes in the Australian Show are very much improved, they also trimmed the material down a bit and streamlined it more.
I love that raoul tries to attack the phantom when in the phantom of the opera down once more/track down this murderer he was getting chocked by the phantom😭
I love the staging because if he didn't give a shit about Meg, he could've just let her kill herself for what she did to his son. Instead he genuinely tried to stop her hurting herself. Which is devastating all around :( Then he fully told her to run after she shot Christine... like he put all the blame on himself and that my friends, is growth from everyone's favorite musical psychopath lol
I think he couldn’t hate Meg because he saw too much of himself in her here, the Phantom knows exactly what it feels like to have your world fall down around you, to feel used and thrown away and at the end of your rope. And I’m sure he feels guilty for not seeing what Meg was going through, and you KNOW the poor guy is going to blame himself for what happened to Christine probably for the rest of his life. 😢 But truth be told I don’t blame him for what happens, he was Megs boss but it wasn’t his responsibility to play Daddy to her, he wasn’t obligated to give her his personal attention and time no matter how entitled the Giry’s felt to it…they didn’t HAVE to follow him to America! He was the one who was on the run from the law not them, Madam Giry was just obsessed with him and she greedily felt she could get his genius to benefit her by riding his coat tails, and dragging her poor daughter along with her to a foreign land. It wasn’t Eriks responsibility to know everything Meg was doing behind closed doors… where was her Mother? Was Madam Giry THAT oblivious to what Meg was doing with these wealthy men? She couldn’t have been that blind! And then KNOWING Megs desperation to please the Phantom she basically tells her “oh all these years you’ve been prostituting yourself for nothing by the way! And is suddenly SHOCKED when her daughter becomes suicidal! 🙄 Seriously I wanted to punch Madam Giry more than any other character in this show!
The girl complaining "that's not true"... Well, it isn't, but it's quite a beautifully performed fanfiction, and I'm living for it... I just wished it had a better ending
Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman could never have done LND. It just wouldn't work. Nobody would ever buy into Sarah's Christine banging Michael's Erik.
I really love Erik’s deformity here, it kinda resembles a skull which is cool...and I love how we actually get to see it, unlike in the Australian version where we never get to see his face. The Australian version I feel improved on some things but also went backwards on some others. The line where Raoul calls him ‘hideous’ also makes a lot more sense when he’s got his mask off…it also plays on the fact that Erik is way more relaxed and at home at Phantasma then he ever was before. This is HIS world that he’s created, he is with his own people (the ‘freaks’ ) here he is celebrated, respected…he is not hiding anymore and so Raoul had better WATCH IT because if an angry mob comes for anybody this time it’s going to be for Raoul and not Erik. 😆
He didn’t care…he just found out Gustave is his son, Christine just agreed to sing for him again AND she touched his face and almost kissed him…he’s on cloud nine right now LOL
@@jackmurphybatmanfan4619 If you’re a Phan then I think it’s worth a read, the way she delves into Erik’s backstory, his childhood, and time in Persia is brilliant. I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of her depiction of Christine, but I love her characterization of the ‘Persian’ and how he becomes a fully fleshed out character in that book, and he gets a name too! 😉 But yeah I guess I spoiled the ending a bit but… Webber wasn’t the first to give the Phantom and Christine a Son, Susan Kay beat him to the punch by about 20 years LOL.
Their is a certain sorta irony here that for all the talk about how Christine needs to be ‘free’ of the Phantom because he ‘controls’ her yada yada..it turned out that she was more trapped with Raoul then she ever was with the Phantom. Raoul got the song bird…and then in his own words ‘clipped her wings’ because he was afraid of her flying too high, Raoul’s love sorta became a golden cage for Christine, and over time it lost its luster and became cold. The Phantom has never been scared of letting her fly because he is the one who TAUGHT her to fly in the first place! The higher she flies the more he loves her. ❤ Oh but he’s so OBSESSED! Yes he is. But by overcoming her fear of being his, by letting him put that necklace on her and claim her, she is actually setting herself free in a sense…that is the ultimate irony here. When she lets herself belong to the Phantom…on her terms, she can actually fly higher than she ever could in her life. Erik just had to accept that he couldn’t force her to fly as much as he wanted to even though it killed him to see her caged, and Christine had to realize that there was nothing to fear by being his.
How should I ever be able to live on normally? I mean the plot is absolutely horrible and to compare it with POTO would just be humiliating, BUT... SIERRA AND RAMIN! DAMN And then SHE FREAKIN CHOOSES HIM, DIES IN HIS ARMS, THE FREAKING KISS; HIS SCREAM; THE RING AND THEN GUSTAVE HUGGING HIM!? In these last two minutes is more I need to process than throughout the rest of the musical...
Watching this again I really love how Sierra’s Christine plays it here, she’s not scared of him, not anymore, she seems more hurt to me then anything, hurt that he would threaten her AGAIN, Sierra’s Christine is not as angry to me as say Anna’s Christine in the Australian show. Sierra’s is more broken, by her Angel leaving her, by Raoul becoming a drunk and having to raise her son practically alone while her husband gambles away all their money…you get the sense she’s holding on for Gustave but has completely lost herself and her passion…and since their was no initial refusal from Christine here (unlike in the Australian Show) I think she’s more hurt that Erik thinks he HAS to threaten her to get her to sing for him when she might have agreed to sing for him anyway but his jealousy got triggered here and the old Phantom came out. But Christine’s not scared this time, just sad.
I despise this ending, it should have been the Phantom- ALW went to such lengths to redeem him..and then this…This is what doomed this sequel in my opinion.
How is Erik getting the love and acceptance of his Son in the end not redemption for him? I mean if you hate LND, that’s fine, as we all like what we like and vice versa, but I don’t see how you can claim it ruins Eriks ‘redemption’ when it literally ends with him holding his own flesh and blood…he will never be alone again. How is that not a beautiful ending for the Phantom?
The interesting thing about this song is how it showcases how both Christine and Meg have changed over the past 10 years…and how they are both completely miserable but trying to hide it from each other. Christine may look ‘Regal as a Queen’ but she is trapped in a failing marriage separated from music which she loves. And Meg might be a ‘Star’ but she’s a star of a vaudeville show trying to get the attention of a Man who will never want her. I also find it funny how Christine is the only one in this song who actually seems sincere like she’s not trying to ruin it for Meg, she’s just trying to appease the Phantom so she can go home (with some money). Later on we know she does it because she wants to sing for him, but her attention was never to steal the spotlight from Meg…but Meg has been so beaten down at this point and is just so desperate for some recognition from Erik she sees the writing on the wall right away and then the jealousy sets in.
