Webbers sequel a miss

Love may never die, but West End shows will come perilously close to disaster unless they have some oomph and bongo and preferably a decent tune in the first 15 minutes.

Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom of the Opera, is as slow to motor as a lawnmower at spring's first cut.

The story makes assumptions. It assumes that theatregoers are familiar with the story of Phantom and the love triangle between diva Christine Daaé, her handsome husband Raoul and the mysterious, masked Phantom (here played efficiently but, well, just a little facelessly by Ramin Karimloo).

It also assumes that we understand the attraction these two dullards have for the beautiful Christine. Could she do no better? That core justification the romantic gubbins — is badly lacking.

Sierra Boggess, as Christine, is the production's great joy its show saver. She has a soprano of porcelain precision and her scene 4 duet with 10-year-old Gustave (excellent Harry Child), brushed by harp, is the first of three quick songs which rescue the evening. We are left in no doubt about the bond between daughter and son. Pity the same devotion is lacking between Christine and her lovers.

The Entr'acte asserts Lloyd Webber at his most soupily sumptuous and the second half is far better. His music crests in a breaking chord when Christine is staring into her dressing-room mirror, trying to decide between her loves.

Then comes the show's biggest number: Christine on stage at the Phantom's theatre, with Miss Boggess so back-lit that the downy hairs on her arms are accentuated.

The title song here may have been used before in The Beautiful Game but it claims its rightful place here.

The night ends with a death scene so long that it may only reignite the euthanasia debate.

So: a hit? Not quite. It is too much an also-ran to the prequel, and its opening is too stodgy. But if it is a miss, it is — like Christine — a noble miss, noble because Lloyd Webber's increasingly operatic music tries to lift us to a higher plane.