Lewis, O’Byrne confirmed for Love Never Dies

Following a process which saw over 900 performers audition, including some of the biggest names in opera and music theatre, the dream roles of The Phantom and Christine in the brand new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies have been won by Ben Lewis and Anna O’Byrne.

Following a process which saw over 900 performers audition, including some of the biggest names in opera and music theatre, the dream roles of The Phantom and Christine in the brand new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies have been won by Ben Lewis and Anna O’Byrne.

Raised in Sydney, Lewis graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2004 and has since performed in many productions across the country.

Lewis’ credits include Polites in The Odyssey for Black Swan at the Malthouse, Urinetown with Sydney Theatre Company and the original cast of the smash hit Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical. He played Sir Galahad in the original Australian cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot and most recently performed two seasons as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music for Opera Australia.

Other theatre credits include The Windows Project for the Darlinghurst Theatre, Metro Street for the Production Company and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for WildRumpus.

O’Byrne trained at the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Music Performance (Honours) in Classical Voice in 2008. Whilst at VCA, she performed roles and excerpts from Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angélica, and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She was the recipient of the Harold Fisher Opera Scholarship, the Gwen Nisbet Music Scholarship for academic achievement, The Walter and Muriel McConnan Trust Scholarship for the student ranked highest in talent in the Honours program, the Athenaeum prize, and an award in the Sleath Lowrey Rotary Scholarship.

Less than a fortnight after completing her degree, Anna was cast in the Australian production of The Phantom of the Opera, where she covered and performed the role of Christine Daaé opposite Anthony Warlow’s Phantom. She toured with the production to Perth, Adelaide and Taipei.

Love Never Dies opens in Melbourne in May at the Regent Theatre.