Love Never Dies hits cinemas in the USA

Love Never Dies prepares to hit the big screen across the USA next week…

Despite a rocky beginning in London two years ago, Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest block buster musical, has certainly made its mark on the world of music theatre.

After a complete makeover, thanks to a creative team assembled by Tim McFarlane, Producer of the Australian production of Love Never Dies and Managing Director of The Really Useful Company, Love Never Dies the musical was given an entirely new look and a new life.

Director Simon Phillips and designer Gabriela Tylesova teamed with Graeme Murphy (choreography), Nick Schlieper (lighting design), Mick Potter (sound design) and Guy Simpson (musical supervision and direction) to create an all new Australian production which Lloyd Webber himself described as “extraordinary”, “fabulous”, “seamless” and “bliss’.

After opening in Melbourne on May 28 2011, the Australian cast’s performance of this $9 million musical was recorded at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in September last year, and will be seen on American cinema screens next week ahead of its global release on DVD and Blu-Ray.

900 screenings will take place across the USA in what Tim McFarlane, calls “a terrific ‘thumbs up'” for the Australian production.

“The filming of our show was a landmark in Australian film and theatre: the first Australian production of a musical to be filmed for world wide release”, he said.

“I was thrilled with the result. When I saw what the camera has captured close up, the drama of this now classic love story, the continuing story of the Phantom and Christine, I was sure it would be embraced world wide.”

Starring Ben Lewis and Anna O’Byrne in the coveted roles of Phantom and Christine, this DVD has already been lauded the most successful filming of a stage show in history by critics in Australia and around the world.

AussieTheatre’s David Allen in his recent article The Measure of a Musical recently wrote “This production of Love Never Dies offers bright hopes for the future. With sweeping cinematography, a masterful capture has been created of Love Never Dies at the Regent in Melbourne.”

Director of the DVD Brett Sullivan and partner Clayton Jacobsen have directed and produced music videos/TV specials for Phil Collins, Eric Clapton and Michael Buble and international commercials and campaigns for the likes of Madonna, REM and Rihanna. Sullivan has also directed and filmed theatrical productions in the West End and on Broadway.

“The DVD was released in Australia just weeks ago and now it’s making a splash in the U.S. I think the DVD is going to be a huge success internationally”, said Producer, McFarlane.

Love Never Dies stars Ben Lewis as The Phantom, Anna O’Byrne as Christine. Maria Mercedes as Madame Giry; Sharon Millerchip as Meg, her daughter, and Simon Gleeson Christine’s husband, Raoul.

The show is currently playing at the Capitol Theatre Sydney, and will close on April 1, 2012. No tours of the production have been announced, but it is understood that the work will have a life after the Australian season. Whether this be on Broadway, in Asia or Europe is still unknown, but until then the world has a first-class film of the Australian production at its fingertips on Blu-Ray, DVD and in cinemas.