Let's be clear, this isn't a rehash of Phantom of the Opera. If one had to compare it's musical style/structure it would closely resemble Sunset Boulevard. The larger, more orchestral songs certainly are arranged in that tone. That sound. Yet there is very desperately an opera trying to get out here. Unusually, for a Lloyd Webber production there is no overture, none of the grand bombastic, organ music of the Phantom overture. Yet there are also shades of the melodies of Phantom, short bars of music are reused but not overused which is a good thing. Certainly the song Love Never Dies reuses music from Our Kind of Love from the lesser popular The Beautiful Game. Journey to the Cemetary used in the movie version of Phantom of the Opera also reappears now and again in snippets of songs. There are no Music of the Nights, no All I Ask of You's, yet there are many stand out tunes. The Beauty Underneath should have audiences humming or whistling this catchy tune which as with the previous Phantom of the Opera, is a driving rock orientated song. Another favourite of mine is Devil Take The Hindmost. Listening to the song, you can almost picture the Phantom playing a kind of game/chess with the stakes rising as the music does with Raoul as he (whilst drunk) foolishly let's his pride become his folly in wagering Christine's fate with that of her former nemesis: The Phantom.
Yet ... I cannot help but think that some of the songs are let down by voices which are almost 'night clubby' or maybe that's the idea? It is Coney Island, for example, sort of the Pontins/garish fun fair of it's day. Overall, this is a very different breed to it's predecessor but, as I listen right now on my first listen ... Gustav Gustav almost, but not quiet, drags the music back to the climax of Phantom of the Opera.
Gustav has been kidnapped ... what will happen, what fate awaits him and will Raoul reach him in time? And who will win the love of Christine ... the Phantom or Raoul? Listen, find out in the dramatic finale!