The Phantom Deserves a Sequel: Let’s bring”Love Never Dies” to Broadway.
As a lifelong devotee of musical theater, few productions have captivated me like “The Phantom of the Opera.” This masterpiece is, hands down, one of the best musicals in history. From the moment I first watched the Phantom’s haunting tale unfold, I knew there had to be more. The original ending just didn’t sit right with me – the Phantom deserved better.
That’s why I’ve been eagerly awaiting the sequel, “Love Never Dies,” ever since. The way the Phantom’s story concluded left me unsatisfied. The connection between him and Christine was so deep, so consuming, that the random appearance of some other man sweeping her away just didn’t ring true. Their duet, “The Point of No Return,” is a song that oozes passion and desire – it’s a musical representation of their love, raw and unrestrained.
The Phantom’s actions, driven by his all-consuming passion and jealousy, were justified in my eyes. He brought out the best in Christine, mentoring her and unleashing her true potential as a singer. That’s what love is all about – accepting someone for who they are and helping them become their truest self. The Phantom deserved a better resolution, a chance to right the wrongs of the original ending.
When I heard about the Melbourne production of “Love Never Dies,” I was ecstatic. I immediately bought tickets, eager to witness the sequel in all its glory. Alas, life got in the way, and I never made it to that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Years later, I still regret missing that Australian version, which I’ve been told was the best before the show went on tour.
Watching the recorded movie version, however, was a spectacle in its own right. The costumes, the set design, the seamless transitions – it all exceeded my already high expectations. As someone who has seen countless shows on Broadway and off-Broadway, I can say with certainty that the production values of “Love Never Dies” are unparalleled. The set design, in particular, is the most spectacular I’ve ever encountered.
My admiration for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s works is well-known. I’ve seen “Cats,” “Bad Cinderella,” and I am about to watch “Sunset Boulevard,” and I firmly believe that “Love Never Dies” is superior to “Bad Cinderella.” In fact, with “The Phantom of the Opera” no longer gracing the Broadway stage, I believe the time is ripe for “Love Never Dies” to take its rightful place.
The themes of the sequel – righting wrongs, starting anew – resonate with me deeply. Set in the vibrant Coney Island, I think the revised Australian version of the show would be a perfect fit for the New York audience. This city craves stories of redemption and fresh beginnings, and “Love Never Dies” delivers that in spades.
Moreover, the rarity of musicals lasting 20 years, like “The Phantom of the Opera” has, is a testament to the enduring power of these stories. I believe “Love Never Dies” deserves a chance to capture the hearts of Broadway audiences and potentially embark on a world tour, sharing the Phantom’s tale with even more people.
While the movie version was a spectacular experience, allowing me to see the actors’ expressions and emotions up close, nothing can replace the magic of live theater. The richness of the sound, the immersive atmosphere – that’s what I crave. I long to witness “Love Never Dies” on stage, to feel the energy of the live orchestra and the power of the singers’ voices reverberating through the theater.
When “Love Never Dies” finally graces the Broadway stage, you can bet I’ll be one of the first in line to secure a ticket. I’ll be there, front and center, ready to experience the Phantom’s story unfold before my eyes, just as I had hoped all those years ago. This is a moment I’ve been anticipating for far too long, and I refuse to miss it. The Phantom’s tale deserves to be told, and I’m determined to be there to witness its triumphant return.
There is real pain in my creations. Sometimes I ask myself why do I have to do the things that I do, and it is essentially meaningless. But there is something within me that I need to express artistically – to push the limits of what it means to be human. I don’t think I will understand myself not I will understand the universe or comprehend it. But at least in this short time on earth – I had lived my life to the fullest and did most of what I wanted to do without subjecting myself to the limitations of societal expectations.
I got on the Amazon Prime Radical Body Transformation Program for 8 months with the intention to run a Spartan Race. Although I would consider myself pretty athletic, I mainly dance as my main form of exercise and running a Spartan race is entirely different from dancing. I have been assigned a virtual coach, Josh, who oversees my diet and exercise schedule. We do a weekly check in on Saturdays and he changes my workouts and calories intake accordingly.
The first week was extremely tough as I would workout for 45 minutes and be utterly exhausted that I would fall asleep once I hit the bed. So I had to refrain from going home too early so as not to fall asleep at 8pm, if not, I would wake up in the middle of the night be awake too early. I made some adjustments to do meal preps for most of my meals, and got more protein in. Counting protein is extremely hard as it requires a certain level of discipline to hit the protein requirement weekly. I sometime miss it or I overdo it. It’s easy to do it with protein shakes and bars but my coach advised me to try to get natural sources of protein from meats and eggs. It’s rather challenging and it continues to up my game.
I went outlet shopping and got new sports attires specifically designed for running as wearing dance fitness wear is kind of different from workout wear and I don’t want to stand out in the gym too much. I got a fitness tracker, and basically I am all set to train. The second week felt so much better in fact, I feel like running and working out more than the first week. I no longer feel exhausted, which is great.
My last time racing was when I was a teenager, I came in 25th out of over a thousand people from my school’s annual marathon race. Interestingly, I did not train for that race but coming from a competitive dance background helps with endurance as we usually dance for 2 – 4 hours. I have never raced since then. I think I do better in long distance than short distances.
I was considering learning gymnastics and did aerial silk for a while, and there is a problem with being dyslexic – I would probably never be that good in aerial silk due to my inability to tell directions unless it is learnt by constant repetition or muscle memory. For gymnastics, the gateway is to go to the gym first before attempting it. I figured out training for a spartan race does help me become a better dancer as the difference between a semi pro dancer and a pro dancer is the level of fitness, ballet training and fundamental conditioning (daily stretching etc).
I might flop at the race, but at least I tried to train for it. I think it’s all about keeping to a schedule and I am excited to embark on this fitness journey
I have to admit I spent most of my life overcompensating to be good enough. I would work 16 hours a day, and not socialise to achieve my goals. I wanted to be perfect. I needed and craved for validation, at the expense of my health and well being. I would tear down the skies, to hear, “It’s going to be okay.”
At this stage of my life, I would say I have reached the pinnacle. A list of feats that I made possible in a short duration of time, because of my ruthlessness. I don’t think I am well liked, I think I might be hated.
Four years of business school doesn’t train someone to be compassionate. It trains you to get down to the bottom line. It’s soul breaking training, the graduation rate is less than 50%. It corrupts the mind, it crushes dreams and it forces cold hard facts and removes all traces of emotions. To succeed, one must develop a sense of being in a state of zen.
My identity was fragmented in the process of business school, it broke into pieces, only to be merged together again in my pursuit of the highest form to be an artist and athlete. With this new form, I can truly say I have been to the depths of the deepest caves of my mind and back. I am glad I undertook the training to be an actor, I would never have understood myself this deeply otherwise.
Q: You published three full length novels before the age of 30 years old, how did you do it?
AVER: Only one in a thousand people who start writing a novel actually complete the novel. It is like climbing Mount Everest, and I think it’s just one those things in life that it’s nice to have accomplished. At the Thriller Writers Convention in NYC, most authors are double my age. I am the only Asian in the room.
My writing abilities were spotted early in school by my teachers who would photocopy my essays and pass them around for other teachers to read (I took literature, history, economics). They cast me lead in the school’s play as Desdemona in Othello. I was in the school’s dance and debate team. When a member of parliament visited my school, I had a debate with him about the freedom of the press. Singapore has one of the lowest freedom of speech in the world. Prestigious magazines and books were regularly banned out of political interest. The debate was well received by the students. I was nominated for the student council.
At 18 years old, I fell into depression due to constant harassment from my classmates who did not like the attention I was getting. Where was an incident when I opened my locker and there was rotten food inside. My notes were stolen, and they called me names. I dropped out of college and gave up my dreams of becoming a lawyer. I enrolled in business school, and started writing my novels.
I think essentially what happened was that I became an outlier of the conservative and stressful Singapore education system. I pursued my freedom in speech in writing fictional worlds, so my books will never get banned and I will never end up in jail. I created the Scarlet Queen YouTube fantasy channel that has over four million views. This year, the amount of views on my YouTube will exceed the population of Singapore. My works are well loved by a loyal fan following.
If I did not drop out of college, Singapore would have gained a powerful politician and lawyer who will focus on gender equality, freedom of the press, free medical care and LGBT rights.
This music video is a direct cross cultural reference to American society from a modern Japanese point of view.
– In this music video she sleeps with eight different men as a diamond ring flashes in the background.
– It is a cross reference to her personal life whereby she has gone through a divorce with an American, as some of the sentimental lyrics are the words she wants to say to her former lover.
– This is probably the most intimate music video that features her on a bed 80% of the time with different men, which is a statement by itself to the casual nature that people treat relationships. Gone are the days that diamonds are forever.
– The diamond mask and paper fortress are actually symbolic of the superficial levels of American society, that diamonds are actually worthless in value but inflated by advertising. The paper fortress represents paper currency, which in essence is “fake” as intrinsically, America is in debt.
– A wild galloping stallion in the background is the symbol of female empowerment, and it represents Ayumi Hamasaki as herself in the image of a wild stallion. That she is pretty much free to transverse different landscapes and sleep with whoever she wants.
– This music video is in essence about the freedom of the female sexuality, portrayed by a Japanese woman with contemporary American symbols.
– It may be a statement that the freedom of the female sexuality should be limitless across all cultures.
Somehow I decided pursue my dream in the theater arts. To prepare for this, I resolved to dance consistently for about two years before starting on my training as an actor. In the book, Acting – First Six Lessons by Richard Boleslavsky, it is advised that one has to pursue dance/rhythmic gymnastics as majority of acting depends on the actor’s ability to control their body movement by the usage of relaxation and letting go of tension.
Needless to say, realistic acting is a dying art, especially now with digital effects and animation in a fast food fast social media culture. To put in time and dedication to a craft is not a common occurrence this advanced age of artificial intelligence. There is no direct extrinsic rewards as an actor, in fact, majority of it would depend on luck and opportunity by being at the right place at the right time.
Sometimes I ponder if I am letting go of more lucrative opportunities by pursuing an art that not many may actually appreciate, as most realistic plays are run in small Off-Broadway theaters with 50 seats or less, as Broadway is now running mostly cartoon Disney or movie franchises. Or if I would ever get on big screen and be taken seriously as an Asian actress instead of playing an exotic or comedic part.
I would say, real acting is when you actually don’t know if the person is acting or not. The moment you can tell the person is acting, it is a sign of a bad actor. It’s an invisible craft of masquerades. But I believe the best actors, are the most authentic human beings in real life. They are not liars, or con artists, but true pure artists with their souls intact, which they have declined for it to be traded with the devil, or sins, or distractions.
That the training of an actor is one of the highest elevated crafts a human being could aspire for in the perfection of god. It is a the total artistry on all levels – body, mind and soul, body movements and voice.
For to touch another person’s soul is an act of the divine indeed.
Today, I finally had time to sit and read and watch some videos I like. I think this blog is my remaining solace from my hectic schedule and I derive my peace out of writing my thoughts on virtual screen. This is the only time I get to like – be myself – time.
On the very rare days I get this time to contemplate about the mysteries of the universe, and admire art by my favourite artists, I am somehow feeling stuck yet liberated. I mean, I free completely free to express myself artistically in fictional mediums, but I am stuck in the sense I am unable to express myself in non fictional terms.
The problem is that – fantasy is more appealing than reality. And reality kind of hurts, and it is kind of like what we see everyday on the streets. There is nothing appealing in that, but in fantasy, in fiction, there is no boundaries to our imaginations.
Sometimes I want to tear the dividing veil between reality and fiction and make my work more real. Some days, I pull back completely and decide to hide my truth under fiction. On other days, I just want to dance. I don’t know, I am in a confused mess and writing this piece that doesn’t make any sense on Thanksgiving Day.
My life is very suppressed, very controlled, like a greenhouse. It is safe, it is comfortable, it is nice. But it is just a built up mega lie to keep the illusion of safety when actually, it is an enclosed trap. In this trap, people are told to do and say what others want them to do in a controlled behavior. But the only exception is that if you create entertaining fictional pieces, you are allowed a voice.
In this controlled state, I could only express myself in fictional terms and nothing more.
This is the path I had chosen and lived to no regrets.
