BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: A CD and Movie Review

Original Movie Soundtrack – 2017 / Music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice

Starring: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Audra McDonald, Hattie Morahan, Nathan Mack, Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson

Rate: 7 (from 1 to 10)

Review: Did we need a live-action remake of Disney’s classic BEAUTY AND THE BEAST? No, we didn’t. That movie is still one of the best animated movies I ever saw and I also had a great time with the Broadway stage adaptation of it. Besides one or two new songs, this new movie doesn’t add much to the original. In fact, half of the characters are CGI animated and that doesn’t make them real “live-action”. So, besides the millions it’s doing at the box-office, why bother doing it again? Because of the magic! I love musicals and I love fairy tales, so everything I might say ist’ always suspicious, but I really enjoyed this luxurious big production.

In the hands of director Bill Condon, who had already shown that he could handle a musical with DREAMGIRLS, the musical numbers easily flow through a fabulous fantasy atmosphere that embraces the action with a fantastic visual style and the right amount of humor. As for the polemic gay character, oh please! He already existed in the original and there’s nothing wrong with that. He makes sense in a movie with the message that being different is okay and that the important thing is the beauty inside and not the physical one.

As for the score, the big hits of the original are here, although the singing voices aren’t as good as in the original. Even so, Emma Thompson sweetly delivers the title song and Ewan McGregor leads the cast with style with “Be Our Guest”. Of course, Josh Gad has a big time with “Gaston”, the only number better here than in the original. In the role of Beauty, Emma Watson, of whom I never cared much, doesn’t have a very good singing voice, but she manages to deliver her songs in tune. I didn’t expect that Dan Stevens, as the Beast, and Luke Evans, as Gaston, had strong voices, so they surprised me. I just wish they had given something more to Audra McDonald as Madame Garderobe; they did give her one of the new songs, “Aria”, but it’s too short for her enormous talent.

As for the new songs, the best one is “Evermore”, a strong emotional song that is a trademark of composer Alan Menken. There’s also the sweet “How Does a Moment Last Forever” and I couldn’t believe that, once again, they didn’t use the terrific “Be Human Again”. This song, my favorite of the whole score, was cut from the original movie and later used with magic effect on the stage production. In the current movie, it’s replaced by the pretty ballad “Days in the Sun”.

As you may guess, I recommend the movie and the soundtrack. It’s true, the original movie is better and so is the original Broadway cast recording, but there’s plenty to enjoy here and the “Be Our Guest”. number is a feast to all senses! 

You can see a gallery of poster by clicking here. 

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - A DVD Review

I’ve to begin this by saying that I’m not an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan. It’s true, he knows how to wrote beautiful melodies and I love some of his songs, but on the whole his scores never conquered me.

I saw this famous musical twice on stage in London. That first time was in 1992 and I saw it from the last row of the upper balcony; I couldn’t be farther from the stage. For the second time, in 1994, I got a seat on the first row of the orchestra. The first time I saw a terrific Christine and Raoul and a poor Phantom; the last time I had a fantastic Phantom and a not so good Christine and Raoul. Both times the show looked amazing, but it was kind of boring.

Now, I got my hands on the 25^th Birthday concert of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at London’s Royal Albert Hall and, for the first time, I enjoyed it. This concert looks absolutely fabulous and it has a large company and a highly talented cast. The three principals are all good and so is the supporting cast.

Ramin Karimloo is a strong and sweet Phantom and the beautiful Sierra Boggess is a perfect Christine; there’s true chemistry between them and their duets sound wonderful. As for Hadley Fraser he is a rough and sexy Raoul who feels the love between Christine and the Phantom and is terribly jealous of it. One last word for Wendy Ferguson who plays a funny and irritating Carlotta; I loved her.

There are many highlights here. One of my favorite songs of the score, “Prima Donna”, is beautifully done. The famous “All I Ask of You” (another favorite of mine) duet sounds perfect in the voices of Boggess and Fraser. Karimloo give us a great “The Music of the Night”, Boggess is at her best with the haunting “Wishing you Were Somehow Here Again” and together they delivered an effective “The Point of No Return”. The “Masquerade” sequence looks and sounds better than ever.

As for the “modern-rock” title song, I always hated it and I didn’t change my mind; I always felt that it didn’t belong in this score. Sometimes I wish Webber didn’t feel the urge to be “modern”. One more thing, just like it happens on stage, the chandelier sequence doesn’t work.

Anyway, I think this is the best way to discover or rediscover this musical hit. By the end of the show, there are a couple of highly emotional surprises that I’m sure will please you.

Read more reviews at jorgeplace.com

LOVE NEVER DIES - A DVD Review

The idea of doing a sequel to a musical never really worked. They have tried (“Annie Warbucks” or “Bring Back Birdie”) and failed. This long planned sequel to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA suffered the same destiny.

This musical opened in London in 2010, but it failed with the critics (it got mixed reviews) and it didn’t connect with audiences. The show didn’t run for many months and closed early, much early, than expected. In 2011, a new production opened in Australia, where it got better reviews and Webber, realizing the show would probably never make it Broadway, decided to film it for a DVD/Blu-ray release.

The story begins 10 years after the events of the original. Now, the Phantom lives in Coney Island, but it still misses Christine. When she arrives in New York, with Raoul and their son, following an invitation of Oscar Hammerstein, she soon discovers it was all a plan by the Phantom to reunite with her.

Like the original, the design of this show looks amazing and director Simon Phillips takes full advantage of it. The problem is the plot; something doesn’t work.

The show starts with the terrific and inspired “Till I Hear You Sing”, the best song of the entire score and one of Webber’s best, which reveals the Phantom intentions. Christine has her first number with the Jerome Kern inspired “Look With Your Heart”, that she sings with her son. Moments later she reunites with the Phantom for another big moment, “Once Upon Another Time”, and near the end she delivers the beautiful title song (reminding me of Kathryn Grayson in Jerome Kern’s SHOW BOAT). The rest of the score is forgettable and the fact that Raoul doesn’t have a good song tells a lot about the show. There’s a couple of funny vaudeville numbers sung by Meg (remember her from PHANTOM?) and a disastrous rock song for the Phantom, “The Beauty Underneath”.  

The problem here is that we don’t care much for the characters and everything is very predictable. There aren’t any strong dramatic scenes and, with exception of the songs I mentioned early, nothing is very emotional. In fact, everything is kind of tedious and uninteresting.

As for the cast, Ben Lewis is a powerful Phantom, Anna O’Byrne as Christine sings beautifully, Simon Gleeson does what he can with a poorly written Raoul and Sharon Millerchip has fun as Meg.

If you like watching well-designed shows, with great sets, colorful costumes and listen to a few good songs, you can do worst than watching this LOVE NEVER DIES. 

Read more reviews at jorgeplace.com