Theater Review

Phantom of the Opera sequel leaves audiences yearning for the original

An old storytelling trick is to start in the middle of the action, and Love Never Dies book writer Ben Elton has embraced that advice with gusto. The sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber's massive global hit The Phantom of the Opera begins not with a scene-setting ensemble number or an atmospheric introduction, but with the Phantom himself, wailing high about his lost love Christine and pounding away at another organ in another lair.

It's an 11 o'clock number before most folks have even settled into their seats, and it might give you whiplash. This is especially true if you're not familiar with Sir Webber's original musical (which is still selling out on Broadway and in the West End decades after it debuted). Instead of a Paris opera house, we're in Coney Island and it's a decade after the Phantom (Bronson Norris Murphy) mysteriously vanished after terrorizing his opera house and its staff.

What's the masked man up to now? Running a revue amid the rollercoasters and the side show freaks, where his facial abnormalities now just blend in with the crowd and his obsessive, possessive, sometimes murderous urges seem to have mostly tapered off. Ferrying him to America were former ballet mistress Madame Giry (Broadway vet Karen Mason) and her daughter, Meg (a former Broadway Christine, Mary Michael Patterson), now headlining as an "ooh la la" girl but aggressively jockeying for leading lady status with lots of petulant whining.

The fierce Madame Giry, as well, has undergone a personality change. Now she's more Mama Rose than imperious instructor, and both mother and daughter appear to harbor a bit of a crush on their masked employer.

Oh, did no one tell you? The Phantom is now a straight-up sex symbol, a rom-com hero whom every female in this show not only lusts after, but will kill for. There has always been an undercurrent of dangerous sexuality to the Phantom, but here it feels like Elton threw up his hands, threw out every previous character description, and decided to start fresh (with some guidance from Frederick Forsyth's The Phantom of Manhattan), changing up ambitions, personalities, and even motives. Besides Love Never Dies, Elton's main musical credit is the book for the sci-fi Queen musical We Will Rock You — the absurd plot devices don't seem quite so bizarre when you keep that in mind.

It's all to force a tepid love triangle once more between the masked man and the woman he loves to stalk, plus the Ken doll who waits for her. Christine Daaé, now the world's foremost soprano (played by New York City Opera's Meghan Picerno), has been lured to America to sing at Oscar Hammerstein's new opera house (a video recording of the Australia production that this tour is based on exists, and if "Hammerstein" is said even half as many times there as here, then everyone would be at serious risk of alcohol poisoning).

She's accompanied by her husband, Raoul, the now-surly and detached Vicomte de Chagny (played sluggishly by Sean Thompson), and their cherubic son Gustave (Jake Heston Miller, a true highlight with an angelic voice; he alternates with Christian Harmston). We know Raoul is an alcoholic because every other line is "I need a drink" or "I need something stronger," and he appears to stay with his wife only to pay off his massive debts through her money-making voice. So when the Phantom seductively comes calling, there's never even a hint of "will she/won't she" tension — Raoul's out the door so quick it would make the contortionist's head spin twice.

Slinking throughout the eerie fairgrounds — Gabriela Tylesova's elaborate set and costumes are Coney Island by way of Tim Burton — is a trio that functions less as narrators and more as distractions while the sets change. The gangly Stephen Petrovich (named, of course, Gangle), the rotund Richard Koons (dubbed Squelch), and the diminutive Katrina Kemp (the most engaging, as Fleck) are entertaining to watch, even if their purpose is entirely superfluous.

But what of the music, you ask? Well, it's no Phantom of the Opera. Though the O.G. pairing of Webber and Charles Hart (who rewrote some of new collaborator Glenn Slater's lyrics) have churned out about 30 new songs for this melodrama, the audience only perks up when a familiar melody or chord from the original escapes — the others are that dull and derivative, or sound like a Saturday Night Live satire.

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Performing Arts Fort Worth's presentation of the national tour of Love Never Dies plays at Bass Hall through August 12.

Richard Koons, Katrina Kemp, and Stephen Petrovich play a roving creepy chorus of sorts.

Richard Koons, Katrina Kemp, and Stephen Petrovich in Love Never Dies

Photo by Joan Marcus

Richard Koons, Katrina Kemp, and Stephen Petrovich play a roving creepy chorus of sorts.

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Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

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