Love Never Dies in Concert - Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Cinderella and sunset I knew about. Didn’t realise there was drama on LND - can anyone elaborate pls?

It's quicker paced than other songs and unfortunately, Norm's diction was horrendous. I imagine that played a major part in it - he was clearly already struggling to remember the lyrics of the piece as a whole (he missed maybe 4-5 lyrics in the matinee, but he got them all in the evening - he just missed other lyrics instead...!)

Have to admit, I am sort of surprised seeing the positive comments about tonight's performance... Maybe it's because I know the show reasonably well and can probably sing the entire album word-for-word that I noticed things, maybe? In the second act, Norm flubbed every single time he was on stage. I still enjoyed it, but I don't think we should be giving allowances for forgotten lyrics - he (and Sally dexter!) have had months to learn the script prior to rehearsals...

Obviously Celinde was wonderful but I actually think Courtney Stapleton stole the show?!?! Just wow! Genuinely fabulous. 

Marisha Wallace was at the matinee too!

Courtney is so good. Loved her in Dear Evan Hansen and Beauty and the Beast, not surprised she was great here as well. Interested to see what she does next.

I'm a bit late reporting as I was too tired last night when I got home so most of what I wanted to say has been said.
Another great concert produced by Fourth Wall, i've been to several and they are always excellent. This was semi staged and not a concert. Lighting and sound and costumes were brilliant.
It was so lovely to hear the glorious music played by such a big orchestra and, I would say, most of the stalls where I was sitting stayed and listened to the exit music with massive applause at the end.
Talking of applause I do enjoy these concerts as you get an audience of real MT fans so there is also such a great atmosphere and massive applause. Even a standing ovation in the stalls after Celinde sang Love Never Dies.
Great cast and lovely to see Matthew Seadon-Young as Raoul. I really like him as an actor. Also have to mention the young lad who played Gustave, Cian Eagle-Service. What a sweet little boy with an angelic voice who had the awwww factor.
As for the 2 leads Celinde was absolutely perfect and totally stole the show. I might go against the grain but I was slightly underwhelmed by Norm Lewis. I just thought his voice was not up to the role. Maybe I am biased as I saw the original production with Ramin who has the most amazing voice. But saying that Norm was fine and it didn't spoil it for me. Also great to see how well rehearsed it was with no music stands and scripts.
My memory of the original show was obviously not brilliant as I had completely forgotten what happens at the end so that was quite a shock to me.
As mentioned, the Lord was in the stalls. He slipped in and out at the beginning so not noticed until returning to his seat for act 2 and once people realised who it was he got a standing ovation and waved to the audience. I waved back for some strange reason and stopped when I realised I must have looked a right idiot. He came on stage at the end and made a rather nice speech.
I am giving the concert 5 stars, I took half a star away for Norm but added half a star for the amazing orchestra.

I couldn’t disagree more about Courtney ‘stealing the show’ although have to admit, this is the first time seeing her in something where I’ve actually thought she did a good job (and I’ve seen her in multiple roles over the years)

I thought it was one of the best stages concerts I’ve seen. I loved the set and the lighting. The orchestra were sublime, my dislike for the book/original production always overshadows how much I do like the score.

After mulling it over and reading what everyone else had to say, I have to admit that Norm wasn't really at his best. I may have seen him on one of his better performances, as I didn't notice much line flubs from him as much as everyone else did.

Thinking back to yesterday's matinee. Yes, I did love it and the glorious music, but it wasn't perfect. As others have said, Norm wasn't entirely up to scratch, with (by the sound of things) flubbed lyrics in every performance, but Celinde was fabulous. According to the blurb in the programme the little lad, Cian, had no musical theatre or vocal training prior to lockdown. After watching a recording of Phantom in 2021 he started singing songs from the show and asked to have singing lessons (although he has played Michael Banks in Poppins and Gavroche in Les Mis, but not sure when). Pretty impressive! Anyway, I'm so pleased I saw this, and also glad I was alone, so I could take it all in without distraction!

The Cinderella plot was abysmal also. Andy writes gorgeous scores and hires terrible writers.

Isn't it Mme Giry? Mme Giry is walking along the pier several years later and she sees an old poster advertising the Ooh La La Girls and a performance by Christine Daae. Then Fleck crawl out from coats on the floor? "Of course we are still here. The freaks, where else could we exist but here?" and then the Coney Island Walz starts, if I recall correctly? Fleck starts singing and then Mme Giry takes over, Fleck is escorted off stage and Mme Girl is alone on the pier - you're then left alone with Mme Girl as Coney Island comes alive through her eyes.

The original Coney Island Waltz was 100% superior! 

The Waltz is the one thing I think could have been done better yesterday - surely they had some of the old props from the original waltz lying around? My other half (who didn't know the plot!) had no idea what was happening and didn't understand why all of the ensemble were sitting on the floor randomly!)