History YMMV / ThePhantomOftheOpera

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:
** StupidBoss Richard literally KickTheDog when he ass kicks Madame Giry, thinking she is the last person involved in a MassiveMultiplayerScam to prank him with [[AgentScully the ridiculous Phantom’s story]].
** Erik with {{Ventriloquism}} convinces ThePrimaDonna Carlotta (and all the Opera’s audience) that she has croaked like a toad

** Of course {{YMMV}}, but [[{{KISS}} Paul Stanley]] really did a nice job. See it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZyFk3xKB-A here]]

** StupidBoss Richard literally KicksTheDog when he ass kicks Madame Giry, thinking she is the last person involved in a MassiveMultiplayerScam to prank him with [[AgentScully the ridiculous Phantom’s story]].

* CanonDiscontinuity: It would also be impossible to make a film adaptation of ''Love Never Dies'' without breaking continuity with the 2004 movie, since it had established that [[spoiler:Christine dies in 1918, with the implication that it was because of the flu pandemic.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: In the case of the Phantom, it's done on purpose in the Broadway production. However, the original novel is much more straightforward about how we're supposed to interpret that character.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Leroux's original Erik -- he murders at least three people over the course of the plot and is definitely not the sanest person on the block, but Leroux expresses pity for him in the epilogue.
** Arguably, he's this the entire time due simply to his appearance; at the time, BeautyEqualsGoodness was commonly enough believed to be TruthInTelevision. Imagine what people who believe ''that'' are going to think of somebody like Erik--no matter '''what''' he does...

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: And ''how''! Erik has become more or less the poster-child for [[TheWoobie woobiedom]]. Try to find a fic where he ends up miserable and alone. The fan base is quite split over this, but a strong majority finds Erik to be by far the most sympathetic character in the book/play/film. And how you feel about this ''will'' make a difference on what you think of ''Love Never Dies''. Fan works aside, there's been a ''lot'' of different interpretations of who Erik actually is--he's been portrayed as everything from a doomed romantic who just got pushed a little too far (Kopit/Yeston version) to a slasher-style killer who sold his soul to the devil and flays the skin from his victims (1989 film starring Robert Englund, [[ANightmareOnElmStreet yes, Robert Englund]]).

* YourMileageMayVary: The movie. To a lesser extent, the musical itself.

* TearJerker

* {{Discontinuity}}: A lot of fans would like to forget ''The Phantom of Manhattan'', a novel by Frederick Forsyth that was based on the original plans for a sequel to the musical in the late 1990s, ever happened. ''Love Never Dies'' appears to be heading in the same direction.
** It would also be impossible to make a film adaptation of ''Love Never Dies'' without breaking continuity with the 2004 movie, since it had established that [[spoiler:Christine dies in 1918, with the implication that it was because of the flu pandemic.]]

* WTHCastingAgency: In addition to Crawford's celebrated PlayingAgainstType turn, the title character in the musical has been played by Paul Stanley (of KISS fame) and Robert Guillaume (as of 2010, the only black actor to play the Phantom).

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: And ''how''! Erik has become more or less the poster-child for [[TheWoobie woobiedom]]. Try to find a fic where he ends up miserable and alone. The fan base is quite split over this, but a strong majority finds Erik to be by far the most sympathetic character in the book/play/film. And how you feel about this ''will'' make a difference on what you think of ''Love Never Dies''. Fan works aside, there's been a ''lot'' of different interpretations of who Erik actually is--he's been portrayed as everything from a doomed romantic who just got pushed a little too far (Kopit/Yeston version) to a slasher-style killer who sold his soul to the devil and flays the skin from his victims (1989 film starring Robert Englund, [[ANightmareOnElmStreet yes Robert Englund]]).

**** she DOES mouth "I Love You" to Raoul before she kisses the phantom in the 2004 movie.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The Overture/title theme, "Music of the Night," "Masquerade," and the final scene, among others. Really, the whole score can qualify.

* FanPreferredCouple: Most fanfictions have Christine ending up with Erik.
* HollywoodHomely: In the movie, at least. Yes, Gerard Butler is supposed to be hideous just because he has a really bad sunburn. Some Phantom fans (or "phans") say that the stage makeup is also a cop-out, as it's still only [[TwoFaced over one half of his face]], but let's be honest -- a man who's good-looking on one side and like a rotting steak with an eye on the other alongside a ''partially exposed cranium'' and about as much hair as the average healthy person cleans out of their brush at the end of the month is ''still'' deformed enough to be believably outcast from Victorian society, even if he's not the "living corpse" Leroux described. (And with those conditions, being handsome on the other side tends to only make the deformity look worse.) WordOfGod says the half-mask was created because it was very difficult for Michael Crawford to sing properly through a full-face mask, and both Crawford and Andrew Lloyd Webber have said that it just took too long to apply make-up all over his face. Lloyd Webber was apparently worried no actor would play the role for very long if it required five-plus hours in make-up. Even with a half-mask, it takes time; by the end of Crawford's tenure, the make-up application was down to two hours, and that's about how long it takes for his successors.
** Let's not forget that during "The Point of No Return," Butler's mask barely conceals more than his eyes and we see no deformity whatsoever - even over the parts of his face which, when exposed ''later'', are deformed. They attempted to HandWave this by showing some makeup on the Phantom's dressing table.
** And in the Takarazuka Revue productions of the Arthur Kopit/Maury Yeston musical, both [[http://www.sankei.co.jp/enak/sumirestylevintage/sumirestyle04/2004/july/kiji/phantom/01.html Wao Youka]] and [[http://www.takarazuka-revue.info/img/wiki_up//hana%20phantom.jpg Haruno Surime]] were WAY too pretty for their own good. Bizarrely, they both managed to make it work regardless.

* LoveItOrHateIt: The musical is either a gorgeous romantic spectacle or the worst thing to happen to theater, depending on who you talk to.

* CriticalResearchFailure: See DidNotDotheResearch on the main article for the 2004 film.

* FanHaters: Plenty, who believe the show is nothing but style (and gooey romance) over substance. Interestingly, though, liking the book too is a good way to find redemption with the hatedom... so long as you say the book is ''better''.

* InNameOnly: Subverted with the 1989 slasher reimagining starring [[ANightmareOnElmStreet Robert Englund]] as the title character. Many often mistake it for this given its nature as a gory slasher - but in actuality, it is much closer to the original novel than the famous musical (which itself at times borders on the trope), maintaining the sadism of Leroux's Erik which many adaptations tend to downplay.

* InNameOnly: Subverted with the 1989 slasher reimagining starring [[ANightmareOnElmStreet Robert Englund]] as the title character. Many often mistake it for this given its nature as a gory slahser - but in actuality, it is much closer to the original novel than the famous musical (which itself at times borders on the trope), maintaining the sadism of Leroux's Erik which many adaptations tend to downplay.

* DracoInLeatherPants: The fans have always done this to the Phantom to some extent, but it ''really'' skyrocketed once the movie came out thanks in part to HollywoodHomely. To be fair, the scar was downplayed in the film ''because'' Joel wanted to play up the fact that Erik's scar wasn't really that bad...which was a case of the director [[DidNotDoTheResearch Not Doing The Research]]

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!!''Love Never Dies'' contains examples of:

* BadassDecay: The Phantom. Dear ''Lord'', the Phantom.
* CharacterDerailment: Let's cut right to the chase and say there are five characters who transfer from the original musical -- the Phantom, Christine, Raoul, Meg, and Madame Giry -- and all five do things that have a lot of fans saying "Wait, ''what''?"
** Special mention must go to Raoul, though. He went from DoggedNiceGuy and all around good man to a drunken, gambling abusive ass. You can potentially talk away some of the others by passage of time, the Phantom especially, but how in the bleeding hell did ''that'' happen?
*** He became a drunkard, started gambling when drunk, and gradually lost sight of who he used to be because of the two?
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Despite the show's [[{{Understatement}} many, many flaws]], "Till I Hear You Sing" [[YourMileageMayVary definitely counts]] as one of the strongest songs in the show.
** There isn't a specific category for [[DarkReprise Crowning Music Of Terrifying]], but the reprise of "Bathing Beauty" is absolutely eerie.
* NoYay: The Phantom and Gustave during "The Beauty Underneath"; see UnfortunateImplications below.
* PainfulRhyme: From "'Til I Hear You Sing" alone -- "The moments creep / Yet I can't bear to sleep", "And music, your music, it teases at my ear / I turn and it fades away and you're not here", and in the choruses, rhyming ''floor, door, core'' and ''for'' with ''more.''
* PanderingToTheBase: Specifically, [[spoiler:Phantom/Christine shippers.]]
* {{Sequelitis}}: Oh so much. This may or may not have to do with the fact that Lloyd Webber is the ''only'' significant member of the original's creative team involved in this one.
* ShippingBedDeath: [[spoiler: A lot of E/C shippers were turned off by the improbable circumstances under which the two got together.]]
* TaintedByThePreview: [[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/article7050528.ece Especially]] after the preview performances started in London and plot details came out...
* UnfortunateImplications: "The Beauty Underneath" does ''not'' sound like the sort of thing a grown man should be singing to a ten-year-old boy. According to the Phantom Reviewer, this is not as much of an issue onstage as it is on the soundtrack album, which was recorded before the show opened.
** Christine now wonders if she wasn't "looking with her heart" when she turned down the Phantom, after all he did in the first show. Apparently, StalkingIsLove! Plus, "Beneath a Moonless Sky" implies that [[spoiler: they could only have sex when she couldn't actually see him properly]]...so much for looking with your heart.
* TheWoobie: [[spoiler: Meg Giry]], also qualifies as a mild example of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds after [[spoiler: she unintentionally murders Christine.]]
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TheScrappy: Raoul, inevitably.