“He… how could it be? He hears the music….”

“You… you hear it too. You hear the music…”

Guess who watched Love Never Dies not long after finally watching The Phantom of the Opera? And now, four months later, I decided to make this semi-sequel to the Phantom of the Opera artwork I made a few months ago. 

I’m not a big fan of Love Never Dies (the musical sequel to The Phantom of the Opera), and I’m sure many people feel the same way. When I finally watched a production on YouTube a while back, I found little in it that truly entertained me…. except for the song “The Beauty Underneath.” I was taken aback by the sudden rock number, and couldn’t stop listening to it for weeks afterward. Then, I found this newer version of the song on YouTube that I love even more.

The Chrisville Theater Society would never put on a full production of Love Never Dies, but its members also share a fondness for this number. Dirk is often cast as the Phantom, and Softboy Pillowman steals the show as Gustave, the ten-year-old boy who turns out to be the Phantom’s son. 

This number represents one of the few times Softboy and Dirk truly get along during playtime, and their rendition of this song is rather heartfelt. This is because they each have a different interpretation of what the song means by the Phantom’s “beauty underneath.” Dirk pictures his love for what all the other toys see as too tough, violent, mean-spirited, and dark. (The other toys are typically correct in their judgement) Softboy, on the other hand, pictures his appreciation for the macabre, playfully cynical, and artistically off-putting, such as a love of Edgar Allen Poe stories, the spooky tales that surround cryptids, and animated works like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Invader Zim.