[25][26] Lloyd Webber announced that Love Never Dies would begin previews in London on 20 February 2010 and anticipated that the Broadway production would open on 11 November 2010 (this was later postponed[27] and then indefinitely[28] and to date has not come to fruition).

The musical was reviewed again (at Lloyd Webber's invitation[33]), with critic Henry Hitchings noting that "Some of the most obvious alterations stem from the recruitment of lyricist Charles Hart to adjust the cadences of the original clunky lines written by Glenn Slater."

[54] Det Ny Teater in Copenhagen, Denmark announced that their production of Love Never Dies would open on 24 October 2012[55] and star Tomas Ambt Kofod and Bo Kristian Jensen sharing the role of the Phantom and Danish coloratura soprano Louise Fribo as Christine.

[57] It starred Masachika Ichimura, who performed the role of the Phantom in 1988 Japanese production of original musical, and Takeshi Kaga sharing the role of the Phantom, Megumi Hamada and Ayaka Hirahara as Christine Daaé, Mario Tashiro and Keita Tachibana as Raoul, Mao Ayabuki and Rena Sasamoto as Meg Giry, Ran Ohtori and Tatsuki Kohju as Madame Giry, Mizuho Abe as Fleck, Tomoaki Tatsumi as Squelch, Arata Hino as Gangle and Seishiro Kato, Tsukito Matsui and Eru Yamada as Gustave.

[61] Love Never Dies returned to the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo for a limited season in January 2019, it starred Masachika Ichimura and Kanji Ishimaru as the Phantom, Megumi Hamada and Ayaka Hirahara as Christine Daaé, Mario Tashiro and Ryunosuke Onoda as Raoul, Nene Yumesaki and Miyu Sakihi as Meg Giry, Ran Ohtori and Tatsuki Kohju as Madame Giry, Saya Chinen as Fleck, Tomoaki Tatsumi as Squelch, Naoki Shigema as Gangle and Yuuki Oomae, Kenshiro Kato and Toshiki Kumagai as Gustave.

The production starred Norm Lewis as the Phantom, Celinde Schoenmaker as Christine Daaé, Sally Dexter as Madame Giry, Courtney Stapleton as Meg, Matthew Seadon-Young as Raoul, and Nic Greenshields as Squelch.

[13] Love Never Dies returned to the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo for a limited season between January and February 2025, starring Masachika Ichimura, Kanji Ishimaru and Satoshi Hashimoto as the Phantom, Ayaka Hirahara, Rena Sasamoto and Maaya Kiho as Christine Daaé, Mario Tashiro and Kazuki Kato as Raoul, Madoka Hoshikaze and Mayuko Kominami as Meg Giry, Tatsuki Kohju and Sumire Haruno as Madame Giry, Saya Chinen as Fleck, Tomoaki Tatsumi as Squelch, Jun'ichi Kato as Gangle and Ichita Ueki, Osuke Ono and Kaiyoshi Goto as Gustave.

When Fleck urges Giry to recall the "good old days" and blames her for "what happened", the audience is suddenly transported back in time as the old, tattered billboards are restored, the lights of Phantasma are illuminated, and an assortment of the park's performers appear in a dreamlike sequence ("The Coney Island Waltz/That's the Place That You Ruined, You Fool!").

A hot air balloon lands, carrying the Phantom's trio of freak show performers who announce the evening's entertainment lineup ("Ladies...Gents!/The Coney Island Waltz (Reprise)").

When he departs, Christine recalls the fateful night at the Paris Opera House when she had to make the difficult decision between the respectable and comfortable life offered by Raoul and the passionate rush of the Phantom and his music ("Before the Performance").

[71][72] The teaser trailer combined clips from the 2009 London EPK video of The Phantom of the Opera (featuring Gina Beck, Ramin Karimloo, and Simon Bailey)[73] with black-and-white film footage of immigrants arriving by ship in New York City and shots of Coney Island.

On 26 January 2010 the title song "Love Never Dies" was first publicly performed at The South Bank Show Awards, sung by Sierra Boggess and accompanied by Lloyd Webber and Louise Hunt on two grand pianos.

[8][9] Perhaps the most positive review was Paul Taylor's in The Independent giving the show five stars, and writing, "What is in no doubt is the technical excellence of Jack O'Brien's seamlessly fluent, sumptuous (and sometimes subtle) production, or the splendour of the orchestra which pours forth Lloyd Webber's dark-hued, yearning melodies as if its life depended on them.

Special praise should go to the lyrical lavishness of Bob Crowley and Jon Driscoll's designs, with their gilt interiors where the vegetation-imitating contours and giant peacock-plumage of Art Nouveau run rampant, and their ghostly external locations where a brilliantly deployed combination of flowing projection (timed to perfection with emotional/ rhythmic shifts in the music) and solidly presented stage-effects create a dizzying Coney Island of the mind".

"[106] Other positive reviews included Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph, who raved, "this is Lloyd Webber's finest show since the original Phantom, with a score blessed with superbly haunting melodies and a yearning romanticism that sent shivers racing down my spine."

[107] Paul Callan of the Daily Express also gave the show four stars, writing that Love Never Dies "is an elegant and clever sequel to Phantom and deserves to have the old Adelphi Theatre filled every night with Lloyd Webber's core, usually middle-class, audiences.

There's wow factor, of course (a galloping carousel is an early highlight) though quieter scenes are realised with the same attention to detail, particularly the recreation of a Coney Island bar to frame Raoul's saloon song feature (Why Does She Love Me) and his face-off with Mr Y (Devil Take the Hindmost).

"[128] In the Daily Express, Mark Shenton commented, "Now under the new leadership of director Simon Phillips, and with a fresh creative team, there is a new vision to the show in Australia and here, at last, is the masterpiece that was always crying to be let out...The new production has a spectacular Gothic theatricality that heightens, deepens and darkens those emotions.

"[129] Kate Herbert of the Herald Sun gave the show four out of five stars and wrote, "With its vivid design, eccentric characters and mystical imagery, this is a ravishing spectacle that captures the dark mystery of a perilous fairground (circa 1907) and should convert even a die-hard Phantom fan."

She also said, "Lloyd Webber's score (conducted skilfully by Guy Simpson) intermittently and elegantly reprises the original Phantom, connecting the two stories" but she did feel that, "several songs, with trite lyrics, lack punch.

"[130] William Yeoman of The West Australian wrote, "With book by Ben Elton and lyrics by Glenn Slater and Charles Hart, Love Never Dies is a curious mixture of gothic romance, vaudeville and verismo, with Lloyd Webber's lush, romantic score spinning like a fairground ride from Puccini to Pulcinella to driving rock to delicate aria as the tragedy unfolds.

Introduced by a trio of freaks, the amusement swells into a crowd of acrobats and stilt-walkers, fire-twirlers and magicians, with Luna Park-like plastic heads, a portable big-top, and rows of carnies singing from rollercoaster tracks suspended mid-air.

"[132] Rebecca Saffir of Time Out gave the production two stars, calling the show "an act of such glorious hubris", "incredibly weak material", and "sentimental, nonsensical, ideologically conservative drivel".

[133] Echoing complaints from the London critics, Saffir criticised the plot ("so thin it should be put on a cheeseburger diet") and the inconsistencies between the characters as depicted in the original Phantom and their motivations as presented in Love Never Dies.

[135] Similarly, The San Diego Union-Tribune complimented the set design (although noting "it lacks the grandeur of the opera house") but concluded that the "melodramatic direction" and "weak script and score" made for a "disappointing" evening.

[138] Both the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald gave only two and a half stars out of five to the production, the former considering it "not even remotely on the same plane" as the original Phantom,[139] with the latter finding that it "comes across like mediocre fan fiction".

[143][144] Similarly, Cape Cod Times's review stated that, "for the longtime Phantom fan, the plot just does not add up", commenting that it "makes all of the original show’s characters far less likable than before and completely throws out its timeline", although it did praise the physical production and performers.

[145] The Los Angeles Times, observing that "the storytelling requires viewers to make leaps of logic and to reassess several beloved characters", concurred with this view and accused Love Never Dies of "messing with the original in ways that will taint some fans' memories.

Although opining The Phantom of the Opera, together with Jesus Christ Superstar, to be "at the summit of Lloyd Webber's achievement", Chandler considers Love Never Dies "badly judged" and "one of the oddest sequels in theatrical history, shaped by a peculiar love-hate relationship to its original.

On one hand it shores up the position The Phantom of the Opera occupies as Lloyd Webber's central, defining musical; on the other it seems intent, in a rather Freudian way, on displacement, on destroying the authority of the earlier work".