Love Never Dies drawn by me

CHRISTINE:
Who knows when love begins
Who knows what makes it start
One day it's simply there
Alive inside your heart

It slips into your thoughts
It infiltrates your soul
It takes you by surprise
Then seizes full control

Try to deny it
And try to protest
But love won't let you go
Once you've been possessed

Love never dies
Love never falters
Once it has spoken
Love is yours

Love never fades
Love never alters
Hearts may get broken
Love endures
Hearts may get broken
Love endures

And soon as you submit
Surrender flesh and bone
That love takes on a life
Much bigger than your own

It uses you at whim
And drives you to despair
And forces you to feel
More joy than you can bear

Love gives you pleasure
And love brings you pain
And yet when both are gone
Love will still remain

Once it has spoken
Love is yours
Love never dies
Love never alters

Hearts may get broken
Love endures
Hearts may get broken

Love never dies
Love will continue
Love keeps on beating
When you're gone

Love never dies
Once it is in you
Love may be fleeting
Love lives on

Love Never Dies from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, Text by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ben Elton, Frederick Forsyth, and Glenn Slater, Lyrics by Glenn Slater, Based on Frederick Forsyth's "The Phantom of Manhattan", Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera", and Andrew Lloyd Webber's, Richard Stilgoe's, and Charles Hart's "The Phantom of the Opera", First Performance on March 9, 2010 at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End, England, Great Britain

This piece of Butchubbles and Boomubbles fan art, which is part of BrickercupMasterX3's Butchubbles Month, is dedicated to oOAquaDreamOo and Allyszarts who are celebrating their birthdays today. So, I wish you a most pleasant, awesome, beautiful, splendid, and grand birthday and I wish you a lot of love, joy, abundance, and prosperity in everything you do as people and as artists. Wie man auf deutsch sagt, ich wünsche euch einen fröhlichen, schönen, hervorragenden und grandiosen Geburtstag und ich wünsche euch viel Liebe, Freude, Reichtum und Wohlstand in allen, dass ihr als Künstler und Menschen tut. This is also dedicated to all of the hardcore Butchubbles and Boomubbles shippers out there. So, sit back, relax, and soak in the Butchubbles and Boomubbles goodness.

I mentioned in my first Butchubbles Month submission that I would squeeze the 26-year-old Boomer in as Raoul de Chagny to make this epic love triangle between Butch's Phantom, Bubbles' Christine, and, of course, his Raoul come to fruition. For my money, Boomer definitely fits Raoul to a T. He could easily pass as the childhood friend and designated hero who has very strong feelings for the designated heroine. Moreover, as opposed to Butch as The Phantom, Boomer as Raoul is sympathetic, noble, genteel in his own special way, and loving coupled with the fact that Boomer bears a graceful, youthful, mellifluous, melodious light lyric tenor voice to contrast perfectly with Butch's rough, wide-ranging dramatic tenor. In terms of the setting, the peacock setting where Christine sings her big solo "Love Never Dies" was quite the challenge, which is also the same thing I can say about her gown, as I had to get the vital details down to a T. For what I accomplished, I think it went well, even though it does not surpass the original. I even have to say that I love differing Butch's and Boomer's bow ties to show that Butch's Phantom is the anti-villain and Boomer's Raoul is the hero.

I am going to go on a mini diatribe about Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Never Dies". I am not a fan of the plot to this rather unnecessary sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera". I do also comprehend that there were some minute elements which were based from Frederick Forsyth's "The Phantom of Manhattan" and that I can never overlook. When cutting down to the bone, "Love Never Dies" basically feels like melodrama for the sake of melodrama just because the plot demands The Phantom and Christine to get back together through some form of contrivance, thus neglecting the fact that Raoul's love for Christine is genuine, natural, and pure while the Phantom's is based on obsession, lust, and an unhinging need to have Christine all to himself because nobody else understands him but her. In essence, "Love Never Dies" negates certain elements that make Raoul and Christine function as a couple and, therefore, mangles a lot of characters especially poor Meg Giry, who happens to have the shortest end of the stick. Diatribe aside, I do enjoy some of the songs and I have yet to watch the full musical live if only to hear some really great singing and overall performing.

Now that my mini diatribe is out of the way, I would also like to address that the titular song's tune is actually "The Heart is Slow to Learn", which was supposed to be added in to the intended sequel to the 1986 musical yet ended up being performed by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa during Mr. Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday. The second time this tune was used was for the show tune Our Kind of Love from "The Beautiful Game" also composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. "Love Never Dies" marks the third time this tune was used. Yes, it is rather lazy to rehash the same tune for different musicals, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt. Sure, any way one slices it, the incarnations of these songs are rather emotionally manipulative. However, there is something that is sweeping and breathtaking about the melody that I cannot help but be hooked. So, for your listening pleasure, I present to you three of my favorite versions of this show tune sung by Anna O'Byrne, Sierra Boggess, and Rachel Anne Moore obviously all as Christine.