Brief review of the first Woman in White

[leeinlondon]

Posted: 8/29/04 at 6:00am

I intended to post on both sites but I cant cut and paste wih this stupid Cafe PC and my time is running out (home PC dead!!). I hope Rob will forgive me for linking to another site on this single occasion !!

www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat

Cheers, Lee

[Poppy]

Posted: 8/29/04 at 8:36am

Thanks, Lee. Unfortunately, it sounds like Michael Crawford is up to his old tricks...

[leeinlondon]

Posted: 8/29/04 at 11:09am

Better PC now...


I saw Lord Webber come out of the thetre looking understandably a little harrassed when I met my mate at 5pm.

Anyway where to start... the set backgrounds are all 3D moving projection on huge screens that encircle a central stage wih pieces that come out into the centre of the stage. It is an expansion of the designers previous work on Coast of Eutopia and Hitchcock Blonde. Whilst it is stunning to watch sometimes it does make the show seem a little sterile, like watching a musial inside a video game.

It was first preview but most people seemd to find the story confusing but I just found it not quite exciting enough for a three hour show... no doubt they will work on the plodding pacing.

Cut to the slack, there are two very good songs in the show and a lot of blandness. "I believe my heart" is the "All I ask of you" of this show and is just stunning...yes I did have a tear in my eye the first time it was used but they returned to that same music a few too many times.

Michael Crawford has saddled his character wih a great big rubber face, a fat suit and black curly hair. Count Fosco does not look much like a real human being, if it was Crawfords idea they should have restrained him. Fosco has the other good song "You can get away with anything" which is extremely funny... and lifted the show halfway through the second act when much dullness had decended. In fact that whole scene of songs round then is currently the highlight of the show. There was a slight problem with the live birds going crazy during this section and threatening to drown out the singing wih manic squarking. If I was their agent I would be delivering some bad news today. Crawford was very funny and did well to continue when a giant rat threatened to crawl on his face whilst singing!!! The tone of his performance is rather comic for a villain though but thankfully he is not the only bad guy.

Maria Friedman like the other female leads is very good with the material she is given.

The inluences on the songs include a little Gilbert and Sullivan for Mr Fairlie and a section that was so straight out of the London Martin Guerre called Lammastide.

They have a lot of work to do since I found it a little boring and lacks memorable songs but it was only first preview.


Act 1

I Hope you like it here
Perspective
Trying not to notice
I believe my heart
Lammastide
A gift for living well
The holly and the ivy
All for Laura

Act 2

If I could only dream this world away
The Nightmare
Evermore without you
Lost Souls
If not for me for her
You can get away with anything
The Seduction

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 8/29/04 at 11:43am

Nice review, this musical intrigues me somehow.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/29/04 at 4:31pm

Thank you Lee. 2 world premieres in one night. Don't you love musical theater? :=) Here's another review.
Woman in White

[leeinlondon]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 5:07am

I guess the fact that Michael has a rubber face is more disturbing than him wearing a fat suit... he really is completely unrecognisible and looks frankly bizzarre... However his performance was very funny and I am sure they will build on him to lift the show a little.

By the way it is selling extremely well and you can't get tickets through Ticketmaster for a quite a while now. I think box office will still have restricted view seats though. I was in Upper Circle E9 which is officially restricted but I missed perhaps 1% of the stage. A bargain at £17.50 ($30)and I didn't feel too far away from the stage at all. I would not recommend being any further round than I was and also wouldn't recommend the Balcony at the theatre !!! Oh and the £27.50 tickets were going for £50 on saturday from Scalpers.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:43am

Updated On: 5/27/05 at 09:43 AM

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:49am

They must be working very hard on smoothing things out. Monday night clocked in at a full 12 minutes shorter than Saturday.

[timote316]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:52am

12 minutes? Thats an awful lot, isn't it? Did they cut a scene or something?

[leeinlondon]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:56am

A guy who went Saturday and last night said he did not notice any changes and it still ran 3 hours 10 minutes ?

I am sure that they will tighten somethings up. My bet is that they will take out the Marian arriving in London scenes or cut it down.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/7/04 at 2:18pm

I have heard 4 songs from the show and I really liked all four. I can't wait to actually hear the whole recording

[Sally]

Posted: 9/7/04 at 8:12pm

<< By the way it is selling extremely well and you can't get tickets through Ticketmaster for a quite a while now. I think box office will still have restricted view seats though.>

Try Seetickets

http://digbig.com/4bqtj

They have some tickets for September if you look around---not all restricted view I'm pretty sure. I think Saturday nights are pretty well sold out, but there are balcony seats and some better ones for some other nights.