Crwford will NOT return to Woman in White in London

I hate to say I told you so.. from what I had heard in the past from very good sources I didn't think Michael Crawford would ever return to the show in London and that the "illness" was a cover up for a fall out.

It has been leaked to newspapers here that Anthony Andrews will be taking over on 2nd May from Michael Ball as Count Fosco, despite the Box Office still saying that Crawford will return. The Daily Mail ran the story today, hopefully I get to post a link soon.

By the way Brian Conley turned the role down and mentioned in interviews that he decided to do Chitty instead, so it then became public knowledge they were searching for a more permanent replacement to take over from early May.

They are starting to discount tickets occasionally through the Woman in white website, 30% off some performances.

ALW about the size of his role in the finished production.

So does that mean Maria Friedman and Michael Ball in Chicago and Broadway. I certainly hope so.

Why bother with the spin though? Why not just say at the start he's left the production through "creative differences"?

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Comparisons to DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES are unwarranted. THE WOMAN IN WHITE is nothing of the disaster VAMPIRES was, and Michael Crawford, despite the size of his role, received some of the best reviews of his career.

He would be a fool to let his ego keep him from returning to the show, at least in NYC, where he would be able to finally redeam himself from the VAMPIRES nightmare, and probably win a second Tony Award.

I wasn't making a comparison with Dance of the Vampires.. I was saying that after Vampires he would not want another disaster which pulling out of the show three months into the run because of personal differences would obviously be.

I have just seen the show in London and was very impressed with it. I eagerly anticipate a transfer ultimately to Broadway, with Maria Friedman and Michael Ball ( assuming Michael Crawford is out of the picture). Michael B and Maria have great chemistry onstage and are wonderful singers - Michael with his baritonal tenor range and Maria with her gorgeous voice. The acting performances were likewise very noteworthy!

I seriously doubt that Michael Ball's performance as Fosco had anything to do with Crawford not returning to the show.
He was probably let go, so to speak, for various reasons, one of them being that he simply wasn't showing up to work consistantly and the producers were tired of it. They probably knew when they hired Ball originally that Crawford was not going to return.
After seeing Crawford in Dance of the Vampires and being thoroughly unimpressed with his performance on The Woman In White cast recording, Anthony Andrews will be a breath of fresh air in the role. No doubt he will build his characterization of Fosco off of Michael Ball's performance rather than Crawford, as Ball seems to have made the Count believable rather than simply a comical character.

Yup it is true

Interesting. We went to London and I guess we saw what may have been Crawford's last performance (12/27/04) in the show.

There were a lot of things wrong with DotV, it got NO promotion until after the critical drubbing, the direction was lackluster (due, I'm certain to a degree to the director having to deal with personal tragedy, I'm sympathetic, but the direction was still lackluster) No show should ever OPEN on Broadway without a full tryout out of town, the critics had it in for Michael from the get-go due to his Vegas stint AND quite frankly, it doesn't seem like vampire musicals are all the rage in New York (I don't think "Dracula-The Musical" lasted as long as DotV did! I'm wondering what's going to happen with "Lestat.") Finally, yes, Michael's decision to play the Count as a comedic character was in error, but the producer's knew what they were getting when they brought him in. He'd done "Phantom," he made it clear he didn't want to redo Erik and that was the end of it. If they were bothered by that they should have cut him loose from the beginning.

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<< Judging by the film version of The Woman In White with Sidney Greenstreet as Count Fosco, I don't see how Michael Crawford can say playing the role straight would be like re-doing Eric from Phantom.
Good riddance to him if he's stupid enough to think it's the same part.>>




riv, it's Count Krolock, not Count Fosco that MC didn't want to be like the Phantom.

Fosco was written as comic, in part, and both Crawford and Ball have played him that way. I haven't seen Ball (did see Crawford and an understudy), but from everything I've read, Ball also plays him as written---but with a bit more of the sinister, which many people like.

The Fosco of the musical is different from the Fosco of the book (and the Sidney Greenstreet film), no matter who plays him.

Leeinlondon and a couple of others have their theory as to why MC is not returning. The alternative explanation that, I believe, most people accept is that Crawford has an illness serious enough to keep him from performing. I don't know what the real story is, but I will be dubious about the "falling out with (whoever)" unless I can get more confirmation than the word of someone who has made it clear in other posts on this and other boards that he doesn't care for Crawford.

Such a cover-up doesn't make sense. If Michael Crawford is on the sh** list of everyone in this production--ALW, Maria Friedman and her sister, Sonia--why would they want to protect him from public opinion? And why would Crawford want to screw up his career again after the debacle of DOTV? In his statements when he signed for this show, he talked about what a different experience it would be for him playing the second lead instead of being the star but he was comfortable with it. It turned out to be a great part for him and he was delighted with the good reviews and audience response he was getting. It would be professional suicide to pull a diva act like you claim. Crawford obssesses over details when he's creating a character, but he's a team player in wanting the overall production to be a success. I don't buy the story that this is all over creative differences. I'll need to see much more documentation than just your unnamed sources before I believe that.

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