Musical Numbers in "The Woman in White"

I was just wondering if anyone can give me an idea of what songs off the recording are worth giving a listen. Like maybe show-stopping numbers, ear pleasers, vocally powerful stuff. Just any type of thing... Thanks!

I would suggest the following:

Perspective (just for the lovely harmony in one part)
Trying Not To Notice
The Holly and the Ivy (I just like the creepiness of it)
All For Laura
If I Could Only Dream This World Away
Evermore Without You

I left off I Believe My Heart. It's just not one of my favorites, but it's a big ballad.

Caleb

This is better than anything ALW has ever written. All of the rest of his shows (with the exceptions of JCS and SUNSET) are crap.

I seems like this score is more related to Aspects of Love with a touch of 'darkness' than anything else he has written. (A far cry from Sunset). It took me a few plays till I was comfortable with the score, but it has grown on me. Most of CD was recorded live from the stage...which gives it a dramatic flare. The 'big' numbers in the score are not obvious, like say JCS or even Phantom. His new songs seems to seap in through the score, and before you know it, you're humming the melody.

So it was not my favorite at first, but I've come to enjoy it a lot.

Updated On: 2/15/05 at 09:53 AM

Sant - After the brilliant Sunset Boulevard came Whistle Down the Wind and The Beautiful Game. Both of those sound thrown together more haphazardly than Woman in White. Trying Not to Notice uses one of the melodies from Whistle Down the Wind (Long Overdue for a Miracle).

melissa errico fan - Evita was crap? That's the first time I've heard that.

bronxboundexpress - What were ALW's standards?

Like Wildhorn, Lloyd Webber is such an easy target in musical theatre. The man everyone loves to hate. The Woman in White is a very different score for him. In the same way the JCS was different from Joseph and Evita was different from JCS and Cats was different from Evita, etc. I happen to like most of ALW's work and do not understand why others find his music so contemptable. He has contributed some classic standards in the the musical theatre canon, susatined interest in musical theatre during periods it had declined, and offered challenging, interesting and innovative new works that have stood the test of time. What's the problem?

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Well, the ending of the cd is different than that of the show I believe (in the libretto, it says that the ending on the cd is the one that ALW wanted but because of something, they couldn't do it).

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It originally ended at a funerel of one of the characters with a name being chipped on the gravestone while everyone else looked on. However the impact was slightly lost in such a large theatre as the Palace, so now it ends with Maria Freidman centre stage having come to terms with events, as the large projection screens come in from either side to create a curtain. Still a bit weak quite frankly (IMO of course!)

I was one of those who didn't mind his performance and found it quite amusing. However, I would like to see the character played closer to the novel in which Fosco is a little darker and more cunning. Crawfords performance was very broad, and you never really got a sense of menace - Michael Ball has (allegedly) returned some of the ambiguity to the role . . .