The Woman in White

How does everyone feel about this show? Like? Dislike?

Personally, I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber, but I really like it for the most part (except I really don't care for "Lost Souls", and I don't feel like Laura's song, "I Could Only Dream This World Away", I feel it as well drolls on and is not particularly memorable). On the other hand, Walter, Marian and Fosco all have realtivley good songs (with the exception of Fosco's "Gift of Living Well), wheras Fairle and Percival Glyde have barely anything.

It seems like it would be really good. I can see where it can be critized; it was trying to be like POTO...but I almost think it's better.

Thoughts?

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Looking around the orchestra right before opening on Broadway, I had NEVER seen so many people sound asleep...think rows. I wanted to like it, but I found it hard to care.

I happened to really like it, as did my parents.

It wasn't nearly as bad as Starlight Express.

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I liked Fosco and his songs (of course, I always like Michael Crawford, so that's no surprise). But as for the rest, I found a lot of it too shrill and shrieky. Too bad, because it's a good story and could have been a good show.

One of my favourites; my second favourite Lloyd Webber piece! A tad boring, but I love the book and the story so I found myself being interested.

I saw the show in London and didn't like ANYthing about it, which is unusual for me. I can usually pull at least one positive thing from a show, but not WIW. I was amazed when I heard that it was going to transfer to Broadway and I predicted that it would flop, probably even here on BWW. :)

"Lammastide". I'm not the first to point that out, btw.

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Updated On: 12/14/09 at 06:03 PM

HAHA Id never noticed that before--I can kinda hear it! Anyway I actualy quite like the score though I get what you mean about the orchestrations. Anyway it's at least ALW making some attempt to be interesting, I suppose.. (It's true though that it's not the guilty pleasure score WDTW is for me, which I genuinely like) What really confounds me though is why they made some of the changes they did from the original novel.

Lammastide was my favorite number too. They also sang a reprise of that song in act 2 if Im not mistaken.
I loved the show the 2nd time I went to see it, the 1st time was quite dissappointing for some strange reason, maybe it's one of those shows you need to be familiar with the music in order to enjoy it.

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Interesting to hear so many opinions.

Unfortunately, shows don't always internationally translate well. (For instance, Blood Brothers has done terrible in the US, Rent has done terribly in the UK).

It does play beautifuly on CD, but I think I'd have to see it live--which imposes the question: is it not licensable for the sake of ALW's embarassment?

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I saw it both in London and NY and very much enjoyed it. I didn't like some of the changes made to the NY production (the pop-up gravestone for one) but overall I liked it a great deal.

What happened with The Woman in White was that the show went through some seemingly minor, but altogether fatal changes after the Original London Cast left in July 2005. The first season sold exceptionally well, and word of mouth was good. It was never going to be 10-year success, but it seemed to have a few good, solid years in its future.

The Second London Cast opened in July 2005 to a packed theatre that suddenly became quite empty within three months, bringing the show to a close in February 2006. The show had changed its ending to be more "light and happy," and the subplot with Marian and Walter had been altered as well. Many fans of the show were quite angry.

The NY production furthered changes by cutting out loads of lyrical moments to shorten the piece, but in a way that was obtrusive to any form of poetics.

Also, marketing for the show in London after the original cast left, and the marketing for the NY production, were abysmally executed. The NY production had literally one TV plug-in (not counting Maria's illness coverage on NBC) on "Breakfast with th Arts," and very little Internet and media advertisement.

ETA:
I MUST mention (because, honestly, I've tried for years on this board to see if anyone else agrees)...Maria Friedman not being nominated was foolish and shocking. That season, Chita Rivera was nominated for playing herself in a revue, and Sutton Foster for what should have been a supporting role in Drowsy Chaperone.

Also...I really like this show, for the record.

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Updated On: 12/14/09 at 10:28 PM