Posted: 9/19/16 at 5:09pm
I'm slowly getting through all of Andrew Lloyd Webber's less successful musicals and I've reached "The Woman in White". I wasn't really into musicals when the show was in the West End and on Broadway and I've only read that it was bad and I was hoping that some of y'all on here could possibly explain why.
Posted: 9/19/16 at 5:13pm
I rather like the piece. It's true that it is rather somber and melodramatic and not necessarily what current Broadway audiences are interested in, but I think some of the music is beautiful, and Maria Friedman was fabulous. Many have pointed out, that one of the problems was it was one of the first productions to use heavy projection design, and the technology wasn't great. It looked like the inside of a Victorian video game. It's probably another one of those works that John Doyle will direct as a stripped down chamber piece in five years and everyone will think all the better of the musical because of it.
Posted: 9/19/16 at 6:49pm
I just remember it being very boring and there were only a handful of standout numbers in the score. The projections, at times, were laughable.
Posted: 9/19/16 at 7:50pm
The score wasn't very good, the book lacked any kind of tension (it was a mystery...what happened to suspense?), and the projections gave people a headache.
Lisa Brescia tried her best (as I'm sure Maria Friedman, who I never saw, did as well), but she couldn't salvage it.
Posted: 9/19/16 at 9:38pm
The Novel was a thriller - and somewhat groundbreaking when it was first written, but the plot twists by today's standards aren't at all shocking because social morals have really changed since the Victorian era. I do remember thinking they probably should have adapted more loosely for the mysical and made the stakes higher and more suspenseful for modern sensibilities.
Posted: 9/19/16 at 11:23pm
I will say that "All For Laura" is my favorite song ALW wrote since the score to "Sunset Boulevard."
Posted: 9/19/16 at 11:36pm
I think the issue with the show is that it was hard to enjoy unless you're familiar with the score. I saw it and didn't care for it, then when I re-visited the show knowing the score, I loved it.
Posted: 9/20/16 at 3:16am
I know something very odd about the show. As I recall, it was followed by "The Drowsy Chaperone" at the Mariott Marquis. "The Woman In White" closing was not expected but suddenly the theater was available, and the Drowsy cast was ready, and in it went.
I saw Drowsy many times and became friendly with some of the ushers and bartenders. One of the bartenders told me that a Catholic priest came to every single performance of "The Woman In White," always sat in the same seat, always wearing his clerical collar. Said he was always alone, always dressed in his clerical clothes, never spoke to anyone but was clearly enraptured by the show.
I never saw it, so I have no idea of the plot, and why it would entrance a priest, but that's what I was told.
Posted: 9/20/16 at 10:50am
The score is divine, the STORY is great - but perhaps not a great book. The physical production overtook the show... too many flying projections, and the doors didn't even open properly until the NY production.Too many changes to the show, in London, and in the hop over the pond (including cutting good songs!!!) And any production that requires your lead to wear a fat suit that is known to repeatedly incapacitate the actor is not going to end well.
Posted: 9/20/16 at 11:43am
Indifferent-to-bad word of mouth; audiences didn't come.
My opinion of the quality? It was standard ALW floperetta fare, with mindlessly simple and repetitive music, strangely bad work from a usually good lyricist, an indifferent book by a not-bad playwright with no musical experience, and a set that made many audience members nauseous. What's not to love?
Posted: 9/20/16 at 12:11pm
The lyrics were great. Lloyd Webber never had a better lyricist than David Zippel.
Posted: 9/20/16 at 12:19pm
No, I think ALW pulled poor Zippel down to his level, forcing him to write doggerel like:
I believe my heart
It believes in you
It's telling me
That what I see
Is completely true
Posted: 9/20/16 at 2:14pm
christinelavin said: "One of the bartenders told me that a Catholic priest came to every single performance of "The Woman In White," always sat in the same seat, always wearing his clerical collar. "
Fascinating! I actually know a Catholic priest who was an ALW fanatic, and I'm wondering if this might be him. We used to interact on the Really Useful message board in the old days of the internet, and I think he still posts on here occasionally.
Posted: 9/20/16 at 3:13pm
christinelavin said: "
I saw Drowsy many times and became friendly with some of the ushers and bartenders. One of the bartenders told me that a Catholic priest came to every single performance of "The Woman In White," always sat in the same seat, always wearing his clerical collar. Said he was always alone, always dressed in his clerical clothes, never spoke to anyone but was clearly enraptured by the show.
I never saw it, so I have no idea of the plot, and why it would entrance a priest, but that's what I was told.
"
What a fascinating story!
Posted: 9/20/16 at 6:01pm
I've always believed if the show opened at a different time, it would have received a different fate...
Disliking ALW was pretty popular at the time...
Posted: 9/20/16 at 6:44pm
I've never gotten past the first song on the recording. That awful music with no cohesive quality (was Webber trying to be "dissonant" a la Sondheim?) and that woman screeching "I've got a secret" (or something like that) did not make me want to continue listening. I remember she hits a high note that's actually painful to listen to. I sure hope she didn't do any serious damage to her voice, especially if she was doing that eight times a week.
Posted: 9/20/16 at 10:08pm
How was Jill Paice? Also how do they go from Laura Michelle kelly in the workshop to Maria Friedman in the actually show. That's a large leap.
