The Woman in White (musical)

The Woman in White
Original London Cast Recording
Music	Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics	David Zippel
Book	Charlotte Jones
Basis	Novel The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
Productions	2004 West End 2005 Broadway

The Woman in White is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel with a book by Charlotte Jones, based on the novel The Woman in White written by Wilkie Collins. It ran for nineteen months in the West End and three months on Broadway, making it one of Lloyd Webber's shortest-running shows.

The musical was produced in a workshop at Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival (Hampshire, England) in July 2003.

The musical opened in London's West End, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by David Zippel, and book by Charlotte Jones, freely adapted from the novel. Directed by Trevor Nunn, it opened 15 September 2004 at the Palace Theatre. Critics noted its set design, which employed the innovative use of projections rather than traditional scenery. Allen Bird wrote: "William Dudley’s set design (or should I say video design) is magnificent; the opening projection of a foggy station on which the woman in white first makes her ghostly appearance is spine tingling."

The London production was criticized. The projections were dizzying, out of focus, and the revolve (turntable) was not synchronized with the projections. (The revolve is used to move actors from one point of the stage to another while pictures behind them move, giving the effect of a camera swooping about.) The CurtainUp reviewer noted "The technology from William Dudley... is impressive. But I have reservations. These graphics do not for me suspend disbelief. I am always aware that what I am watching is a picture and not the real thing...The 'Wow!' factor is missing."

At the end of 2004 Michael Crawford was taken ill, as a result of oversweating in the fat suit he wore to play the grossly obese character Count Fosco (originally reported as having the flu). Crawford explained: "For four months I had played the obese Count Fosco in a fat suit: a costume that had been my own clever idea. Unfortunately. Night after night on stage, the suit meant that I'd sweat profusely, to the point where I was losing all the essential minerals and nutrients from my body. In January 2005, I went into a kind of physical meltdown." From late December until early February 2005, Steve Varnom, the understudy, played the role. Michael Ball then took over on 21 February 2005 until early May. Ball received praise for his portrayal because he had reinvented the role. Nick Curtis, in his review for The Evening Standard, wrote: "If Ball's Fosco lacks the extravagant comic flair of Crawford's original, there is a commensurate gain in menace. Arguably, this is no bad thing for a Victorian melodrama. Where Crawford was delightfully clownish, Ball's Fosco is altogether more sleek and dangerous. His wooing of the show's feisty heroine Marion...has a nasty edge to it."