Woman in White - The Woman in White
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CD Details
Artist: Woman in WhiteEdition: Music CD
Format: Cast Recording
CD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Music Label: Angel Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Prologue
- I Hope You Like It Here
- Perspective
- Trying Not To Notice
- I Believe My Heart
- Lammastide
- You See I Am No Ghost
- A Gift For Living Well
- The Holly and the Ivy
- All For Laura
- The Document
- Act One Finale
- If I Could Only Dream This World Away
- The Nightmare
- Fosco Tells Of Laura's Death/The Funeral/London
- Evermore Without You
- Lost Souls
- If Not For Me For Her
- You Can Get Away With Anything
- The Seduction
- The Asylum
- Back To Limmeridge
- Finale
- You Can Get Away With Anything (BONUS TRACK - Opening night performance)
Music reviews of The Woman in White
Music Review: THE WOMAN IN WHITE: ALW'S UNEVEN NEW MUSICAL
Rating: 3 Stars
When in September 2001 Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest musical "The Beautiful Game" closed after only a year's run in the West End, people began to wonder has he completely lost his touch. The general opinion was that he needs to get back to the form he knows best: blockbuster productions interwoven with the lush and catchy tunes; a formula that proved magical for the most part of his long career and thus provided him with two of the longest musicals in the history of the theatre (i.e., "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera).
Hopes ran high when it was announced that his next project was going to be based on Wilkie Collins' famous novel "The Woman in White". This book was a smash hit after its first release in the 1860-is and its dark, gothic and mysterious story seemed a perfect challenge for a man who demonstrated he can successfully tackle similar subjects, as proven with the Phantom. The show opened in London in September 2004 and will have its American premiere in Chicago this year. Despite the fact the audiences are pouring into the London's Palace theatre to see it, this double CD recording of the show will not be totally satisfying for many ALW's faithful fans.
The CDs capture most of the show and this is actually the live recording from the opening night performance, with the audience's noises and applauses cut out. The problems of "The Woman in White" stem from several facts. First, there is the score. One cannot deny the fact there are some lovely melodies here: the haunting title's character leitmotiv; a powerful love duet `I believe my heart' (released as a separate pop single), the poignant `All for Laura; big ensemble numbers like `Lammestide' or playful `Lost souls' and a vivid comic number called `You can get away with everything. They are all decent, if not exquisite musical peaces with the familiar ALW signature. The problem is, there are too few of them to keep the whole score together. The rest follows the pattern from `Aspects of love' by setting the dialogue to music. This, in turn, means that there are only few real songs here and that makes things difficult for the plot, for one gets the feeling it is dragging on with a very slow pace. On the whole, the score is not altogether bad, but it does not hit the target and grabs only sporadically.
On the other hand, the story, set in 1860-is, does have some potential. Some things have been changed, but the basic plot of the book is retained on the stage. We follow a young drawing teacher Walter Hartright, who is on his way to Cumberland to become an art tutor to two half-sisters, Marian Halcombe and Laura Farlie. Before he gets to his destination, Walter has a chilling encounter on a foggy train station with the mysterious young woman, all dressed in white. She is desperate to share her secret with someone. When he finally meets the two sisters, Walter is amazed how much one of them, Laura, resembles to the woman in white. After a while, Laura and Walter fall in love, but she is already promised to a young aristocrat, Sir Percival Glyde. Marian, herself keen on Walter, is determined that Laura should marry Glyde so the two of them could have a secure future. Before she sends Walter away, he has another encounter with the woman in white, who warns him Laura mustn't marry Glyde under any circumstances. Marriage does take place and Marian finds out too late that Glyde was only after Laura's money. With the help of the mysterious woman in white's secret, Marian and Walter now must work together to save Laura from the evil plan Glyde has formed. Besides the mystery of the secret in question, we are also intrigued by Glyde's charming Italian friend, count Fosco. Is he, with his unusual taste in white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison, a friend or a foe? Overall, the story has its merits, since when listening to the recording you really want to find out what is the big secret. Hence, despite slow pacing, the plot's main question will occupy the listener's mind.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the cast; for most of them do not stick out. Maria Friedman, who likes to be thought of as a current big name in the West End, lacks a good vocal power. Her voice is at times too thin at the lover tones and when it tries to reach highs it becomes unpleasantly husky, despite her passable rendition of the Act One big number `All for Laura'. The rest, Martin Crewes, Jill Paice and Oliver Darley do their best but rarely evoke passion. Only one name is of the top quality here and that is Michael Crawford, the man who rose to stardom by being the first and overall the best Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera". His tenor hasn't lost any of the charms it had during the time he wore the Phantom's mask. However, his potential remains vastly unused here, mostly due to the fact count Fosco is only a supporting one and second; Crawford has only one big tune to deliver - quite a waste for both his name and voice. His big number, "You can get away with anything", especially its opening night version at the end of disc two, shows what a talent he is, plus it's a very nice, Italian-flavored tune. Thusly, the way Crawford plays this interesting character is one of the rare highlights on this recording.
David Zippel's lyrics tell the basic story, but nothing more. They can be terribly predictable at times and for the most lack inner depth. The CD package comes with the full libretto and a couple of production photos.
So in the end, "The Woman in white" comes as a bit of a disappointment, since it could have turned out to be a much stronger, better written piece.
"You can get away with anything", sings Michael Crawford in his big number. Alas, I am not too sure that Andrew Lloyd Webber can get away on the whole with this one.
Description of The Woman in White
Andrew Lloyd Webber's sensational new musical. Lloyd Webber has again joined forces with Trevor Nunn, the internationally renowned director responsible for staging some of the most successful musicals of all time, including Cats, Starlight Express, Les Mis rables and, most recently, the London revival of Anything Goes. EMI Classics. 2004.The Woman in White, Andrew Lloyd Webber's first musical in four years, debuted in London in September 2004. "Freely adapted" from Wilkie Collins's gothic mystery-romance, it tells the story of a young art teacher, Walter Hartright (Martin Crewes), who encounters a mysterious woman dressed in white desperate to tell a secret. But she disappears, and Walter continues on to his assignment teaching a pair of sisters, Marian Holcombe (Maria Friedman) and Laura Fairlie (Jill Paice). Romance develops, but is threatened by the arrival of some shady characters, Sir Percival Glyde (Oliver Darley) and Count Fosco (Michael Crawford).
The score, featuring lyrics by David Zippel (City of Angels), recalls the composer's Aspects of Love, Phantom of the Opera, and Sunset Boulevard, as well as Victorian-themed shows Sweeney Todd and even The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It has some lovely moments, such as "Trying Not to Notice," "All for Laura," "Evermore without You," and "If Not for Me for Her," though for sheer beauty it's no Light in the Piazza. And as with any ALW nearly through-sung musical, a number of the themes recycle themselves to the point where you'll dread the mere mention of certain characters' names. Friedman and Paice give the strongest performances, while Crawford--in his much-anticipated reunion with Lloyd Webber after Phantom--doesn't have a lot to do other than the muggy showpiece "You Can Get Away with Anything." Note that The Woman in White was recorded before a live audience, but "You Can Get Away with Anything" had to be rerecorded in a studio because it was the only number with an audible audience reaction. Crawford's original live performance, however, is included as a coda at the end of the second disc. It's great to have the complete libretto, except that it specifies scene titles while the CD packaging shows track listings and song titles, which means that figuring out where you are takes some detective work. When The Woman in White opened on Broadway in November 2005, Friedman, Paice, and Angela Christian (Anne Catherick) reprised their roles from the London production, while Michael Ball replaced Crawford. --David Horiuchi
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