Gothic was a popular movement in the nineties. A good time to release a musical based on an 1860 gothic novel by writer Wilkie Collins. The story The Woman In White contains sinister ingredients such as a great secret, deception, kidnapping, madness and murder. On September 15, 2004, the London Palace Theater saw the world premiere of the musical of the same name with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The live recording of this has been recorded on a double album, where audience noises have been edited away but the intensity and dynamics of the live performance remains clearly tangible. The strong cast delivers excellent acting and singing performance. The indisputable star is singer Maria Friedman, who plays the main character Marian Halcombe in an impressive way. Michael Crawford as the mildly comic character Count Fosco provides some bright spots in the dark story. For Lloyd Webber it proves difficult to match his masterpieces Cats and The Phantom Of The Opera. Unfortunately, only a few melodies of the compelling romantic music linger in your head: I Believe My Heart, All For Laura and the comic You Can Get Away With Anything. (SvdP)more