The Woman in White - Charing Cross Theatre

[notmymuse]

It will be interesting if the cast is this small. To be fair, the chorus songs were the worst ones ("sing cos it's Lammastide" or whatever they sang) so they could probably cut them and make it just about the principals. I felt they had a chorus in the West end because that's what your have to do rather than it adding much.

I'm really excited by this cast a production. Peluso has such a lovely voice.

I'm less excited by the prices. High end cast has brought in high end prices or seems. Never seen seats this expensive at this theatre, ever. Still, have booked for a preview which seems a bit cheaper.

[Deleted]

i disagree i enjoyed the ensemble numbers when i saw it. im worried now this will be a ballad only production

[Anniek]

I dont know the show, but is this the full cast or is there more/ensemble to come?

[SageStageMgr]

Sept 14, 2017 17:58:31 GMT Anniek said:

I dont know the show, but is this the full cast or is there more/ensemble to come?

Check my review on the previous page:..

[spendleb]

Booked for the 1st Dec, chose the bench at the front, anyone know if this was a bad idea? Only £24 for seats.

[Anniek]

I loved the benches during Titanic (imo best seats in the house for that show) and Death takes a holiday, so I guess you're okay. depends tho what theyre gonna do with the set, but as long as it's not front row stalls (stage is pretty high up) I guess you're good.

[anita]

I've booked a bench seat too.

[Deleted]

Ladies and Gentlemen of The Woman In White company this is your five minute call. 5 minutes please.

Rehearsals! Big hats for Chris Peluso. Laughs-a-plenty from Anna O'Byrne and Carolyn Maitland and "no photos please" from Janet Mooney.



Janet Mooney: "Take That Camera And Shove It"

[theatrelover123]

I look forward to the offers and cheapies for this one then

[distantcousin]

They will need to do a lot of promo.

[anita]

Surprised it isn't on Todaytix.

[Deleted]

If you look at the online seating plan there are lots of performances that haven't sold a single ticket!!! (There's an identical section off sale for all performances so assume they are held back).

Is this sustainable/viable?

Worried they are gonna cut this run - not my fave ALW but I would really like to see it!

[anita]

You can now set an alert on todaytix for this [ & use ZDANI to save £10].

[anita]

Go to www.thewomaninwhite.co.uk to hear the new cast.

[Deleted]

Thank you for that, anita. It's beautifully sung (I think she is superb in that Australian version of Love Never Dies) but, if I'm being honest, a fully orchestrated version would have sounded far better, and might have helped in attracting a larger audience. I thought at first they were going to do that black and white to colour thing that they did with that amazing 'Bill' from Showboat with Rebecca Trehearn... But no. (I do hope we're not just getting a piano in this new production.)

[anita]

I love her in the "Love Never Dies" DVD too but prefer the original Walter & the full orchestra.

[notmymuse]

Thanks for posting. Really enjoyed seeing that. Looking forward to it even more now!

[Dawnstar]

Anna O'Byrne sounds lovely as usual but I can't say I think much of the song. The music might be improved if there was an orchestra rather than a piano but the lyrics seem pretty clunky to me.

[ali973]

Some pictures of the model set...Looks pretty.

[chernjam]

I have to say the video and those images really got me excited. I hope that this does well and evolves into an open-ended run

[spendleb]

Nov 10, 2017 4:19:16 GMT ali973 said:

Some pictures of the model set...Looks pretty.

Fantastic, I presume by this they have dropped the mostly hated projections from the original run?

[chernjam]

Break a leg tonight as TWIW starts previews... can't wait to read reports

[tom]

Nov 20, 2017 21:34:36 GMT chernjam said:

Break a leg tonight as TWIW starts previews... can't wait to read reports

Still looks very empty most nights. I am booked to see this early December - wondering if I should have a plan B in case it doesn't last that long!

[ali973]

Just came back from the first preview.

I haven't seen the original Palace Theatre version, besides the clips that are/were floating on YouTube. I can reassure everyone that this is a projection/video free zone.

Thom Southerland made an introductory speech on how this is the first preview and how things might look strange at times because it's a first performance, or just not work altogether. Luckily, the latter never happened, but there were instances when things did look half-cooked and not quite finished.

It's a unit sit, just like the design miniature shows.. There's a fireplace downstage, and in the middle of the stage, a wall structure that glides into the wings and back in various points on the stage while scene changes happen behind it. Though overused, it's pretty well done and is put into dramatic use quite effectively. Otherwise, the actors shift furniture, book cases or doorways to change the scenery.

Carolyn Maitland gives it her all as Marianne, although I thought they didn't do such a great job making her the less attractive homey sister. I also feel that she didn't have the awkwardness or wallflower quality at the beginning, which would have been interesting for an audience to see her change into a stronger character throughout the piece because of the trauma and violence in her life. But she delivers her "All For Laura" pretty nicely, and that's half the work. She struggled a lot with her costumes towards the beginning and needed to be zipped up on stage. Anna O'Brien (Laura) and Sophie Reeves (Anne) look nothing alike, so it wasn't too believable that they'd be confused by anyone. Chris Peluso (Percival Glyde) is a boring villain, but Greg Castiglioni (Count Fosco) is a scene stealer. It's funny how I never realized that "You Can Get Away with Anything" is an ode to "La donna è mobile". No fat suit, and the mice are now replaced with cash.

The music is pretty much the star of the show given it's ALW, and the lyrics are quite witty and fun. I've always thought that Love Never Dies borrowed so many motifs from Woman in White, but sitting through tonight I just thought that Woman in White is the first draft of Love Never Dies altogether. Orchestrations were very good: I'd say a piano keyboard, a synth keyboard, a flute, a string or two or three, and drums/percussion. It sounds like the string quartets and arrangements they put together for shows at the Menier.

The scene where Marianne is snooping on Glyde and Fosco is very clunky and needs to be restaged. She's standing on tables as though she's listening from the outside while it's raining. Didn't work at all. The final scene

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
where Glyde is run over by the train felt like a fly-less Defying Gravity. Glyde just drops on the stage in spread-eagle and there's a lot of smoke. I don't know (but hope) that there was an effect in there that they weren't quite able to pull off by this first performance.

 I thought All For Laura was performed in the interior of the mansion, but once the song ended they talk about how Marianne is outside, but the staging did not look like it was set in the outdoors (though they've done the interior/exterior scenes quite clearly in other scenes), so that needs to be redone.

Poor attendance in this rather shabby theatre that is in desperate need of carpet replacement and paint. Surprisingly, the bathroom is in mint condition and looks new. There was absolutely no buzz despite it being a first preview, though from what I can see, serious ALW fans sporting their Phantom t-shirts.

There are times that I dozed off and started thinking about work during some of the overdone recitatives, but it's an overall good show if you like the music, ALW, any of the cast, or if you just want to tick it off your list.

[steve10086]

Doesn’t bother me because I’ve seen the musical before, but maybe be a bit more careful when saying what happens to characters at the end of a show in future?!?