The Woman in White

Published Thursday 13 October 2005 at 10:25 by Mark Shenton

A year since it first opened in the West End and a month before it opens on Broadway, The Woman in White is holding up well as one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most distinctive and ambitious musicals.

Though it is clearly not for everyone - it divides critics as much as it seems to divide audiences - for those who tune in to its lush world of Victorian melodrama, it offers the satisfactions of a richly characterised story but also the kind of sweeping, near-operatic score that keeps pace with its driving arc of emotions.

Trevor Nunn’s production has also been interestingly tweaked since it first opened. While Bill Dudley’s projections are still occasionally dizzying - as well as dazzling - they seem to have been calmed down a bit and a few more solid set pieces arrive to provide a fuller stage picture, such as a tree that is flown in.

But the biggest changes come from a substantially changed line-up of principal performers, as only Edward Petherbridge remains from the original line-up. Ruthie Henshall inherits Maria Friedman’s role as Marian Halcombe and finally gets the opportunity to prove her dramatic mettle. We’ve long known her abilities in light musical comedy from Crazy for You to She Loves Me but here she is a robust presence, determined to right the wrong done to her sister Laura (Alexandra Silber in a striking post-drama school debut).

Less successful is Simon Callow. Though he is to the fruity manner born as a cod-Italian operatic baddie, his singing voice has to be one of the most excruciating sounds in the West End. After the Michaels (Crawford and Ball), he is a shockingly poor substitute.