Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical, The Woman in White has the most amazing visuals I have ever seen on a stage. Designed by William Dudley (who also did the gorgeous costumes), all projected on a huge cyclorama and smaller moving cycs, it's reminiscent of the swoops of perspective in "Lord of the Rings." It's breathtaking. Paul Pyant's lighting design augments the video visuals with the (mostly dark) moods of the piece.
The music is quite good, and quite Lloyd Webberish, and the voices of the performers are all top-level, including the wonderful Maria Friedman (who sings her heart out), the lovely Jill Paice and handsome love interest Adam Brazier. It seems in Act One that they are going for a Gothic mystery with love, betrayal, a mysterious figure, murder, etc., but the book by Charlotte Jones is confusing, and at intermission people near me were saying, "What is this show about?" I guess the producers realized that because they have all the words of the dialogue and lyrics on a sign at the side of the stage, even though we can hear them all quite well. It doesn't clear anything up.
Act Two has a comedy section that seems to be from another show. A villainous count, played at the performance I saw by the very large Norman Large, was the most entertaining part of the show as he told how bad he was. It's the only bit of fun in this basically dreary musical. With the help of Wayne McGregor, the movement director, director Trevor Nunn does as much as he can to keep it moving, but basically it's an unpleasant story and not very entertaining. Yes, I walked out whistling the spectacular scenery.
