The Woman in White - Charing Cross Theatre

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

Check my review on the previous page:..

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.

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"

They will need to do a lot of promo.

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

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


 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.