Were Broadway Critics Spooked by The Woman in White?
Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest, The Woman in White, a Victorian drama based on Wilkie Collins' novel of the same name, has hit Broadway after its London premiere last year. The tuner, starring Maria Friedman and Michael Ball, bowed at the Marquis Theatre on November 17. Did the production, directed by Trevor Nunn, prove haunting to critics? Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: "There are times during The Woman in White, whose sets consist almost entirely of curved white walls upon which designer William Dudley projects a dizzying array of computer-animated backdrops, when an audience might wish they had a keypad or a joystick to speed things along, or choose to see one character more and others less. Instead this would-be Gothic mystery, based on Wilkie Collins' baroquely plotted Victorian page-turner, is planted firmly in a world with its own rules of tempo, mood and overheated narrative logic, a place somewhere between operetta and theme park... Charlotte Jones' libretto makes Collins' narrative more convoluted than mysterious, while Trevor Nunn's direction, big on stage fog and spooky lighting effects by Paul Pyant, hasn't a single scary moment."
Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Plot, characters, words and most of the performances in this tale of love, deception and unspeakable secrets in Victorian England emanate the aura of autumn leaves ironed into crisp immobility between sheets of waxed paper. There is, of course, Lord Lloyd Webber's music, which swirls and slides and glides its way into your inner ear, where it will rest for many a day, whether you want it to or not. But even the music has the feeling of freeze-dried Lloyd Webber motifs to which water has been added for the occasion. Like the show's visuals, its sounds—with British folk and liturgical accents, along with occasional atonal ominousness, spicing the usual melodic stew—tantalize with a promise of substance that is seldom delivered."
Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "The use of projections, stunningly designed by William Dudley, enables the scenes to fly by. Sometimes the images seem blurred and the pace is dizzying. But even in the quiet scenes, there is a sense of tension and momentum. Lloyd Webber's score is entirely focused on keeping the story moving. In the early scenes, in which there are a few duets and trios, there is a shimmering delicacy to the music... What gives Woman its dramatic power is Maria Friedman's shattering performance as the sister of the unlucky bride... Jill Paice performs beautifully as her ill-fated sister, and Adam Brazier is extremely appealing as the artist they both love. Angela Christian brings a suitable eeriness to the title character, Ron Bohmer is wonderfully suave as the villain and Walter Charles makes the girls' uncle poignant. Only some clunky, happily brief bits of choreography mar the masterly stagecraft of this breathtaking piece of musical theater."
David Rooney of Variety: "[Lloyd Webber's] customarily lush, faux-operatic 1980s musical idiom feels like a throwback, while the emotion, mystery and romance of the Wilkie Collins potboiler is consistently dwarfed by the mechanical artificiality of the design concept... Maria Friedman sings with effortless expressiveness while delicately exploring the humor, pluckiness and melancholy self-reproach of Collins' heroine, Marian Halcombe. And Michael Ball last seen on Broadway in 1990 in Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love animates every scene he graces; his corpulent, twinkle-toed Count Fosco is a gleefully wicked caricature that injects a welcome shot of vibrancy... For all its villainous men, imperiled women, palpitating hearts, murder and madness, however, the melodrama feels sadly hollow... Lloyd Webber's music, while it tempers the syrupy romanticism of his melodies by weaving more complex, discordant textures that echo the story's troubled moods, fires off almost its entire arsenal in the first act and then remains stuck in repetitive overdrive. Each character's theme melody resurfaces, strung together with musical wallpaper. There are no standout numbers..."
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Despite all the passion in story and song, this lavish production, directed by Trevor Nunn, only fitfully raises the theatrical temperature at Broadway's Marquis Theatre. Most of the heat is provided by Maria Friedman, playing the odd-woman-out in a love triangle that is one of the evening's many plot lines... Lloyd Webber's score is not as adventurous as his last theatrical outing—The Beautiful Game... Still, there are some lovely moments, particularly the eerie opening railway sequence and some beautiful trios for that love triangle of Marian, Laura and their art tutor. More conventional are several typical Lloyd Webber pop anthems, in which David Zippel's workmanlike lyrics are not at their best. 'I believe my heart, it believes in you,' goes one of the more persistent, awkward lines... Ever-revolving projections are about the only special effects to be found in The Woman in White. No crashing chandelier like in The Phantom of the Opera or performers on roller skates like in Starlight Express. This latest from Lloyd Webber is more refined and, consequently, a little dull around the edges."
Linda Winer of Newsday: "Think Gothic operetta, then imagine it in an IMAX arcade. The big innovation in Trevor Nunn's mildly involving production is the use of designer William Dudley's nonstop video, which whips us from train tunnel to rooms of a hilltop estate, across the gorgeous countryside and through London's most Dickensian streets... At first, [Lloyd Webber's] score - with all the dialogue sung - has the astringent discipline of a Benjamin Britten opera. Before long, alas, the generic ballads burst through, followed by waves of unearned climaxes, interspersed with droning hymnal melodies... The gifted and gutsy Maria Friedman, whose recent breast-cancer surgery has had her all over the news, performs with nuance and without apparent diminution as Marian, the less beauteous sister - i.e., the brunette - who dedicates her life to protecting Laura, her more fortunate but endangered sister. Jill Paice floats lyrically through her travails, while Angela Christian communicates the mysterious woman's secret in a high, striking, nasal shriek."