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West End 'White' hot

Sun Sep 26, 5:20 AM ET

Matt Wolf, STAFF

London's musicals-heavy autumn launched in earnest last week with the opening of Andrew Lloyd Webber's venture that poses the million-pound question: Will "The Woman in White" land in the black?

"Woman's" lead producer Sonia Friedman told Variety Sept. 21 that she was "feeling very buoyant" about the financial picture thus far. Budgeted just south of ?4 million ($7.2 million), show opened Sept. 15 to a cash advance of ?3.2 million ($5.75 million), with another $360,000 in reservations.

The figure is slightly less than the $6.3 million total advance -- reservations included -- held by "The Producers," which starts Oct. 22 on the West End prior to a Nov. 9 opening. But the Mel Brooks (news) tuner, starring Richard Dreyfuss (news) and Lee Evans, is a costlier show in a far larger venue: the Theater Royal, Drury Lane, a 2,100-seater one-third again as big as the Palace.

"I think 'The Woman in White' advance is brilliant for a 1,400-seat theater," said Andre Ptaszynski, chief exec of Really Useful Theaters, the largest theater group in London. (Both the Palace and Drury Lane are theirs.) "The audience reaction is excellent. I have absolutely no doubt (the show) will be at the Palace for years."

To date, said Friedman, attendance for "Woman" has held at between 90% and 95%. And with a weekly potential gross in excess of $750,000 (the net figure is some $180,000 a week less), the musical could recoup within a year playing to 70% capacity.

Numerous New York producers and theater owners made the trip to London to catch "Woman" during its opening week, and Friedman was sounding bullish about its American prospects (notwithstanding a distinctly tepid notice from Ben Brantley in the Sept. 17 New York Times).

"We'll get there sooner rather than later; we won't be waiting three years."

All of this is good news for the composer, whose track record of late hasn't been great.

Though there was a payback on the Lloyd Webber-produced "Bombay Dreams" (the A.R. Rahman musical in the West End), his last show as composer, "The Beautiful Game," closed at the Cambridge Theater in September 2001, having recouped barely 10% of a $4.1 million capitalization. And that production won the London Crix Circle Award -- Lloyd Webber's first -- as the season's best musical.

However, "Woman" has more commercial elements, including its setting of lush English landscapes and stately homes, as opposed to "Game," set against the backdrop of Northern Ireland's troubles. And while "Game" had no stars, "Woman" boasts a household name in Michael Crawford (news), who hasn't appeared on the West End since "The Phantom of the Opera" 18 years ago.

That show, incidentally, was also Lloyd Webber's last gold-plated international hit: a billion-dollar phenomenon that, the composer has long maintained, will never be repeated during his lifetime.

While no one is expecting "Woman" to match that, it's doing nicely, thank you. On Sept. 20, Friedman says, "We doubled our daily take," wrapping $160,000, thanks in part to a review from John Peter in London's influential Sunday Times. Calling the show "a big, big triumph, a very palpable hit," Peter concluded, "My guess is that the producers will not have to look for a new show for the Palace for a decade or so."

Still, the producer said "Woman" had never been intended to stand or fall by the critics. "Yes, I was enormously surprised and pissed off; who wouldn't be?" said Friedman, of a cluster of early pans for "Woman" (the Times, the Evening Standard, the Daily Telegraph, Metro) that three days later was countered by various raves in the Sunday papers (not just the Sunday Times but the Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday and, with qualifications, the Sunday Telegraph).

Said Friedman: "We all want approval, but the critical community is the last community we need approval from; we want it from the audience, and we're getting that."

In any case, there have been numerous shows that went on to great success despite mixed reviews. A famous example remains "Les Miserables," which in October 1985 opened to a sniffy reception from the press and rapture from auds. Latter factor led producer Cameron Mackintosh to transfer the show immediately from the Barbican Center to the Palace, where it remained for the better part of 20 years before moving around the corner to its present home at the Queen's.

"The point about a musical," said Friedman, "is that there are so many examples of great musicals which have had a very odd start from the critics. Some have said in their reviews of 'Woman in White' that there are no memorable tunes, when you need to absorb yourself in the music before you come in order to make an assessment."

To that end, "Woman" producers sent a sample CD to 18 leading crix of nine songs from the show taped during the final dress rehearsal. The aim: to familiarize scribes with the score before the press night.

Next month will see the release of a single of the musical's power ballad, "I Believe My Heart," sung by Duncan James from boyband Blue. The cast album, recorded during previews, is expected out soon after.

And in a city where press interest in a production often evaporates after opening night, "Woman" has deliberately been holding back its trump card, Crawford, who was conspicuously absent from the pre-opening round of interviews.

"We've been keeping our powder dry on Michael," says Friedman, "who's about to get out there and do his stuff. He'll now start to do certain key press for us."

The star is contracted for nine months. And after that? "The show has to survive his leaving," says Friedman. "This isn't the Michael Crawford show, although while he's in it I'm absolutely delighted."