Henshall & Andrews Take Over The Woman in WhiteDate: 11 April 2005
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s award-winning musical The Woman in White will get two new leads this summer. Anthony Andrews and Ruthie Henshall (pictured) are now confirmed to take over as wily villain Count Fosco and enterprising heroine Marian Halcombe at the West End’s Palace Theatre.
Current Count Fosco Michael Ball will finish at the end of his contract on 30 April 2005 (See News, 1 Mar 2005), with Andrews starting on 2 May. Role creator Michael Crawford is still off with a long-term illness and is not expected to return. Meanwhile, leading lady Friedman has extended her run until 9 July 2005, with Henshall due to begin on 11 July. Joanna Riding, who was previously expected to take over the role (See The Goss, 2 Mar 2005), has had to withdraw as she is now expecting her first child.
Loosely based on Wilkie Collins’ Victorian novel, first published in 1869, The Woman in White opens with a handsome young man stranded at a remote railway cutting. Out of the darkness, a mysterious woman dressed in white appears, burning to tell a chilling secret. The Halcombe sisters, Marian and Laura, find themselves ensnared in a web of betrayal and greed. They will need all their courage and resourcefulness to outwit their foe.
Andrews achieved international fame for his award-winning performance as Sebastian Flyte in the 1981 television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. His other screen credits include Under the Volcano, Love in a Cold Climate, The Duchess of Duke Street and Upstairs, Downstairs, while his stage credits include Forty Years On, Ghosts, Vertigo and One of Us. He was recently seen in the West End as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady.
West End diva Henshall has been nominated four times for Olivier Awards, winning in 1995 for her portrayal of Amalia Balash in She Loves Me. Her other musical credits include: Les Miserables, Oliver!, Cats, Miss Saigon, Crazy for You, Chicago and Peggy Sue Got Married in the West End; and Chicago and Putting It Together on Broadway.
The current cast of The Woman in White also features Angela Christian, Jill Paice, Martin Crewes, Oliver Darley and Edward Petherbridge. The musical has been adapted by playwright Charlotte Jones, with David Zippel providing the lyrics to Lloyd Webber’s score. The premiere production, which opened at the Palace on 15 September 2004, is directed by Trevor Nunn, designed by William Dudley and co-produced by Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theatre Company and Sonia Friedman Productions.
Amongst The Woman in White’s accolades to date are no fewer than five Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Awards: Best Actress in a Musical (Friedman), Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Christian), Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (Crawford), Best Director and Best Designer.
- by Terri Paddock
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