The Woman in White fades to black…

So it's farewell, soon, to The Woman in White in the West End, which has just announced an early closure to depart the Palace on February 25, just 17 months since it opened in September 2004. Of course, that's not an embarrassing run -- but set next to the record-breaking Cats (the longest running musical ever in the West End, 21 years) and The Phantom of the Opera (which recently knocked Cats off the top spot to become the record holder in New York), or even Starlight Express (that clocked up a run of over 17 years at the Apollo Victoria), it's small potatoes. And as Lloyd Webber has become notably ambitious with his recent shows -- the Northern Ireland musical The Beautiful Game (that ran for under a year at the Cambridge in 2000) and now this sweeping, semi-operatic Victorian melodrama -- it's interesting to note that his audience hasn't followed him. But there's still an appetite for the older work, as witness this summer's promised return for Evita. A UK tour is, however, promised for The Woman in White and it continues to run on Broadway where it opened in November, though it is heavily discounting its tickets already and it has just been announced that Maria Friedman will be replaced by Judy Kuhn for 6 weeks from Feb 14, while Maria undergoes further treatment for the breast cancer she was diagnosed just days into previews for the show when it first came there.