New York : The Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's newest musical, The Woman in White , plays its final Broadway performance today citing cast illnesses as the reason. According to producer Bob Boyett, the complete cast has only performed 31 out of the 108 performances played. The most publicized has been the musical's star Maria Friedman's on going treatment for breast cancer. Before the closing announcement, she was set to take a medical leave of absence beginning February 12th. More recently it had been reported that Michael Ball had permanently left the production after suffering from what has been reported as a "serious viral infection" by producers and as a "severe sinus problem" by the New York Post.
Producer Bob Boyett said in a statement, "We are enormously proud to have produced The Woman in White on Broadway. It is a groundbreaking piece of musical storytelling and at the forefront of pioneering new technology with its innovative design. The production and the performances of this extraordinary cast have given pleasure to hundreds of thousands of people in London and New York while Andrew Lloyd Webber's glorious score has been hailed by critics as his best since The Phantom of the Opera. Unfortunately, early in previews, the show experienced a number of medical problems among the cast. Maria Friedman performed admirably through a diagnosis of breast cancer and its treatment and Michael Ball battled a serious viral infection. As a result of these and other health issues among the company, audiences got to see the entire original cast perform just 31 of the 108 performances played to date since the show's first preview."
Andrew Lloyd Webber added, "There have been performances when two or more leads have been absent due to illness. I'm not sure even The Phantom of the Opera could have survived the illnesses which have beset this wonderful company."
This is not the end of the road for the musical, there are plans for a reconfigured production for London and a U.S. national tour.
The musical opened at the Marquis Theater on November 17, 2005.
In the show, a dashing young man, employed as the art tutor to two devoted sisters, who is stranded at a remote railway cutting. Out of the darkness looms a woman, a mysterious figure dressed in white, desperate to share a chilling secret. He and the sisters soon find themselves trapped in a web of betrayal and greed, the victims of a seemingly flawless crime. Together they will need all their resourcefulness and courage to outwit a hugely charismatic and ingenious villain, 'Count Fosco'. As the plot twists and turns, low villainy vies with high romance in a world where nothing is as it first appears and where it is impossible to know who to trust.
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