Review: Better Than Sex; The dizzying new 'Woman in White' bears plenty of Lloyd Webber touches. Will it become the next 'Phantom?'.(Theater Review)

Byline: Carla Power

Sisterly love doesn't get much press. Sex and romance have all the good songs and big plots; loyal siblings tend to be relegated to B sides and back stories. But sisterhood is at the center of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ambitious new musical, "The Woman in White," which opened in London last week. Based on Wilkie Collins's 1860 novel, it's the story of heiress Laura Fairlie (Jill Paice) and her half sister Marian Halcombe (Maria Friedman). Together they attempt to escape the clutches of an evil pair of fortune hunters with the help of a mysterious Woman in White (Angela Christian). Sure, they both fall for the same guy: their drawing master, Walter Hartright (Martin Crewes). But the story's grand amour is the one between Laura and Marian.

"The Woman in White" souvenir tapestry kits on sale in the lobby suggest that Lloyd Webber expects this to be a mammoth hit, on the scale of "The Phantom of the Opera." And his fans will recognize much from that show: Victorian horrors, villains with prosthetic faces, abundant wigs and a hummable score. But there is unfortunately plenty that's new, too. Barring the odd table or chaise longue, the set is a series of whizzy projections on blank walls. We're whisked through a dizzying array of cinematic vistas--lordly manors, sunlit Cumbrian waterfalls, English churchyards. It's like being trapped in a British ...