Damsel In Distress

It's hard not to pity the Woman in White. The poor, pale lady arrived in London's West End last week hauling a wagonload of expectations. This is, after all, Andrew Lloyd Webber's homecoming. Eighteen years after The Phantom of the Opera , after his American odysseys ( Sunset Boulevard and Whistle Down the Wind ), his Irish adventure ( The Beautiful Game ) and his Indian idyll ( Bombay Dreams , which he produced), the composer has at last found an English gothic tale with which he might be able to harness the spooky power — not to mention the box-office returns — of...