Who played the original part of Count Fosco in the Broadway musical "The Woman in White"?

Michael Ashley Ball (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. He made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius Pontmercy in the original London production of "Les Misérables", and went on to star in 1987 as Raoul in "The Phantom of the Opera". In 1989, he reached number two in the UK Singles Chart with "Love Changes Everything", a song taken from the musical "Aspects of Love", where he played Alex.

In November 2005, Ball returned to Broadway as Count Fosco in "The Woman in White", which transferred from London's West End. He was, however, forced to leave the show because of a viral infection supposedly caused by the fat suit required for the role; this reportedly raised Ball's body temperature by several degrees during the show.

"The Woman in White" is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel with a book by Charlotte Jones, based on the 1860 novel "The Woman in White" written by Wilkie Collins, and elements of "The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens (1866). It ran for nineteen months in the West End and three months on Broadway, making it one of Lloyd Webber's shortest-running shows.