Jaystarr's 10/10 Report on WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND in Boston (with stage door

[jaystarr]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 6:15pm

to nick....

E26

Whistle Down the Wind
New Musical/Touring Company
The Wang Center for the Performing Arts (Citi-Arts)
2/1 8pm
2 hours & 20 mins (with 1 intermission)
Tix Price : $28.00 (for Orchestra)

Intro:

Finally..for the longest time, I had a chance to sit again at Wang Center's Orchestra Front Center Section without paying $90.00. I was always getting the $25.00 nosebleed seats, which is almost three stories high and you need a binocular.



After its premiere run on Sept. 9, 2006 at Houston's Hobby Center for the Performing Arts..the US Tour will make its final stop at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, VA. in February 17. The US tour only lasted 5 months on the road and cancelled its engagements in Cleveland, Milwaukee, San Fancisco, Los Angeles & Dallas.

Luckily, We Bostonians had an oppurtunity to see this musical plus they lowered the price from $85.00 top price ticket to $ 28.00. What a deal! When I saw this show last night ... the orchestra was 80% full on a Friday night performance. I was told by the House Managers that they sold 1,200 tickets that performance. (Wang is 4,500 seaters) -the most they ever did.. most likely they will pack it for the last remaining days till 2/3 bec. of the affordable ticket prices.

Whistle Down The Wind is a story of three children who cannot get over the death of their mother and discovered a criminal hiding in their barn and they thought he was Jesus Christ. The plot is really simple its a contrast between the innocence of the children and the hysteria of Christian fanatics in a small town in Lousiana.

Thing(s) I Like about the Musical

1. First and foremost.. I would say that I thought ALMOST everyone is the cast have beautiful voice. I actually thought they sounded better than the London Cast Recording. Eric Kunze really have a beautiful voice..suprisingly Whitney Bashoff has a magnificent sweet voice and she's very pretty..but that's it..her acting and stage presence is another story.. I will talk about it later... the two siblings are very good too- specially Austin J. Zambito White as Poor Baby.. almost everyone have a great voice specially the children which are all natives of Boston. I actually did not like the recording of "No Matter What" bec. of the children singing...but after seeing the cute kids singing.. I fell in love with the song for 30 mins (talk about it later)



- I will add one thing.. The Vault Preacher lower his note on Vault of Heaven song which I thought a bit awkward to hear.

Things(s) I Dont Like about the Musical

1. The Conductor - oh my god. I cannot stand him in the entire show, that's why I moved into the empty seat at the back. HE WAS DANCING-swaying left to right even on slow songs.. like Whistle Down the Wind..It was pretty distracting.. it looks like he was having the time of his life in Meatloaf's concert. I dont know if he will be the conductor in Philly & VA, since they hire musicians locally.. that swaying back & fort was really something else..the orchestra pit is at eye-level at Wang, so you can really see him. It was kinda irritating.. I cannot concentrate.. it looks like he is doing own show...He is doing exactly what this cat is doing thru the entire show:


2. The Book by Patricia Knop Gale Edwards, Gale Edwards and Andrew Lloyd Weber- its very confusing and not coherent at all.

let me give you an example: the subplot about the interracial romance between Amos & Candy. I thought at the beggining that Candy being played by an African -American was a blind casting...okay.. I like that... that's nice.. I always advocate it...then I just realized when Ed say that ..you should not be seen with a white boy! and I was like.. oh she's black! I did not realize it thru the dialogues.. I thought it was a blind casting...I guess.. Its because somehow the race indeference & issue was not really SPELLED OUT in ACT 1 with the dialogues.

4. Score by Andrew Lloyd Weber is really mediocre in this show. Is it just me? or somehow he just composed 3-4 really good pop standards, composed additional
second rate songs and put a lot of reprises of the pop standards and call it a "musical".

No Matter What is a decent song...until they start reprising it soo much in the Second Act.. it becomes unbearable. Its like eating a sweet treat and you start liking it and eating more and more then later you start feeling nauseated. ( I will talk about it later)

The Reprises of this song in Act 2 is really getting old. That's when I start staring at the beautiful ceiling of the Wang Center and wish I can just phase out of the musical...in my mind...Oh what a beaitiful theater!

Tire Tracks sounds like Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero"


5. Lyrics of Jim Steinman.. I was laughing with some of his lyrics specially When Children Rule the World.

6. The Scenic Design Of Paul Farnsworth- Its nothing special, very generic. the curtain is a big barn door that open sideways. Most of the sets are coming up from the ceiling. The town buildings' design is very generic. I'm a bit confused..if its Kansas or Louisiana. The backdrop looks like it came from Pirate Queen.

- the only two things that was decent in his design was the field where the kids are sitting and the destroyed barn at the end, though its average, nothing extraordinary.

7. The Chreography was laughable. I did laughed ( I'm sorry to say that)...after the Vault of Heaven number - there was an Overture and the children and town people form like a chuch choir formation and they were all sdoing hand gestures and moving their heads during the Overture Number- but this is not the worst of it... In Act 2 "Wrestle with The Devil" they start dancing and holding a snake- what was that all about? and When Children Rule The World number- those kids start standing one by one in every verse...can they think of a better chreoraphy than this?

8. The Stage Blocking- its either the whole ensemble is facing the audience or not facing the audience at their backs looking at the backdrop.

9. The characters are very one- dimensional.

- why is the mob always mad?


10. I really like Whitney Bashoff.. she's very nice in person, very pretty and has a nice voice but unfortunately her acting was soo plain and one tone. She did not bring anything to the character of Swallow.. she's almost lifeless sometimes onstage. I'm sorry... I really like her in person but not onstage.

Whitney Bashoff



**********

I already went over 10- but I will point out one more thing:

Imbalance between ACT 1 & ACT 2- Act 1 has all the good songs, with no character development and a bad book.. ACT 2 has all the mediocre songs and endless reprises of the good one though there's character development and book improved a bit to forward the story.

In Summary:

After the show.. I met the cast.. They were very nice to me.. that's why its really hard to write this review.. I really wanna give it a good one.. but in my conscience.. I really think.. I have to express what I experience that night truthfully... I wish the best for the cast specially for Eric Kunze... I told him that night that I saw him in Miss Saigon in 1992 and he is such a nice person and the entire cast too ..but they are just on a wrong musical.... they cannot really shine bec. of the material.. its like they were put into this mold and cannot really raise above that.

When Chris pick me up later...he asked me.. so how's the show? I told him in a nutshell without hesitation... It's bland and boring - that's the best way to describe the musical.

Sorry.. Nick.. I tried it for you...but its not the type of musical that I enjoyed.

Thanks...

J*

Score: 1/10- not I did not like it but I DON'T LIKE IT!


Production Photos
(photos by Joan Marcus)














The Wang Center for Performing Arts




MERCHANDISE






The Playbill








Stage Door Photos


with Eric Kunze & Whitney Bashoff as Swallow








Updated On: 5/14/08 at 06:15 PM

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 6:37pm

FANTASTIC detailed review as always jay ! I am sorry you didn't have a good time, but judging from the pics, at least Eric Kunze is seriously HOT !!!

[ElphabaRose]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 6:53pm

I have to say, props for sitting through the show. I walked out at intermission today. Vocally I thought that everyone was fine, except for the guy playing the preacher at the start of the show, he sounded like he needed a rest. I have to agree with the critique on the staging. One of my high school director's favorite phrases was "Straight lines on stage are BORING!" That was a sentiment that kept running through my mind.

Last time I was in New York, my family saw The Little Mermaid (and disliked it greatly), as we walked out, I remarked "Well that was no Tarzan." As I walked out of Whistle Down the Wind, I was thinking to myself "Well, that was no Little Mermaid."

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 9:19pm

As soon as I saw the swaying cat cartoon I knew in my heart it was going to be Jim Vulcovich conducting. He used to post here.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 9:57pm

Always great to read Jay...

I just found it funny that the sign on the door reads "CITIWANG."

[philly03]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 10:32pm

Thankyou for that Jay...always enjoy your usually true reviews! And great pictures!

Why does every Lloyd Webber show after "Aspects" always hvae from the quotes "Lloyd Webber's Best Score since Phantom!" Sunset, Whistle & Woman in White!?

Anyway, just a question did you get backstage or something or did they put the stage door inside becuase it looks like it was raining or am I just making this all up!?

[Anastasia_Beaverhausen]

Posted: 2/3/08 at 11:08am

Amazingly accurate review jaystarr...although I think I liked the score better than you did. The kids parts were really great, but those lyrics! EW!

I don't remember the conductor going crazy, all I remember was seeing his arms and his tattoos and thinking that was different...and sexy. :) I think I heard there were complaints about that though. Whatever.

Anyway, so sad to see a show close and jobs lost but let it die now.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/3/08 at 11:27am

the whole show reminded me of The Pirate Queen honestly. and the fire sequence at the end had me cracking up! i can't believe dummies in the audience thought this was going to NY.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/3/08 at 12:25pm

Great critique, jay (as always)! Love your swaying pvssy. Wish you were seeing MY FAIR LADY. I wanna read your review of that.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 2/3/08 at 12:32pm

Bland and Boring is the right way to sum this show up!

[jaystarr]

Posted: 2/3/08 at 8:43pm

thanks guys!

philly03- It was raining and they let us in...there's like 4-5 people stage dooring that evening...yup that's the backstage of Wang Center.

Updated On: 2/3/08 at 08:43 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 2/10/08 at 10:06pm

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/10/local_kids_jump_aboard_for_whistle_stop/

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/10/08 at 10:08pm

As most of you know, I pride myself on being an expert of flop musicals. Therefore, once I heard that the Whistle Down the Wind tour was closing early and plans for NY have been scrapped (if it was even slated to come here in the first place), I knew I had to take a road trip to see it. After the fiasco posing as a Broadway musical I witnessed last night at the Belasco, anything I saw would have been an improvement...however, I had no clue I would enjoy Whistle as much as I did.

The score by Andrew Lloyd Weber was fantastic. This afternoon was the first time I had ever heard any of the songs and I was thoroughly impressed. As background info, I despise Phantom, am not too fond of Cats, and love The Woman in White (but it took at least ten listens to the cast recording before warming up to it). So, I was surprised to have enjoyed the score so much upon first listen. Standout songs for me include "Whistle Down the Wind," "When Children Rule the World," "If Only," "Tire Tracks," "No Matter What," and "So Many Cries." I also enjoyed the sets and the staging...thought they were appropriate for the piece.

I also really enjoyed the ensemble of children. They were all so adorable and I could understand why they (along with Swallow) believed that The Man could be Jesus. The two main kids, Nadine Jacobson and Austin Zambito-Valente, were excellent too...the boy reminded me of Henry Hodges. I also enjoyed the performances by Dann Fink, Carole Denise Jones, and Matt Skrincosky.

Whitney Bashor was perfectly cast as Swallow. I loved her singing voice, her interpretation of the lyrics, her acting, her facial expressions, her interaction with Eric Kunze...I was extremely impressed. Eric Kunze has such an incredible singing voice. His big solo number in Act 2 was breathtaking and he got a lot of applause after that song. Also, his portrayal of The Man was wonderful. You hated him because he was posing as Jesus when you know he is really a common criminal, but you also felt bad for him because Swallow and the children care about him so much, and you can tell he has a soul and a warm heart somewhere inside him.

I am shocked that this tour was universally panned and very upset that this talented cast will be out of work as of February 17th. I know I was one of the few to enjoy this show, but I'm so glad I saw it. As soon as I got home from Philly, I ordered the cast recording on amazon. Congrats, to Eric, Whitney and the rest of the cast. I hope you all find work again very soon.

[EVIE]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 12:25pm

I was so looking forward to seeing this in SF, only because of Eric Kunze though. What a bummer!!

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 12:53pm

i did like some of the songs, WithoutATrace, i'll agree. but within this Haley Mills movie storyline, i was kind of bored by them. i got the cast recording at Virgin Times Square and find them to be better out of context.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 1:04pm

It's still coming to Norfolk, right? I already have my tickets.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 1:11pm

yes, it plays in norfolk 2/12-2/17 and then the tour is over. i hope you enjoy the show, tazber!!

[tazber]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 1:14pm

Thanks WOT! I actually really like the score. I have the album where the songs are covered by pop artists. Usually that's a recipe for disaster, but in this case it really works.
Bonnie Tyler does Tire Tracks And Broken Hearts, and Tom Jones does Vaults Of Heaven.
The big hit of course is Boyzone doing No Matter What.

[jacco]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 5:26pm

I saw the London production and have to admit it was a guilty pleasure. Trashy but FUN!

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 5:34pm

Saw this show in Philly. Thought the two stars were wonderful, the staging awful and so many of the songs reminded me of other ALW songs.