Whistle Down The Wind??- Page 2

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/8/15 at 10:47pm

Was this all set to go with the marquee up at the Martin Beck theatre (Al Hirschfeld)? It was originally planned to open on Broadway before the West End?

Yes and yes.

I don't know who wrote what, but I'm a huge Steinman fan and WHISTLE is one of the few ALW scores I don't find utterly annoying.

Steinman on lyrics, Webber on music. The misconception that Steinman may have been responsible for some of the melodies arose from a misunderstanding of an article around the time of the D.C. tryout which stated that 20% of the score was developed when Webber came to the project as opposed to being trunk tunes. Did Steinman have an influence? Yes. Did he write any of it? No.

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/8/15 at 10:55pm

Does anybody have a picture of the marquee at the Martin Beck?

I want to listen to the score, but at almost 2 hours, I find it too intimidating to start.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 8:18am

Fantod,

There's a lot of dialogue on the cast recording which is why it's 2 hours.

I highly recommend listening to the concept album first. It's the only concept album that I think is better than the cast recording.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 8:51am

I agree with tazber. The songs, divorced from their context, sound a lot better with individual production (highly recommended are Bonnie Tyler's "Tire Tracks" and Meat Loaf's "A Kiss..." to name two). I think that might be why the score has often gone down better with people than the show itself.

I'll amend my earlier statement: I would mix D.C. and London orchestrations and try to use some of the celebrity album (I still don't really think we can call that a concept album except in the most broad sense of the term) where appropriate.

Posted: 2/9/15 at 10:22am

I saw the show in D.C. and loved it. To me, it is one of ALW's better scores. I would love to see it get revived somewhere.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 10:37am

Saw the national tour many years ago. Remember liking it, but found too many dead end story lines for the ancillary characters. They need to drop the extra story lines or flesh out those characters and stories more. The central story is strong enough and nice songs. I think they wanted to add some lighter songs in the middle to break the tension of the main story line, but I think it weakens the show.

[smallvillefan16]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 1:20pm

I wish the cast recording took out all the dialogue.

It really suffers from that. I feel like most recordings should leave dialogue off unless it directly pertains to the song. They can included a plot summary for those who have never seen the show in the booklet.

[baal]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 1:33pm

Another great number off the concept album is Elaine Paige doing "If Only". Such a devastatingly gorgeous performance. I also think it's one of ALW's best ballads. It's such a simple melody and orchestration, but it still manages to have some amount of excitement in it.

Updated On: 2/9/15 at 01:33 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 1:43pm

I agree about the dialogue. I like having some as connective tissue, but there is just too much on this particular OCR.

And if I recall correctly the dialogue isn't separated as individual tracks so you can't skip over it.

[Anshel2]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 1:49pm

Didn't ALW plagiarize himself in WDTW, particular the tune of Capped Teeth & Caesar Salad?

[tazber]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 1:57pm

I recall hearing about that Anshel, but he does it all the time.

There's a thread on here where we all listed instances when he re-purposed some of his melodies.

One of the most obvious cases is his taking Our Kind of Love from Beautiful Game and using it for the title song in Love Never Dies.

Updated On: 2/9/15 at 01:57 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 2:15pm

"Didn't ALW plagiarize himself in WDTW"

Not only does he plagiarize himself but other people as well. That's why the Puccini Family sued him over the music in Phantom of the Opera.

And I think that's why everyone likes it so much because it sounds like Steinman music. The music sounds like a Bonnie Tyler power ballad.

But why did he choose to do songs in that style? The show was reimagined to take place in the American South, but uses none of the sounds of Southern music. No gospel or bluegrass or jazz influences.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 2:29pm

A lot of the Southern influences were stripped out of the orchestration after D.C. For example, "Tire Tracks..." had a fast Dixieland jazz sort of sound. "I Never Get What I Pray For," in the current version at least, has a bluegrass feel. There were some gospel overtones to "Wrestle With the Devil" and "Vaults of Heaven" as well.

That said, one has to remember, setting it in 1959 as they did, that they wanted to play with ideas like "the birth of the teenager" and the increasing encroachment of other rebel influences like James Dean, and rock and roll. Of necessity, they're gonna dwell on the rock stuff a bit, especially with Amos and Candy.

Updated On: 2/9/15 at 02:29 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 3:42pm

Don't forget Cold, which had that honky-tonk feel to it. Problem was, the song's only purpose was to cover set/costume changes. I do agree that stylistically, the score was all over the place. The Amos/Candy music did sound very 80s, which was a problem when other songs were hinting at the period or took on a more classic form.

It sorta reminds me of the London production of Peggy Sue Got Married. The score was a hybrid of 50s pastiche, 80s pop-rock (performed in the 50s scenes), contemporary musical theatre power ballad, and classic musical comedy (and a song called My Baby Has That New Car Smell that defies description).

Posted: 2/9/15 at 4:12pm

He probably did. Also, listen to the beginning of the theme song to "Jurassic Park" and compare it to "The Vaults of Heaven".

[tazber]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 4:29pm

^^^^
Hahaha! I never noticed that before, but you're right.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 5:24pm

Don't forget Cold, which had that honky-tonk feel to it. Problem was, the song's only purpose was to cover set/costume changes.

The iteration of it on the radio, yes. The other one was a fun number in a bar for a scene that sets up a) the fact that racism exists (which you wouldn't know from how Candy and Amos interact; the one key plot problem, aside from the reason the kids mistake the escaped convict for Jesus, is that re-casting Candy with a black performer in the move from D.C. to London created a historical inaccuracy of a black girl mixing freely with whites in the pre-Civil Rights-era Bible Belt), and b) that the town is beginning its manhunt for the escapee.

(Incidentally, I have a production concept that would eliminate the racial issue, but it's going to be roundly mocked by one I've blocked, so let's see if they can guess what my idea is.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 6:00pm

"Steinman recorded "Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts" with Bonnie Tyler for the "concept album" released before the London production, and I still can't believe that Jim didn't compose the melody.

And the Meat Loaf recording of A Kiss is A Terrible Thing To Waste is just incredible. "

Agreed on both counts except... The melody of Tire Tracks is in Song and Dance.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 6:33pm

We have proof that will make qolbinau wet their knickers.

"English Girls" (clip)

[JayG 2]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 6:42pm

I saw the London production and hated it. What a bore.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 6:42pm

That is my least favorite song in Song and Dance.

I love it in WDTW.

Go figure.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 6:52pm

Arrangement and lyrics are the whole key sometimes. "Tire Tracks..." is faster, and the lyrics convey a more interesting plot situation.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 7:54pm

"I never saw it. How did the set work? Why was it so dangerous?"

I saw the show in London. If I recall correctly, just as in the original production of SUNSET BOULEVARD, the entire set was on some sort of hydraulic lift that raised and lowered something akin to a highway exit ramp during various parts of the show. I tried Googling an image from the production, but I couldn't really find anything that conveyed what I'm trying to describe.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 7:58pm

The problem with WDTW is that it needed someone to stand up to ALW and say "Wrong!"

One of the biggest hits out of the show was Boyzone's "No Matter What." What a beautiful love song. So in going to see the show, you would hope that Swallow and Jesus would sing it to each other in a private moment. Or maybe a quiet moment between Candy and Amos. But when you see the show, you see the beautiful love duet being sung by a children's choir. The intimacy of that song was ruined because it's not a chorus number.

Can't you see Swallow singing "No Matter What" to Jesus in Act 1 and then Amos reprising it to Candy in Act 2? I am getting chill bumps right now thinking how good it could have been.

If I could have gotten my hands on this show, I could have dramaturged this thing into a hit.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/9/15 at 8:05pm

"If I recall correctly, just as in the original production of SUNSET BOULEVARD, the entire set was on some sort of hydraulic lift that raised and lowered something akin to a highway exit ramp during various parts of the show."

That's what I recall as well. That the road set rose up high, over the redneck bar perhaps?