Deaf West Revival of Whistle Down the Wind

https://playbill.com/article/deaf-west-is-working-on-a-rare-revival-of-andrew-lloyd-webber-and-jim-steinmans-whistle-down-the-wind

I used to be obsessed with the concept album for this musical, and then confused by the cast album, but i am thrilled it's getting a new chance.

I figured this show was dead as a door nail after the tour folded, and that's been almost 20 years. I'm glad to see it's showing signs of life!

This isn't the top ALW show I'd love to see come (or come back) to NYC - that would be Aspects of Love - but it's a solid second. It's a strange but affecting story with a few soaring, high-energy songs and a few lovely ballads, too (though there's some filler mixed in there for sure).

kdogg36 said: "I figured this show was dead as a door nail after the tour folded, and that's been almost 20 years. I'm glad to see it's showing signs of life!

This isn't the top ALW show I'd love to see come (or come back) to NYC- that would beAspects of Love- but it's a solid second. It's a strange but affecting story with a fewsoaring, high-energy songs and a few lovely ballads, too (though there's some filler mixed in there for sure)."

Score wise, I'm with you Kdogg-- Aspects was my first broadway show, my first ALW musical and I know practically every note of that score... which I had always hoped would somehow be able to be revived or rather revised. Seeing and listening to a boot of the recent London revival practically killed those hopes for me. The story seemed even worse than I remembered (and the vanity project of moving Love Changes Everything to George so Michael Ball would sing it in place of "A Memory of a Happy Moment" definitely was a major mis-step) It saddens me that Aspects probably can't find a new life.

But Whistle down the wind, I've always felt there's enough of a strong enough story there (and a terrific score) that with the right hands it might finally click. The innocence/naivete - faith/redemption arcs there, there's a compelling and interesting story. I'm curious if introducing this element of "deaf-casting" might be the thing to make the innocence and vulnerability among the characters compelling enough to make the rest of the narrative work or not. Poughkepsie's not too far away that I'm aiming to go to see this.

Kind of interesting it's only 3 performances. Could ALW be looking at this as a workshop for a full revival or first Brodway production?

By the way, I hope someone with decision-making power is reading this thread, because they need to know this: you cannot have a character, who is intended to be perceived as good, try to drown a bag of kittens at the beginning of the show.

kdogg36 said: "By the way, I hope someonewith decision-making power is reading this thread, because they need to know this:you cannot have a character, who is intended to be perceived as good, try to drown a bag of kittens at the beginning of the show."

I don't think that The Man is meant to be perceived as "good". IMO, the plot works better if we understand just how "bad" The Man is.

I've always thought that, via the innocence of the children's (Christ-like) belief, the audience could perceive The Man as worthy of transformation/redemption, or or at least forgiveness of past transgressions.

Updated On: 4/14/26 at 08:52 AM

John Adams said: "kdogg36 said: "By the way, I hope someonewith decision-making power is reading this thread, because they need to know this:you cannot have a character, who is intended to be perceived as good, try to drown a bag of kittens at the beginning of the show."

I don't think that The Man is meant to be perceived as "good". IMO, the plot works better if we understand just how "bad" The Man is.

I've always thought that, via the innocence of the children's (Christ-like) belief, the audience could perceive The Man as worthy of transformation/redemption, or or at least forgiveness of past transgressions."

My bad.... I decided to give the OLC album a re-listen. I was wrong. It's Eddie (one of the farm workers - not The Man) who attempts to drown the kittens.

I'm just sayin', I had a way simpler pitch: cast it largely black, maybe make Ed a white character like Celia in The Help, futz with the book and score a bit (the book will never be perfect, but it can be slightly better than it is purely by restoring some deleted material, and I have an edit of my own to prove it; score, well, that's solved by pulling from the D.C. tryout and the celebrity concept album to restore "authenticity" and jazz it up a titch), stick it on the inspirational theater circuit.

Even if it never played Broadway, it could tour for years to Tyler Perry audiences like Kenwright's in the UK provinces, make ALW a nice side income to add to his Scrooge McDuck-level earnings from Literally Everything Else, and everyone goes home happy. But no, he had to listen to the first schmuck to come along with An Angle...

Updated On: 4/14/26 at 01:35 PM

Well, to quote a mad scientist from a recent revival, I didn't make him for you.

kdogg36 said: "I figured this show was dead as a door nail after the tour folded, and that's been almost 20 years. I'm glad to see it's showing signs of life!

This isn't the top ALW show I'd love to see come (or come back) to NYC- that would beAspects of Love- but it's a solid second. It's a strange but affecting story with a fewsoaring, high-energy songs and a few lovely ballads, too (though there's some filler mixed in there for sure)."

*

I LOVE Aspects, but I think the London revival showed that audiences (and critics) just can't deal with the material right now.

I saw Whistle Down the Wind in Gale Edwards' London production shortly after it had opened. I had followed the new of the ill fated Hal Prince Broadway production, and was in London on my first trip and assumed it would be the chance to see an infamous flop--and, I admit, kinda loved it (low expectations might have helped, but...) It's too bad that the show was made more family friendly for the subsequent budget tour (not based on the Edwards production) and that's what then unsuccessfully toured the US. I have heard from a big fan of the show that recently the licensed version has mostly cut all of that, and returned to the London text, so I guess we'll see.

*edit* I see that others have discussed how the Kenwright tour (which for a while was the licensed version) made a number of poor changes... I should have guessed g.d.e.l.g.i. would chime in, who is an authority on the show.

Updated On: 4/14/26 at 05:02 PM

carolinaguy said: "The article indicates this will be faithful to the 1996 production. Maybe a new directorial vision will help, but that show at the National back in '96 was one of the dullest evenings I ever spent in a theater."

It also says: " The work features music by Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Steinman, and a book by Patricia Knop, Gale Edwards, and Lloyd Webber. " Gale Edwards' revisions didn't happen until her successful production for London in 1998, so I think the article is just going back to 1996 when they think of the original production? The Hal Prince version (complete with more dialogue) has never been licensed or performed since.

You have to take your ALW discount on this - meaning he speaks out of all corners of his mouth - but I do remember an interview in the last decade or so where ALW talked about WDTW (this was post West End run and one of the Kenwright tours) where he said he regretted that the Hal Prince version ended so abruptly and that he often thought that there were elements there that would've made the whole work better than what eventually played in London. Having seen the boot on youtube, I enjoyed the performances, but could see where it was dragging a bit with some of the dialogue. I was frustrated when Hal Prince was interviewed in London at ALW's "The Other Palace" that they never discussed this. Would've loved to have heard Hal's thoughts on the show - what he would've liked to have done differently. We have to remember that when it closed in DC that was a particularly troubled time for ALW's production company. They were bleeding money like crazy - with pretty much every production of Sunset shuttering at the same time at losses. He most definitely wasn't in the creative space to be working and re-working things as they had intended with this being an out-of-town tryout.

I'm more and more curious with all this discussion though what score will be used this summer. As others have pointed out - ALW loves to recycle. And for me - Tire Tracks is a much better usage of the melody than "English Girls" , But it's interesting, "If Only" had been a part of a planned Aspects movie (Chanson d'enfance) and in the recent revival he did pillage it for that very thing. I'm wondering since the revival came and went did If only go back to WDTW? Or the new songs he wrote for the Kenwright tour if they'll be used.

I'm gratified to see such a vigorous discussion about this show. It's not in my top-five or anything like that, but it has a special place in my musical-theater heart. I saw the original production at the National Theater, which I don't remember that well but I know that I liked very much, as well as the US tour in Philadelphia about twenty years ago. Unfortunately I didn't see Gale Edwards' London production, which has to be regarded as definitive, though of course I'm familiar with the cast recording.

I'm going to put a handful of thoughts into this post that respond to various things you've all said on this thread, or else they're just my random thoughts.

I suspect that Jim Steinman contributed to more than the lyrics of "A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste."

I am an ALW fan, for sure. I've been a Sondheim acolyte since I was about 21, but I was a major ALW admirer several years before that, and I remain one. I don't think they're mutually contradictory. If Hal Prince didn't have to choose between them, then neither do I! (I know no one here suggested that I had to make such a choice.) I've heard before the suggestion that ALW and Sondheim alternate on Broadway - when one is up, the other is down - and it certainly seems like we're in an ALW renaissance amidst a slight Sondheim lull. I doubt that will last very long.

Finally, I want to add an idiosyncratic note: I hope there's a live horn player in the orchestra. Those melodic runs in the climax of "A Kiss..." are really thrilling.

John Adams said: "This was before he recycled "Our Kind of Love" from The Beautiful Game (which I also saw on that trip) into "Love Never Dies".Other songs are also very reminiscent of ALW's scores."

Just as a point of information, the main tune you refer to was first written for the song "The Heart Is Slow To Learn" for an earlier, abortive attempt at a sequel to Phantom. Then it was trimmed down for The Beautiful Game (shorn of its lovely verses) before coming back again for Love Never Dies.

I completely agree that it's inappropriate to recycle material from a successful show. It's one thing to use the bridge from "Half A Moment," in the original megaflop Jeeves, in "As If We Never Said Goodbye" - quite another to reuse a song from a relatively long-running Tony-winning show like Song and Dance. And frankly I think it was better used in Song and Dance.