Well, I wouldn't strictly call this a "revisal" because the show has never played Broadway before, but... I would supervise a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's
Whistle Down the Wind any day.
It's one of the ultimate fixer-uppers, right up there with
Candide and
Chess. There's a lot of potential for the idea to work, maybe more-so with audiences than critics, This touching and provocative show was such a flop after its world premiere in Washington, D.C. in 1996 that it was referred to as
Whistle Down the Drain. It underwent further revision for a successful West End run, and then became one of Bill Kenwright's perennial touring banalities in another version that was revised to ill effect, with a cutesy new song for the children (lyrics by Don Black) that jarringly clashed with the rest of the score and was wholly inappropriate to the characters. As of 2012, it is licensed worldwide in a script that returns to the original West End version, plus or minus a few changes made during the course of that run.
My production would take the best elements from every version and meld them carefully. For example, as maligned as the Washington production was, the designs by Andrew Jackness (sets) and Howell Binkley (lighting) were wonderful. Very simplistic, painterly images; a chamber piece rather than a Webber spectacle. Similarly, having heard the original Washington orchestrations, I do think using some of them in place of the London ones (for particular songs) might be an interesting way to go. Washington's orchestrations were of a more folk/Cajun feel, in contrast to the outright rock that the London production ended up with (the only hint of the Washington orchestrations were in the occasional use of an harmonica and an electric violin). I think using the more rock-orientated orchestrations in the Amos/Candy numbers, as well as those of The Man, would contrast with the more naive Swallow et al., whose numbers should be more folky (although as Swallow progresses through the plot her numbers become more influenced by the rock). I especially love the original Washington orchestration of "Cold" as sung in the bar - it sounds more like something that would have been played in such a dive at the time.
Also, in comparing the OLC to the currently licensed version, there are a few unnecessary trims to the script and score. I'd certainly like to restore elements of the missing material, just because I think it adds more depth, and explains a few moments that now come out of nowhere in the licensed version.
And then of course there's the racial issue. ALW had this hopelessly naive-sounding way of hand-waving the whole thing by saying that "The children would get on, black and white, but at a certain age the cut-off happened and they were segregated." While this is possibly true, casting Candy as a black female needlessly pins the race issue on the show, presumably in an attempt to comment on everything going on in Louisiana circa 1959. In the pre-Civil Rights-era Bible Belt, a black girl would not have intermingled with whites in the casual way the show presented. It seems such a shame that race is such an important issue in such a negative way, but it has to be confronted given the time and location the authors chose for the show, either in relegating black characters to background or by bringing them to the fore.
My solution to this problem is certainly not implausible for 1959 Louisiana: bring them to the fore by re-setting the show in a black community, with an all-black cast. As my company learned when investigating the potential of an all-black production of
Godspell in Harlem in the late Nineties, there is a genuine spark and sentiment in the black Christian community that one doesn't easily find elsewhere. Jesus is startlingly real to them, to be blunt and really brief about it. For that reason, I want to see what kind of impact
WDTW's plot would have if stripped of the racial prejudice angle that didn't do the London production (or any subsequent production) any favors.
What if black kids raised in the church, "washed in the blood," who've witnessed speaking in tongues and dancing with snakes and heard that Jesus lives and will send them to Hell if they don't believe in him their whole lives, discovered this guy in their barn? It takes only minor emendation of the script at best to keep the bulk of the show while jettisoning the unwelcome moments (for example, rather than race issues, it's puritanical views that keep Candy from flirting with Amos in the bright light of day -- certainly no stranger to this show, given the lines about sexual sin in "Wrestle With the Devil"; now there is no incongruity of Edward, a black man, singing "Cold" in a mostly white bar). Plus, just imagine the vocal power you gain for the hymn ("Vaults of Heaven") and the revivalist number ("Wrestle...") with an all-black cast.
Formerly gvendo2005
Broadway Legend
joined: 5/1/05
Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282, joevitus, BorisTomashevsky, Seb28
Updated On: 9/2/14 at 09:59 AM
