WHISPER HOUSE at 59E59?

[josh147]

Posted: 1/17/22 at 12:28am

Has anyone had a chance to see the new staging of Whisper House at 59E59? Thoughts/reviews?

[sethepstein12]

Posted: 1/17/22 at 9:50am

I saw this yesterday afternoon. I think press was there. The person next to me and the person diagonally in front of me both had notepads and were writing throughout the show. 

I went in completely blind, and I liked it, but I didn't love it. Even though it was only 90 minutes, it felt a little long to me. There didn't really feel like there was much conflict until the second half, which led to a kind of dull first half. Once the conflict came, it became more interesting.

I enjoyed the music. Alex Boniello and James Yaegashi were the standouts to me. Yaegashi's character has a lot of layers and eventual mystery surrounding him, and he played it very well, to the point that I couldn't figure out the solution to the mystery until the end.

The scenic and lighting designs were wonderful. I think the space that it's in is perfect for it. The show takes place in a lighthouse, and I definitely got that feel from the space and scenic design. The sound design was also great. Boniello plays guitar throughout the show, in addition to the pit.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 1/17/22 at 7:30pm

I saw this in London. Being a fan of the score and his music for Spring Awakening, I went in with high hopes and was disappointed. Hopefully, they’ve made substantial changes. 

[josh147]

Posted: 1/18/22 at 1:29pm

I know that the entire book has been rewritten with Kyle Jarrow - I've never gotten to see the stage version (love the album), but am excited to see it when I'm out there at the end of Jan.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 1/19/22 at 1:41am

I agree with a lot of what sethepstein12 said, and while I wanted to like this, I just didn't find it very engaging.  The first few songs felt like they were focused more on creating an ambience rather than setting up the story and characters, which I don't necessarily fault them for, but at a running time of 90 minutes (or even shorter, as I think today's production was), that takes away a lot of the chance we have to get to know the people in the show.  This was probably the biggest flaw of the show for me, as I really didn't care overtly so about any of the characters because we never got a chance to know them (the slight exception being Mr. Yasuhiro who gets a full song to himself, though to be honest I can't quite recall what it was about).  Even the ghost characters who function somewhat as a Greek chorus have a backstory that's quickly glossed over by the sheriff and I wish we at least got to see them more as actual characters, seeing as they were the ones telling the story.

The plot when it does kick in feels almost a bit abrupt, since the beginning was so slow it felt a bit like we were suddenly hit with overlapping plot threads, though I'll say I definitely like the songs in the second half better as they seem a bit more plot-driven.  In particular, there's one that the ghosts sing probably entitled something like "What You Have to Do" (there's no song list in the program) that I found actually generated a bit of suspense.  The ending as well felt a little abrupt to me, and a little confusing on what the takeaway is supposed to be.  I think there's a lot of interesting things touched on in the piece but none are expanded to a point where they feel satisfying, and it seems to struggle between whether it wants to be seen as a ghost story or if it wants to deliver fully realized characters and events using the WWII time period.

I will say that I thought all the actors were fantastic, and I had a particular fondness for Samantha Mathis's Lily.  And I agree that the scenic design was beautifully done and the space used in a wonderful way.  The music in general was listenable if not memorable, and many of the songs sounded fairly similar to me with some slightly predictable lyrics, though I did appreciate the orchestrations (I always love a French horn in modern musical theater).