Whistle Down The Wind
Whistle Down The Wind
PUPPETMAN
Understudy Joined: 12/28/07
#1Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/1/08 at 12:04pm
Has anyone seen the touring production of WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND?
How was it?
#2re: Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/1/08 at 12:06pmhttps://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?page=3&thread=955955&boardid=1
Walcer
Understudy Joined: 12/19/06
#2re: Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/1/08 at 12:18pmhttps://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&thread=952984#3422557
PUPPETMAN
Understudy Joined: 12/28/07
#3re: Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/1/08 at 12:25pmSorry to ask a question already answered. I joined the board late.
#4re: Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/1/08 at 1:08pm
oh no. I am just answering your question. I copy and paste it bec. Stanley3 reviewed it -not me. I hope youre not thinking were trying to be mean..that's the last thing I want to do is to be mean & rude to new people who just joined the board. Its not nice and people here are usually uncomfortable with that situation including myself.
I have not seen the show yet. I will see it tonite. I will let you know...on the left side of your screen there's a mail box.. I will pm you( what i think about the show) and you will see 1 (in red) that's when you know you have mail...
I might post a review- I still cant decide bec. I will see three shows this weekend and I might not have time to do it all. I'll let you know either way.
btw- welcome to bww 
J*
Updated On: 2/1/08 at 01:08 PM
TheatreDiva90016
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#5re: Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/1/08 at 1:33pm
Puppetman?
Are you just ASKING for it?
Why not just use the name SOCKPUPPET?
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2
SakeDad
Featured Actor Joined: 6/26/06
#6re: Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/1/08 at 7:00pm
There's a very funny review in The Boston Globe today.
Globe WDTW Review
"God, I hope it's not a REAL emergency...I only brought one bottle of Vodka!"
That's my Diva Dog, Sake in the picture.
#7re: Whistle Down The Wind
Posted: 2/3/08 at 1:04pm
Well at least I am not the only reviewer who thought it was garbage... Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Lloyd Webber cheese breaks ‘Wind’
By Jenna Scherer
Saturday, February 2, 2008
If you could muster half the people who turn out to the Wang Theatre
to see an utter piece of garbage like “Whistle Down the Wind” to
catch a local fringe show instead, Boston would have a much healthier
theater community. That would be a miracle.
But, as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical proves, miracles these days
only come in canned varieties. When “Whistle Down the Wind” premiered
in 1996, it received such awful reviews that a planned move to
Broadway was canceled. A couple of runs on London’s West End later,
this doozy of a neo-Christian fable has risen from its tomb to tour
North America.
“Whistle” is an adaptation of Bryan Forbes’ 1961 film of the same
name, with several senseless plot changes. The action gets moved from
Northern England to rural Louisiana in the 1950s, and the story’s
conclusion has been violently Lloyd Webber-ized.
After the most boring opening number I’ve ever seen, we meet Swallow
(Whitney Bashor), a sugary-sweet teenage farm girl, who - after a few
pointless songs - stumbles upon an escaped convict (Eric Kunze)
hiding in her father’s barn. She concludes he’s Jesus, and pulls her
kid brother and sister (Austin J. Zambito-Valente and Nadine
Jacobson) into her delusion. Before long, they’re singing cutesy
songs of praise to the bewildered runaway.
Meanwhile, matters among the stereotypical townsfolk touch upon
racism, poverty and James Dean, though these subplots are
inexplicably abandoned.
Though he’s always been the king of musical theater mediocrity, here
Lloyd Webber is just plain bad. “Whistle’s” score borrows from a
variety of styles - rockabilly, spirituals, synth-pop - and do none
of them justice. The lyrics by Jim Steinman (who penned Meat Loaf’s
biggest hits) are dumb as a log.
Bill Kenwright’s direction leaves the actors bereft, standing stock-
still or wandering upstage for no apparent reason. Henry Metcalfe’s
choreography looks like Pilates exercises. I can only hope this
production’s two talented, charismatic leads, Bashor and Kunze,
someday find better vehicles.
Worse than any bland melody, however, is “Whistle’s” facile morality.
We’re meant to admire Swallow’s unwavering faith that an unconvincing
con man is the son of God. But she comes across as deeply,
dangerously stupid. Uneven and badly executed though the story is,
there’s no confusing what it champions: stasis, chastity and willful
ignorance.
Updated On: 2/3/08 at 01:04 PM
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
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