Why did Whistle Down the Wind Not Make it?

I love the cast recording. I also heard from someone who went to school with me that it was a really good show. I have clue why didn't make it.

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i really wish it would of came to broadway..would of love to have seen it..love the music!!

Nope. I have no clue. I don't think it did too well over in England, did it?

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I am pretty sure it did very poorly in England and that is why it did not transfer to Broadway. But it has an amazing score........most def.

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I never saw the show but I have the cast recording. I felt the score was hit or miss. There were 3 legitimate hits in the score (Vaults of Heaven, Whistle.. and No Matter What) but some of the other songs were really blah. Wasn't Sunset Blvd (financially speaking) the biggest Broadway flop of all time? Yes, yes, yes, I know it ran for a while, lots of people saw it, it won lots of Tonys but it lost a ton of money too. Maybe ALW didn't want to open another show in NY unless he felt it would be a smash hit? Maybe the receptions from the audience on its short-lived tour weren't so great and ALW and Co. feared another lukewarm response? I remember the critics were pretty harsh on Davis Gaines. I can't remember what they thought of the show in general. It's strange that they haven't released the amateur rights to the show yet. Maybe hope for a NY opening isn't all lost?

Updated On: 9/8/04 at 08:56 PM

The set was a basic hydrolic lift?

I remember reading that "Sunset" almost bankrupted ALW's production company. While it ran for some time, it was a very expensive production which apparently couldn't even break even unless it was nearly sold out week after week. Once Glenn Close left, the box office slipped and it started to hemorrhage money (even though some of her replacements were more accaimed in the role, they didn't sell tickets). You're probably right that ALW feared another box office flop in New York would hurt his reputation, so perhaps he's the one who pulled the plug on the show.

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Marcus Lovett who played "The Man" had some interesting insight on this, but I would decline on comments. I did not get to see this show but have some clips of him in the role. I do have the really cool big souvenier program with the pocket inserts. Guess some things are not meant to happen.

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Updated On: 9/8/04 at 10:59 PM

Well, speaking as Steinman expert, it was initially conceived as a movie. After the Sydmonton reading in 1995, it was decided to make it a stage-play. This was going to be directed by Gale Edwards, who did the original and superior Australian production of The Boy From Oz (which, incidentally, sold on the basis of all its facets and not just one name). But when Hal Prince saw the reading, he urged to direct the show in her stead and make it a lavish Broadway premiere. Gale was replaced (typically) and a date was announced for April '97 (same year as the dreaded Capeman) with a December try-out in Washington. The production failed on the merit of its music, the songs being in the wrong places in the telling of the story, and the lack of integrity and depth of the characters. Steinman, himself, said that 80% of the production sucked, and Lloyd Webber was a less than impressed. He wanted to save the show, because he knew it would fail. If it had failed to everyone else, including him and the the creative team, then there was no point in investing a Broadway run. So they re-mounted it, revised and improved the score and storyline. Hal Prince was replaced in favour of the original director, because he had taken the storyline and tried to make it into a blockbuster. Unlike his genious work for Phantom and Evita, and Sondheim, this was one of his rare failures in conception and execution. Gale Edwards was brought back, without the showmanship of Prince, and it was remounted at the Aldwych in London. It was a tremendous success, and scored Lloyd Webber the single of the year with NO MATTER WHAT. I remember it, personally, as being a major event and critically-praised masterpiece. Problem was, with a modest director like Edwards, they would have needed Prince for the Broadway version. Unfortunately, with the blood under the bridge with those severed ties, it would never happen. Edwards just didn't have the power or the means to mount the Broadway show. Furthermore, for a London tour, to cap off the Aldwych production, Steinman and Lloyd Webber cut their ties over re-writes. They were working on another project at a time. (In the past, Steinman had almost written lyrics for Phantom). Steinman went on to open the cult German opera Tanz der Vampire, which was later slaughtered in Broadway by Michael Crawford and company, and he's allegedly been working on Batman the Musical. Edwards is back in Australia, and Lloyd Webber etc.

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I saw this show in London, and I wasn't that pleased. It was ok, but there was not enough momentum at the end of Act 1. Margo is right in that after it played DC, nobody thought it should continue. But there were advertisements that had been placed in NYC, so there had been plans to bring it to Broadway.

The show that the musical is based on is a sleeper movie starring Haley Mills. It doesn't have enough punch to make a Broadway musical. ALW was also criticized for taking it out of its original context (England) and placing it in the American South.

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Updated On: 9/9/04 at 08:42 AM

It opened at the National Theater in DC and Davis Gaines played the man. It got terrible reviews here and there were stories at the time about Prince and Lloyd Webber disagreeing about what to do to fix things.

Because it effin' sucks! Watched in London, grew up in the South, Webber is a musical moron. Die Webber!