In 1996, a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical premiered at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. Directed by Harold Prince, “Whistle Down the Wind” featured a book by Patricia Knop with music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman. But the reaction wasn’t what the team had hoped. Negative criticism piled on for the script, mixed reception to the score muddied the waters, and the planned 1997 Broadway bow was canceled. To date, “Whistle” has never made it to the Main Stem.
Over the decades, “Whistle Down the Wind” has been reworked to varying degrees of success. A 1998 West End production, with Gale Edwards as co-book writer and director, earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Musical and ran for two and a half years — though critical reception was still tepid. A 2006 West End revival drew disdain, with critics calling the show “an overheated melodrama” and “hokey.” Yet, a 2022 actor-musician British production earned acclaim for its stripped-down aesthetic and interpretation of the material.
Collectively, this signals there is potential for “Whistle” to resonate widely with audiences and critics — if interpreted through a focused lens. Enter Deaf West Theatre Company.
Deaf West, under the leadership of artistic director DJ Kurs, had been meeting with the company that manages Lloyd Webber’s body of work, LW Entertainment, in recent years to see if a show in the Lloyd Webber catalog might be ripe for a Deaf West interpretation. Deaf West is known for its radically emotional treatments of musicals, like Broadway revivals of “Big River” and “Spring Awakening,” that employ casts of deaf and hearing actors, reinterpret character arcs accordingly and inject new layers into their stories. Its productions have posited: What might it mean for a young, white Huckleberry Finn to escape his abusive father alongside grown, Black Jim escaping slavery if Huck is deaf and Jim is hearing? What can audiences understand differently if Wendla and Moritz are deaf teens being left behind and out of conversations as they come of age?
Executives with LWE suggested Kurs consider “Whistle.” What unearthed lessons lie in this musical that could be excavated through a Deaf West interpretation? Kurs leapt at the property. In addition to mixing actors of different hearing abilities, Kurs was interested in mixing generations. The fact that “Whistle” includes child and adult roles appealed to him. LWE suggested now-Tony Award winner Bill Rauch, with whom they were collaborating on “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” as director. While Kurs is deaf, Rauch is hearing but is a SODA (Sibling of a Deaf Adult), so both share a personal connection to the deaf community and the musical’s material.
Ruthie Fierberg
Reframing the story
Set in 1950s Louisiana, “Whistle” opens with a young girl named Swallow sitting in church and mourning her mother’s death. Yet, in this town steeped in faith, the newly motherless Swallow feels more at home in the town barn. One day, in that cherished space of hers, she finds a man and believes he is Jesus. Meanwhile, the local news reports that a man has escaped a nearby prison, and the adults in the town are up in arms.
One of the greatest contentions about “Whistle”’s plot has been: How could Swallow believe a convict — who the whole town was looking for — was Jesus? But in this reimagining, it’s a realistic possibility. That believability begins with Swallow’s isolation.
