WHISPER HOUSE
Oh for the days when musicals were actually constructed, the music revealing character, insight and advancing the plot, WHISPER HOUSE, Duncan Sheik’s (Spring Awakening) new musical having it’s premiere at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, has none of this, it just seems like laziness.
There’s a maudlin story set inside a lighthouse on the New England coast in the 1940’s involving a spinster, an orphan and a Japanese man (what a Japanese man is doing unnoticed on the brink of World War is anyone’s guess). The characters are all stereotypes and not one sings.
It’s revealed that a decade or so earlier there was a shipwreck because the lighthouse was not illuminated. Nine musicians drowned, but for an unknown reason only two are now ghosts and haunting the lighthouse, supposedly if they kill someone they will be set free, but they never even try, they just sing. These two punk ghosts randomly walk around the set throughout scenes making faces and moving objects. Only the orphan boy can sometimes see them, why him and why only sometimes, who knows. Then at any given moment they pick up instruments and sing bland contemporary pop songs. The songs don’t reveal character development or move the story along and just showing projections on a scrim behind them during these songs doesn’t cover up that nothing is happening. Mr. Sheik, this is an album concept, have a concert, this isn’t musical theatre.
WHISPER HOUSE makes one appreciate the stage craft of SPRING AWAKENING even more. The theatricality of the combined staging, colorful moody lighting, exciting choreography, youthful cast & teen angst captured as part rock concert of the contemporary score. None of which is apparent here.
The cast is across the board adequate. Celeste Ciulla who has replaced Mare Winningham midway through the run just seems like the understudy. The two ghostly singers, David Poe & Holly Brook, are quite good but the music is repetitive and unmemorable.
There’s nothing haunting in WHISPER HOUSE, but you might die of boredom.
posted by RSrichie @ 12:17 AM
2 Comments:
I have to respectfully disagree with most of this review. Ironically, its tone is reminiscent of some of the first ink spilled about "Spring Awakening," Duncan Sheik's last musical, which went on to garner 8 Tony Awards and introduce an entire new generation to the musical theater genre. The old guard tends to despise the kinds of innovation much in evidence in "Whisper House," a shotgun wedding of anti-war drama, rock concert and film.
The economy and subtlety of the story and its characters are decidely not the stuff of old school musical theater -- just as well, since audiences for this wonderful but dated genre seem nearly dead. Because new approaches to the American musical are introducing younger audiences to the theater in a way that corporate crap and revivals, however well-meaning, cannot, shows like Spring Awakening and Whisper House (and other more contemporary-minded new musicals like American Idiot) are important.
Please allow me to clarify a few key points:
- Yes, only the kid sees the ghosts. Y'know, like Poltergeist. We never know whether they're actually "real" or not, as they might be like figments of the boy's imagination, haunted by the death of his father and his crazy mother.
- The entire band of ghosts is literally onstage, playing music, for the duration of the show. They are a band that drowned. The band's two ghost singers sing; the actors act. No one improbably breaking into song and singing exposition here -- the songs just commit fully to the mood and theme of the piece, tropes be damned! And that is why Whisper House, like its predecessor, seems to appeal more to contemporary music listeners than fans of "Gypsy."
- The story is a comment on terrorism, racism and the culture of fear through the lens of a Japanese character about to enter an American internment camp in WWII, but it just as easily could have been a post-9/11 story in which the young boy loses his pilot father in Iraq or Afghanistan.
- Whisper House's message is pretty clear, and laid bare at the end: essentially, one should embrace the unknown and not allow the fear of it to make one foolish.
Thanks for your thoughtful & articulate opinion, I love discussing theatre thoughtfully. Hey, I'm all for contemporary, cutting edge, boundary breaking theatre, my favorite kind, but in my opinion Whisper House wasn't that. I thought Spring Awakening did exactly that because it was well constructed & directed. I feel the conventions here were trite & not thought out. There was nothing haunting in the music or in the ghosts actions, a much needed aspect to keep the show interesting. I wasn't judging it in the same vein as Gypsy, obviously but there are comparable shows that are far better an executed concept. Hedwig, The Black Rider, Tommy, American Idiot, The Times They Are A Changin', Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar all broke new ground and worked because they had more sophisticated construction. Whisper House seemed like a lazy concept, maybe they needed underscoring during the scenes with specific themes for the ghosts & characters, having a haunting chorus echoing haunting the lighthouse, anything, not just singing un-poingant songs. Whether the ghosts are real or not, they're there and they must be pivotal or don't bother. I'm sorry the message isn't clear and there's not enough at stake on stage to keep us interested, just the tepid response of the audience proved that, it's rare that I don't see a standing ovation at this theatre and this only got maybe 1/3 of one. Not a good sign. But this is just my opinion and that's what makes good drama, differences of opinion, we can agree to disagree (respectfully on both sides). But I enjoyed reading your smart take on the show. You got many things out of it that I clearly didn't.
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