WHISPER HOUSE: Kyle's Blog

Grammy and Tony award-winning songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik returns with his new album WHISPER HOUSE, from Sony Music. WHISPER HOUSE marks Sheik's first solo album since 2006's critically-acclaimed White Limousine and comes on the heels of the success of Spring Awakening. WHISPER HOUSE, which will have its world premiere at the Old Globe Theatre in January 2010, is a collaboration with up-and-coming young playwright Kyle Jarrow, already an Obie winner for A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant.

It's 1942 - at the height of World War II- and Christopher, an imaginative young boy, is sent to live with an aunt he's never met: Lilly, a reclusive woman who serves as the keeper of a remote lighthouse. Not yet comfortable in his surroundings, Christopher begins to hear strange music no one else can hear seeping through the walls. It doesn't take long for him to suspect the lighthouse may be haunted, and these ghosts tell him that Yasujiro, a Japanese worker that Lilly has employed, should not be trusted. Is Christopher's imagination getting the best of him? Or are these ghosts warning Christopher about the very real dangers that lie ahead? Whisper House is a touching and beautiful story about how we should embrace, rather than fear, the unknown.

BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you Kyle's exclusive WHISPER HOUSE Blog!

Kyle's Blog - THE FINAL WHISPER HOUSE BLOG (For This Production, At Least...)

So... Whisper House opened at The Old Globe last Thursday! (Sorry I haven't written before this, but a movie of mine was premiering at Sundance so I flew there first thing last Friday morning. 6AM on Friday, to be exact. That was a rough morning, after the opening night partying the night before!)

The reviews are in, and have been overwhelmingly positive. The Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune both had very nice things to say about the show. Not only did they like it, but they really "got" what we were going for. They connected both to the themes we were trying to explore, and also to the fact that we're going for something a little different with this piece, stylistically. Charles McNulty wrote in the LA Times, "What excites me about the musical is the way it reaches for poetry." This is very flattering, but it's also true. With Whisper House, we're not aspiring to create bluster. We're aspiring to create a quiet, delicate, quirky show. Sometimes during the rehearsal process, I'll admit I regretted this fact-bluster is a lot easier to achieve than something quiet and delicate. But, ultimately, I'm proud that we've created a show that's subtle, as opposed to the loud ham-fisted spectacle of much commercial musical theater.

Now comes my favorite part of the run of a play: when the actors take it over. Peter Askin, Duncan Sheik, and I are all gone from San Diego now, as is the rest of the creative team. The piece is in the actor's hands, and as they run it-until closing on February 21-I know they'll dig deeper, discover new stuff, and make the whole thing richer and better.

With that, I'm signing off. You can keep following the show on tumblr, at http://whisperhouse.tumblr.com. And if you're in the San Diego area, or know anyone who is, I hope you'll send them to check out the show! Tickets can be purchased at http://www.theoldglobe.org.

Kyle Jarrow is a writer and musician based in New York City. He writes for the stage as well as film and television, and he plays in the bands The Fabulous Entourage and Super Mirage. He won the prestigious OBIE Award at age 24 for his Off-Broadway hit A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, which has subsequently been produced all over the country. Kyle's play Armless won the Overall Excellence Award at the New York International Fringe Festival. Other plays include Love Kills, Trigger, President Harding is a Rock Star, Rip Me Open (co-writer), Hostage Song (music & lyrics), Gorilla Man (script available from Samuel French), and the upcoming Big Money (with Nathan Leigh) and Whisper House (with Tony-winner Duncan Sheik, record now available from RCA/Victor).