That's (Not) Entertainment
by Sylvia S. Cutler
December 27, 1996

Whistle Down the Wind at the National Theatre, Washington

What are the ingredients for a successful musical? Judging from Andrew Lloyd Webber's credentials, it very much depends on what's box office at the moment. Judging from the success of his Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard and the continuing success of Les Miserables, you can take any collection of somber ingredients, throw them into a cauldron, give them a quick mix and very glossy presentation, and you've got Mickey Rooney--let's put on a show!

Whistle Down the Wind has a farm in Louisiana, poverty, evangelism, a runaway criminal with bloody hands and feet, children without a mother, a drunken father, bigotry, boredom, a dangerous motorcycle ride, a revival, and a bleak countryside. It even has a plot, somewhat. But it's the dark side of life, without humor, without a shred of happiness, and no light to pierce the darkness.

What it also has is a gaggle of adorable children, a delightful 17-year-old with the voice of an angel (Irene Molloy), and Davis Gaines playing the sultry runaway convict and also a voice to shatter one's bones.

It has ingenious sets, special effects that deserve a rave in themselves--that train hurtling across a scrim is a case in point--and music, of a sort.

It also has body mikes that pick up the children's voices as screeches, and a story line that might be termed fantasy or pure ennui (pick one).

The tale of a group of youngsters finding a man in their barn with wounds in his hands and feet whom they think is Jesus and building an entire fantasy around the fugitive, and the kittens they try to save is just not enough plot to make you pay the steep price for a ticket; is it?

There is not one song you can sing; not one song you will remember. Only one song impressed this reviewer--"No Matter What."

One hears that this show has been rewritten three times since it's been in Washington, and it's heading for New York. The New York sophisticates who "see all the shows" may find the Southern bigotry appalling, and the cornpone naivete' of the fifties a bit much.

It's a show that may stand on its own (after all, didn't Man of LaMancha win audiences and awards?). But on the other hand, that show had "songs"!