Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow’s tonally conflicted musical WHISPER HOUSE haunts 59E59 Theaters

• By drediman
• January 21, 2022
• No Comments

Last night, The Civilian’s production of Whisper House opened on the mainstage of 59E59 Theaters. Originally conceived by Keith Powell and featuring book and lyrics by Kyle Jarrow (who would go on to co-write SpongeBob SquarePants on Broadway), the musical was written in 2010 as pop songwriter turned musical theater composer Duncan Sheik’s follow up to the Tony-winning Spring Awakening. Set in 1942 in a haunted lighthouse located on the coast of Maine, the gothic chamber musical tells the story of a boy who is sent to live with his stoic aunt – who is the lighthouse’s keeper – and her mysterious Japanese employee and companion (shades of The Secret Garden and The Turn of the Screw are abound).

That the show is dominated by two vengeful and meddling Jazz Age spirits – who are given a good majority of the musical’s songs – is a curious quandary. Although the ghostly pair is nothing less than entertaining whenever they’re onstage, they conflict with the earnest gothic fabric of the rest of the show as they meddle with the affairs of the humans onstage, thereby quizzically moving the plot forward with their hijinks. The score throughout is vintage Duncan Sheik – moody and ethereal, both musically and lyrically. The orchestrations and sound design are particularly rich, especially for an intimate Off-Broadway show. If only the book scenes – which occasionally sag under the weight of their pregnant gothicness – displayed the same kind of texturing. As it stands, the impenetrable seriousness of the world of the living operates in stark contrast to the snarky, winkingly morose musical world of the ghosts.

The production has been directed by The Civilians’ Steve Cosson, who endeavors his best to blend the work’s tonally conflicted material. He does an admirable job of bringing depth and atmosphere to the show, which I’m sure was a particular challenge to achieve on the relatively cramped stage of 59E59 Theater (e.g., there is literally no wing space). As the musical’s spectral duo, Molly Hager and Alex Boniello are slyly seductive, and they have an apparently wicked good time in their song-heavy roles. Although the living humans in the show are only moderately developed, they’re nevertheless played with care by Samantha Mathis, James Yaegashi, Wyatt Cirbus, and Jeb Brown.

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WHISPER HOUSE
Off-Broadway, Musical
59E59 Theaters
1 hour, 30 minutes (with no intermission)
Through February 6