Whistle Down The Wind – Opera House, Manchester

Music: Andrew Lloyd-Webber

Lyrics: Jim Steinman

Book: Patricia Knopp & Gale Edwards

Director: Bill Kenwright

Reviewer: John Roberts

The Public Reviews Rating:

‘The Lord’ as he has been affectionately named in recent years, may be getting mixed reviews for his latest production to open in the West End, but one thing the critics unanimously agreed on was his score for Whistle Down the Wind written in co-operation with the man behind Meatloaf’s songs Jim Steinman, is simply one of his most touching and heartfelt of all his pieces.

This isn’t a tour of the original West End production though and like the current tour of Joseph, Bill Kenwright revives his own personal and heavily revised take on the musical with classically trained singer and ex member of G4, Jonathan Ansell taking on the lead role of the escaped convict.

Having been relocated from the Lancashire Hills to the deep south of America, Whistle Down the Wind has a much stronger context to place the story. Not only do the characters ring more truthfully than the touching but rather twee film, but the weighting of a racially conflicted society helps anchor the piece in a much stronger way. The Man (an escaped convict) hiding in a barn is found by a group of children, who through a misinterpretation believe he is Jesus Christ and befriend the ‘Dangerously Criminal’ man, what follows is a story of passion, trust and judgement seen through the eyes of innocents.

It is a pity that this production does not live up to expectations, this is a production that has so much promise but fails to deliver the punch or weight that it justly deserves, this is partly down to the casting and direction.

Kenwright’s direction of Whistle Down the Wind is perhaps his weakest of any of his current tours and feels rather rushed and flat. Likewise some of his leads are heavily miscast, Carl Stallwood as Amos should be powerful and menacing with a tough guy edge instead we are unfortunately given a performance that is a weak rendition of a bad John Travolta in Grease and his vocals weren’t up to standards expected either, giving a flat and severely out of tune renditions of ‘Lets Make A Promise’ & ‘A Kiss is A Terrible Thing to Waste.’ Aaron Shirley as the Sheriff, looked rather uncomfortable on the stage and his two dimensional and rather stereotyped performance lacked and real presence or effort, and don’t even get me started on a Number 1 tour having the children of the cast mime along to a backing track for several of the shows more famous numbers, (notable when a girl of 6 sings like a 40 a day male smoker) at over £30 for a top price ticket, this is almost unforgivable…however the children all give pleasing performances and clearly enjoy their moment in the spotlight.

All is not lost though there are several redeeming features that lift the show from the fiery depths of musical theatre hell. A stunning set of wood barns and beams designed by Paul Farnsworth helps the show move swiftly from scene to scene. Jonathan Ansell gives a pleasing performance as The Man, he has clearly worked hard in the gym showing off his new strong and muscular frame which suits the role very well, he also gives a strong vocal performance and his rendition of ‘Try Not To Be Afraid’ was out of this world, however his performance could be enhanced considerably by spending more time with vocal coach and working on his accent. Carly Bawden as Swallow gives a consummate performance; this is a young performer who clearly knows how to carry a show on her shoulders, a name to look out for in future years.

But as the song title refers this is a show ‘When Children Rule the World’ nine year old Toby Smith as Poor Baby and twelve year old Alicia Kemp actually give the older professionals a run for their money. Smith has bags of charm for such a young performer and shows great comic ability whilst Kemp brings a soft and gentle performance and her smile is a strong and as clear as the bags of talent she shows throughout.

Overall, Whistle Down the Wind’s true star is still Lloyd Webber’s and Steinman’s strong music and despite several outstanding performances from the leads, the show never really wows but instead leaves you feeling rather underwhelmed and quite frankly disappointed.