Whistle Down The Wind (not the ALW version) - Union Theatre

I was listening to some of the score today, as i've not played it in years. It's a real mix of song styles and some work better than others, but some of it is very Jim Steinman. Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts is still a guilty pleasure. It's so bad i love it.

Reading Gerald Schonefeld autobiography who was one half of the Shubert's theatre organisation with Bernard Jacobs the other half, they both loved British 'super-musicals' and made a lot of money from them.

However Gerald had quite a torrid time convincing the producers of Big to close at their flagship Shubert theatre, but the producers saw sense as losing so much each week wasn't healthy. They had a new show lined up to go in, which happened to be Whistle Down the Wind, which we know didn't happen after that terrible and fatal Washington try out.

I love the score and is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's underrated score, the song 'Unsettled Score' is just breath-taking, Kenwright's production cut this glorious song. One of the last songs 'Nature of the Beast' is dark, chilling and awesome, excellent trade off between the man and swallow. Also the title song has me humming, especially sung by Tina Arena.

The title song is a complete earworm and difficult to shake once I think about it. Like I am now.... ugh.

No Matter What I could happily never hear again!

Oh couldn't agree more. The ALW/Cullen in-show arrangement was epic and with the amazing split level staging was one of the best Act 1 closers in the West End. Defying Gravity eat your heart out. It couldn't have been more different from the Boyzone cover. 

Kenwright really made this show worse sadly. Remember reading in the programme when it was at The Palace that he loved the story and had asked ALW if he could add rewrites and "bring the story out more." ALW said yes. Kenwright added dialogue and made it longer. IMHO no ALW show needs more dialogue - in fact frankly I would remove most of it. Plus the cheap staging and horrendous choreography it didn't work for me. 

But respect for Uncle Bill I guess - reading his notes, he clearly did find the story genuinely moving and thought it was lost in the original staging. (Although it's funny how he thinks EVERY story is better with 'simple' (aka cheap) staging)
It's not something I often feel - I tend to get more emotional the bigger the staging. 

ALW and Bill must be very close. ALW is so obsessed with quality and yet time and again he lets Bill take out these cheap tours. Not sure why. 
Wish he would treat the UK touring scene with more respect like Cam Mac. Is no coincidence that Phantom and Cats are the only ALW shows that keep touring in versions related to the originals....

ANYWAY, I digress. This thread is gonna look daft as the Hello Dolly one if we are talking about the wrong Whistle. 
When will we find out what The Union are actually doing?

Well if it's not the ALW, the Union are going to wish it was! Judging by this thread, there's certainly an appetite for it.

Is it the Hello Dolly version,then?

Well that saves me some money then!

Not sure how long its been up but it has now appeared on the website

www.uniontheatre.biz/whistle-down-the-wind.html

Music and Lyrics by Richard Taylor - never heard of him ?

Neither have I.

Just to answer some of the previous posters, I was in this myself many years ago so know it fairly well.

It's very different to the ALW version. It puts the action in England (Yorkshire I think) and that makes for a very different piece, and is obviously less commercial. It stays far truer to the original film. I am very biased as I loved being in it, but I think it's a great musical. The score is lovely, although less catchy than ALW's.

I met Richard Taylor at a workshop years ago. He's written quite a lot including Flowers for Mrs Harris (Chichester and Sheffield) and The Go Between (which had a West end run a couple of years ago). If I was in London soon I'd love to check this out.

What’s the location for the ALW version?