Whisper House (2022) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"If the show spends about 85 of its 90 minutes inclining toward tragedy, its creators have something gentler in mind. The ultimate theme of “Whisper House” is that we must love another or die, a comforting thesis in a moment that demands — in every auditorium — so much mutual faith and care. Then again, there are the paired, smirking ghosts to imply the contrary. Turns out you can love another and die."
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"Directed by Steve Cosson, Whisper House works fine when the living characters are given room to breathe; Mathis—with a clubfooted limp and an old New England accent—gives a simple, affecting performance at the story’s center. And Sheik’s moody music, whose emotional pull transcends the libretto, is rendered well by a six-person band led by Wiley DeWeese (who is also one of four people credited for the very fine orchestrations). But there’s only so far the show can travel when it’s chained to the dead weight of those two drowned specters. “Things are broke and way past mending,” they sing with typical gloom, and perhaps Sheik and Jarrow should heed their advice. They have done what they can to build Whisper House, but it may be time to give up the ghosts."
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"There’s only one shocking moment in Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow’s listless new musical Whisper House. Ideally, we would be spending more of the musical with our hearts in our throats (as opposed to our eyes on our watches): It’s supposedly a thriller, with two homicidal ghosts wafting around. But sadly there are no intentional scares in this show — neither the creeping, existential sort, nor the jump-at-a-loud-sound sort. Even the everyday horrors, the way that people disappoint each other, fail to raise a single goosebump. At one point, though, a character deliberately breaks a lovely prop, and the audience gasps. That object had value, you could hear everyone thinking, and he shouldn’t just chuck it around."
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"Luckily, Steve Cosson's lucid direction keeps the story on track and makes us eager for more, like campers around a fire. Lighting designers Jorge Arroyo and Jeff Croiter create a world of shadows for this gloomy New England setting. Sound designer Ken Travis not only engineers pristine sound balance (a difficult thing to do when the orchestra is elevated on the side of the house), but he simulates the boom of a realistic naval skirmish. He also creates the eerie whispers that haunt our protagonists."
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" In Sheik and Kyle Jarrow’s bleak, beguiling chamber musical Whisper House, two of the seven characters—the ones who open and close the show, and do the most singing in between—address the others, and the audience, from beyond the grave, and they’re among the most alluring and spiteful spirits you’re likely to have encountered."
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The songs which are mainly sung by Alex Boniello (usually with a guitar) and Molly Hager as the ghostly narrators are folk ballads which though lovely sound like a continuation of the same song. While the theme of racism against Asians is extremely timely, the treatment is wedded to the 1940’s and seems to be many years late. There is a great deal we do not learn about the characters which leaves holes in the plot. The tale is very derivative of earlier stories with the same tropes: haunted lighthouse (Thunder Rock), boy goes to live with strange relatives (The Grass Harp), malevolent ghosts, one male, one female (The Turn of the Screw), etc.
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"Overall, Whisper House is a sweet and simple story of acceptance in all its forms: accepting yourself, accepting those around you, accepting your circumstance, and giving yourself the generosity needed to continue to be a beacon of light for yourself and those around you. It’s running at 59E59 through February 6 and worth catching if you are able to."
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"Jarrow’s play takes very little time to effectively flush out the characters and create meaningful relationships between them. It’s a sharp, economical bit of writing and confirms him, after his stellar work on SpongeBob Squarepants, as an incomparable librettist. We meet Christopher, Lily, and Yasuhiro only at a time of upheaval. We don’t get to know them outside of this, but Jarrow still finds a way to show that there’s a lot more life under these dampened souls."
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