Theater: “Whisper House” at 59 e 59
March 12, 2020 is a date most theatergoers will remember. That was the night nearly all Broadway and non-Broadway went dark—hoping the pandemic that was beginning would be short-lived. As we all know, ‘twas not to be.
It was on that same March 12 that 59 e 59 was supposed to stage the first-night preview for the Civilian Company’s “Whisper House,” a new musical with book and lyrics by Kyle Jarrow and music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik. Tonight, January 11, 2022, we were in the audience at the actual first-night preview. Lucky us.
The setting of “Whisper House” is Maine, 1942. The tensions, running high—both on a global level (WW II) and a personal one. Young Christopher (the spectacularly talented Wyatt Cirbus), recently orphaned, is sent to live with his late father’s sister Lily (Samantha Mathis), a crusty old New Englander who operates and lives inside the town’s lighthouse. Neither is happy with the new living situation.
Lily, we come to learn, is assisted in her lighthouse-keeping duties by a Japanese Guy-Friday, Mr. Yasuhiro (James Yaegashi). Given this is wartime, he suddenly comes under suspicion as a resident alien (as this is the era of the infamous internment camps.)
Adding to these tensions is the rumor that the lighthouse is haunted—by ghosts. Dressed in Roaring Twenties finery, the ghosts are said to be the spirits of an attractive young couple (Alex Boniello and Molly Hager), who met their maker when their boat crash-landed on the rocks outside the lighthouse during a storm 20 years earlier. The ghosts also serve as the musical narrators of the play, moving it along much as the Che Guevara character did in “Evita.”
Overall, this is a sweet, tender little play which touches on a subject not often tackled on stage: the outright bigotry shown by Americans against the Nisei during WW II. Your overall opinion of the show, however, will depend on your reaction to the ghosts inserting themselves into every damned scene, performing musical numbers that are far from top-notch Sheik. Some would call this a necessary plot device; I found it a bit silly and tiresome.
To see or not to see? I vote yay anyway. Even mediocre Duncan Sheik is worth 90 minutes of your time. And apropos of nothing, Wyatt Cirbus as the orphaned kid is going places. Kieran Culkin, I’d be looking over my shoulder if I were you.
