WHISPER HOUSE: Kyle's Blog

Grammy and Tony award-winning songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik returns with his new album WHISPER HOUSE, from Sony Music. WHISPER HOUSE marks Sheik's first solo album since 2006's critically-acclaimed White Limousine and comes on the heels of the success of Spring Awakening. WHISPER HOUSE, which will have its world premiere at the Old Globe Theatre in January 2010, is a collaboration with up-and-coming young playwright Kyle Jarrow, already an Obie winner for A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant.

It's 1942 - at the height of World War II- and Christopher, an imaginative young boy, is sent to live with an aunt he's never met: Lilly, a reclusive woman who serves as the keeper of a remote lighthouse. Not yet comfortable in his surroundings, Christopher begins to hear strange music no one else can hear seeping through the walls. It doesn't take long for him to suspect the lighthouse may be haunted, and these ghosts tell him that Yasujiro, a Japanese worker that Lilly has employed, should not be trusted. Is Christopher's imagination getting the best of him? Or are these ghosts warning Christopher about the very real dangers that lie ahead? Whisper House is a touching and beautiful story about how we should embrace, rather than fear, the unknown.

BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you Kyle's exclusive WHISPER HOUSE Blog!

Kyle's Blog - FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT:

On Day Two of tech, I'm my hotel room, getting ready to head back to theater. Trying to soak in a couple more minutes of sunshine through the window before I sit in the dark for ten hours.

This morning, I'm thinking about what it means to make "family entertainment." This is on my mind because I did an interview yesterday with one of the local papers here, and the reporter asked me if Whisper House included "edgy content." She explained that the backgrounds of the creative team gave her the expectation that it might. After all, Duncan's Spring Awakening had bared boobs as well as some onstage spanking; Peter Askin directed Hedwig and many of John Leguizamo's F-Bomb laden solo shows; and my movie Armless, going to Sundance this year, is a pitch-black comedy about a man who wants to cut off his arms.

So, this reporter's expectations make total sense. But despite our backgrounds creating R-rated entertainment, Whisper House is decidedly kid-appropriate. (I'd say anyone above the age of ten or eleven should be fine with it.) There's no profanity, no sexual content, and an eleven-year-old boy is the protagonist. Sure, it's a ghost story, so there's some spookiness, but there's nothing truly frightening in it.

From the very beginning, Duncan and I talked about creating a show that would be appropriate and entertaining for audiences of all ages. Is that what it means to make "family entertainment"? Maybe. For me, it was a new kind of challenge. The "appropriate for all ages" part of the equation is easy-just don't use swear words and don't have references to sex. The "entertaining for all ages" part is tougher. How do you make a piece that feels relevant to people from age 10 to 90?

Part of the answer, I think, is having characters of different ages for audience members to connect to and sympathize with. Another part of the answer is dealing with thematic material that isn't age-specific. Issues of fear and love and loss, the central themes of Whisper House, certainly fit this qualification. Having music certainly helps-who, regardless of age, doesn't like a good tune? And Duncan's music has always had a broad age appeal, both in his pop career and his theater work.

In conclusion: Whisper House is family entertainment, at least that's what we're going for. But that said, we've tried to make it stylistically daring and theatrically exciting. Those goals, we've found, can co-exist goal of being kid-appropriate.

Kyle Jarrow is a writer and musician based in New York City. He writes for the stage as well as film and television, and he plays in the bands The Fabulous Entourage and Super Mirage. He won the prestigious OBIE Award at age 24 for his Off-Broadway hit A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, which has subsequently been produced all over the country. Kyle's play Armless won the Overall Excellence Award at the New York International Fringe Festival. Other plays include Love Kills, Trigger, President Harding is a Rock Star, Rip Me Open (co-writer), Hostage Song (music & lyrics), Gorilla Man (script available from Samuel French), and the upcoming Big Money (with Nathan Leigh) and Whisper House (with Tony-winner Duncan Sheik, record now available from RCA/Victor).

For more information on Whisper House visit: www.duncansheik.com/whisperhouse

For more information on Kyle visit: www.landoftrust.com

Visit these links for exclusive newsletters:

Whisper House Newsletter: http://www.duncansheik.com/whisperhouse/signup.html

Masterworks Broadway Newsletter: www.masterworksbroadway.com

Photo of Kyle by Sarah Sloboda