Whistle Down the Wind Blows into London's Palace Theatre Before Spamalot Opens

By: Feb. 23, 2006
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Before the knights of Spamalot unleash comic anarchy onto the stage of the West End's Palace Theatre, the Andrew Lloyd musical Whistle Down the Wind will blow through the theatre for five months, according to Whatsonstage.com.

Whistle Down the Wind will succeed another Lloyd Webber musical--The Woman in White--at the theatre. The gothic romance will close on Saturday, February 25th. Whistle Down the Wind's performance dates of March 15th through August 12th, 2006 are likely, but have not been confirmed.

Whistle Down the Wind ran at London's Aldwych Theatre for two-and-a-half-years; it closed on January of 2001. While the show played an out-of-town tryout in Washington, D.C. and never reached Broadway, the musical's producer and director Bill Kenwright sent the musical out on a UK tour in August of that year. The long-lived tour has seen several incarnations ever since. The new London production "is likely to reunite the tour's creative team, including designer Paul Farnsworth and choreographer Henry Metcalfe," according to the article.

Based on Mary Hayley Bell's novel and the classic 1961 film of the same name, Whistle Down the Wind recounts the tale of three farm children who meet a convict hiding in a barn; they come to believe that he is Jesus Christ. With music by Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Jim Steinman (Dance of the Vampires) and a book by Lloyd Webber and Patricia Knop, Whistle Down the Wind is set in 1959 Louisiana, and not the rural England of the book and film.

Spamalot, which won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical, will play its first performance at the Palace Theatre on October 2nd, with press night on October 16th and opening night on October 17th. Based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with a score by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, a book by Idle and Tony-winning direction by Mike Nichols, the show will open with Tim Curry as King Arthur (he will be followed by Simon Russell Beale in January of 2007). Tickets are currently on sale for the West End production of Spamalot.

For ticket information on Spamalot, visit www.montypythonspamalot.com.




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