Whistle Down the Wind – Watermill Theatre, Bagnor

Picture: Pamela Raith

Whistle Down the Wind continues at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor until 10 September 2022.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Even if you didn’t know who had penned the music and lyrics to this reworking of the original novel, there are sufficient clues that would lead an intuitive theatregoer to the right conclusion. For every handful of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals that see revival after revival, there is a show that didn’t make it as big. Written in 1996, Whistle Down the Wind is one of the latter, only now seeing its first major UK revival since 2010.

Relocated from its original Lancashire setting to Louisiana, themes of racism, suicide, religious belief and innocence suit the heady incestuous nature of a close-knit God-fearing community in America’s Deep South. So when an injured stranger (The Man) stumbles into a family’s barn with bandages on his hands and feet and bearing an uncanny resemblance to Jesus Christ, the children of the town are convinced that they are shielding a desperate Messiah rather than a hunted murderer.

It is at this point, as Robert Tripolino enters as The Man, that the production finds its foothold. This happens not only through his empowered performance with stunning vocals, impassioned looks and fervent desperation, but it is also at this moment that we, as an audience, begin to really become engaged.

Subtle nuances of Jesus Christ Superstar through a similar ‘Gethsemane’ scenario, and reminders of Christ’s relationship with Mary Magdalene – seen here in a more innocent interpretation of The Man’s rapport with Swallow (played with emotive sincerity by Lydia White) – suddenly bring this production to life.

The pace of Tom Jackson Greaves’ production quickens when lyricist Jim Steinman injects a touch of Bat Out of Hell into the song list. Lewis Cornay as Amos, morphs into a daredevil as the music crescendos into more of a frenzy when he takes to his motorbike, his plan to run away with Candy (ardently played with passionate commitment by Chrissie Bhima) cut short when he is swayed into assisting Swallow under the pretence of an alternative romantic liaison.

The intoxicating atmosphere of a close-knit and indoctrinated religious community is re-created with suitably claustrophobic effect by designer Simon Kenny. And, although we do not see the snakes, the practice of serpent-handling to test the community’s faith is an underlying threat (carried menacingly by Elliot Mackenzie as the Snake Preacher) that personifies the potentially sinister consequences of not only hiding a murderer but also of conflicts of culture, race, youth and grief.

Stephanie Elstob is the omnipresent representation of the family’s grief, silently portrayed through strong and contemporary choreographed dance moves and there as a constant influence when Swallow and her siblings need reassurance.

The remaining cast of actor-musicians (Lloyd Gorman, Charlotte Grayson, Jerome Lincoln, Emma Jane Morton, Alfie Richards and Toby Webster) are a tour de force, together with the excellent children’s cast vying for well-deserved attention with their rendition of ‘When Children Rule the World’.

Julie Watterston