All systems are go for Whistle Down The Wind, the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical scheduled for Broadway in April `97. Rehearsals are to begin Oct. 21 for a Washington DC opening Dec.a run running there through Feb. 9.

The show is scheduled to open on Broadway April 17 at the Martin Beck Theatre. Tickets for the Washington production are now on sale; Broadway tickets will go on sale sometime before the end of 1996.

Press representative John Wimbs asserted that the project was going smoothly and "wonderfully well," especially considering the newness of the project: "This is [Andrew Lloyd] Webber's first show to have a world-premiere in America since Jesus Christ Superstar. All the others opened first in London, which makes things interesting because it's not a known entity."

What is known is that Harold Prince is directing the musical, which is based on a novel by Mary Hayley Bell and its subsequent film of the same name.

-- By David Lefkowitz