Winningham Closes the Door on Whisper House Feb. 7; Ciulla in the Wings | Playbill

Related Articles
News Winningham Closes the Door on Whisper House Feb. 7; Ciulla in the Wings Mare Winningham leaves the Old Globe Theatre's world premiere of Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow's musical Whisper House after the 7 PM performance Feb. 7 owing to "scheduling reasons."
//assets.playbill.com/editorial/17840eba98bb017c86bbdd6b1a7cf5ee-whisperhousefeat200.jpg
Arthur Acu Photo by Craig Schwartz

Celeste Ciulla will assume the role of Aunt Lily, who takes her orphaned nephew into her haunted lighthouse. Ciulla appeared in Old Globe's Shakespeare Festival in 2009, playing Volumnia in Coriolanus.

Whisper House continues to Feb. 21 in San Diego, CA.

*

Playbill.com failed to report a cast change that happened in the days leading up to the Jan. 21 opening of Whisper House. A.J. Foggiano took over the role of nephew Christopher on opening night, replacing Eric Brent Zutty.

Whisper House, a ghost-story musical set in a haunted New England lighthouse during World War II, began previews Jan. 13. Emmy Award-winning actress Winningham is also known as a singer, and was acclaimed for her soulful, folky Off-Broadway performance in 10 Million Miles. For her work in 10 Million Miles, Winningham received the Lucille Lortel Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination in 2008.

Sheik, the alt-rock singer-songwriter who won a Tony Award for his score to the musical Spring Awakening, wrote the new show's music and lyrics, and Jarrow penned book and lyrics.

Peter Askin directs. The musical director is Jason Hart. The dance director is Wesley Fata.

"Set in 1942 at the height of World War II," according to Old Globe, "Whisper House is the story of an 11-year-old boy, Christopher, who lives with his Aunt Lily in a haunted New England lighthouse following the death of his father. All of the songs in the musical are performed by the ghosts, played by David Poe and Holly Brook, and embody the boy's subconscious thoughts and fears. When Christopher begins to hear strange music seeping through the walls, is his imagination getting the best of him, or is he receiving warnings of 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."

In addition to Brook, Foggiano, Poe and Winningham, the cast includes Arthur Acuña (Yasuhiro), Kevin Hoffman (Lieutenant Rando) and Ted Koch (Charles).

Read the Playbill magazine feature about Whisper House here.

*

Academy Award nominee Winningham ("Georgia," "St. Elmo's Fire") recently appeared in the world premiere of the Frank Wildhorn musical, Bonnie and Clyde, at La Jolla Playhouse. She last appeared at The Old Globe as Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. She plays Aunt Lily in Whisper House.

The Whisper House creative team includes Michael Schweikardt (scenic design), Jenny Mannis (costume design), Matt Richards (lighting design), Dan Moses Schreier (sound design) and Richard Costabile (stage manager).

*

Sheik was first widely known for his 1996 debut single, "Barely Breathing," which spent 55 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100. He has since expanded his work to include compositions for motion pictures and the Broadway stage. Sheik won two Tony Awards, as composer and arranger, for the Broadway production of Spring Awakening, written with lyricist Steven Sater. It won the Tony for Best Musical. In 2009, he released a "Whisper House" album, featuring songs from his developing project.

Sheik and Sater are currently developing two new musical theatre projects: Nero (Another Golden Rome) and The Nightingale.

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 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. His 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).

Director Askin's New York City stage credits include John Leguizamo's Sexaholix, Spic-O-Rama (Drama Desk Award) and Mambo Mouth (Obie, Outer Critics' awards); plus Paul Weitz's Show People and Privilege, among others.

For tickets and information, visit www.TheOldGlobe.org or call (619) 23-GLOBE.

 
RELATED:
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!