WHISPER HOUSE: Kyle's Blog - VASSAR

Grammy and Tony award-winning songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik returns with his new album WHISPER HOUSE, which hit stores on January 27 from Victor Records/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. The idea for WHISPER HOUSE came about when actor Keith Powell (30 Rock) approached Sheik about developing a musical theatre piece with him.

Following a trip Powell took to New England, a story began to emerge centered around a lighthouse, and up-and-coming young playwright Kyle Jarrow, already an Obie winner for A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, signed on to create the book. BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you Kyle's exclusive WHISPER HOUSE Blog following the show from it's inception through the tentatively scheduled Broadway Production in 2010, now continue the journey with Kyle to WHISPER HOUSE!

Still up at New York Stage & Film in Vassar... we've had a productive past couple days of work. The focus of this week has been the integration of the nine-piece band with the actors. This show's an interesting animal, as musicals go, because the actors never sing and the two singers never speak. So the different groups have rehearsed separately, then come together in the second half of the process. Weaving those two pieces together-massaging the transitions between the songs and the text, as well as working in underscoring beneath dialogue in some sections-that's been a central focus of this week. Duncan, Keith, and I have been working our butts off.

And now, tonight, we put it in front of a paying audience for the first time. Last night, we did a run with an audience of folks from other NYSAF shows. They responded well-laughing at all the right parts, getting silent at all the right parts-and that got me excited. But it was an audience of peers; a very friendly crowd. Tonight, it's an audience of Real People. Which is to say, not theater people. It'll be an audience that's more reliably honest with their reactions. So, fingers crossed that it goes well. But however it goes, the first time one sees a play in front of an audience is always riveting. Cheesy though it sounds, that's when a piece really "comes alive." Tonight's the night... here goes nothing.

Kyle Jarrow Whisper House Blog 7/10/09

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