Whistle Down the Wind

| Synopsis |

Glenn appeared as the lead, "The Man," in Whistle Down the Wind at the Aldwych Theatre, London, in 1999 through early 2000. The music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber; lyrics are by Jim Steinman. It was directed by Gale Edwards. The story is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Haley Bell and the film from 1961, which was produced by Richard Attenborough and directed by Bryan Forbes, with screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall.

The novel and earlier film versions of Whistle Down the Wind were set in rural England. The stage version transposed the action to Louisiana, in the Southern United States, in 1959. The director was already working out the challenge of putting a screenplay onto the stage during the Sydmonton Festival in 1995. By the time the show opened in the West End, it was a new musical that combined unforgettable characters, epic storytelling, and a compelling score that includes beautiful love songs and powerful rock music. The set design depicted a rural landscape that had been contaminated by the appearance of oil refineries and the asphalt highways of the post war period. Glenn left his role as "The Man" to take over the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar. As always, Glenn gave a performance that made you laugh, cry, and amaze. His interaction with the children was very special; and you could see just how a group of children could mistake The Man for Jesus. The sign of a great performance is when you forget that you are in a theatre; this show made you feel so involved that it was a shock when the lights came up at the end. If you missed this show, you missed something special.

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Try Not to Be Afraid.

Whistle Down the Wind recounts a tale of events in a small town in the "Bible belt," where the bigotry, tendency to rush to judgment, and racial prejudice of the adults slams headlong into the na�vet� and open hearts of the children and teenagers. Act One opens by describing the climate of the place, which pulses with exhortations about damnation, salvation, and the power of prayer. On a Sunday just before Christmas, the air is electric with pending thunderstorms; on one side of town the Minister whips up the congregation with visions of the Biblical Second Coming of Christ ("the nights have been growing darker, they're darker now than sin"), while on the other side of town a Snake Preacher sets up a tent in which he intends to test the faith of the faithful with trial by live snakes. A teenaged girl, Swallow, and her two younger siblings wonder why they never receive what they pray for: A football, liquorice, money, to look like a movie star, peace of mind for their widowed father - a miracle to bring their mother back from the dead. Their mother had told them to stare their fear in the eye and overcome it, to "Whistle down the wind"; remembering this gave them some comfort.

The opposition of the children's point of view and the adults' is developed when Swallow saves three kittens that had been tied in a bag and thrown into the river to drown by an adult practicing a cruel form of population control. Swallow is in the barn, praying to Jesus to care for the motherless kittens, when she sees a stranger, "The Man." He has wounds in his hands and feet, and she mistakes him for Jesus Christ - hadn't the Minister said earlier that Jesus would appear to walk among them? The Man asks the children to keep his presence a secret; they agree, bring him bread and wine for sustenance, and promise to pray for him. In the meantime, the town sets up patrols to search for a convict, whom they learned is a murderer and has just escaped from a nearby prison. In the "Unsettled Scores" scene, The Man sings of how there are prayers being said for all sorts of causes: For men at war, for lonely women, for kids in softball games - but no one says a prayer for him. He transports the audience along as his emotions run from bitterness to grief and regret, and back again to resentment and despair, "I haven't got a prayer, I know - that's the nature of the beast."

Several local children learn about Jesus living in Swallow's barn. The Man amuses them with the bawdy and humorous tales of "Annie Christmas" and "Charlie Christmas." Through her innocence and caring, Swallow begins to make an impression on The Man. He sees in her the endless days ahead and promise of youth. He finds that he feels tenderness for her, and he is jealous when he overhears a local boy, Amos, trying to coax her into escaping the prison of her inexperience by experimenting with sex, "A kiss is a terrible thing to waste." In a passionate and affecting moment, The Man, unseen by the two teenagers, joins their song and laments that "The emptiest words that there'll ever be, 'It could've been me...'" Later, the townspeople and the sheriff are closing in on The Man. He considers using his gun to fight his way free. He confesses to Swallow that he is not Jesus. He cannot bring her mother back to life; the wounds on his feet are self-inflicted, and his hands were injured by barbed wire as he escaped from jail. Swallow finds that she loves The Man, and she does not want him to go. They sing a plaintive and anguished duet, The Man yearning to escape his past and his fate, "If I had a chance, I'd fly away, I'd see myself released." However, he realizes that he cannot stay; his fate cannot change. He does not want to endanger the children with a gun fight - so he slips away into the night and is gone. He had been both real and myth to the community; he had hopefully been a catalytic force for change.

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