59E59 Theaters to Reopen With Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow Musical, Whisper House
(© Tricia Baron)
After remaining closed through the fall season, 59E59 Theaters, the multiplex of performance spaces on Manhattan's east side, will reopen in January by picking up right where it left off, with the Civilians production of Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow's Whisper House. Originally slated for March 2020, the production will now begin performances on January 11, with a run slated through February 6.
Set in the lead-up to World War II in an eerie lighthouse on the coast of Maine, which may or may not be haunted, Whisper House is the New York debut of a musical that premiered in 2010 at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. It is being produced under the banner of the Civilians, the celebrated investigative-theater company, and will be directed by that company's founder and artistic director Steve Cosson.
Sheik is best known as the Tony-winning composer of Spring Awakening, but his extensive catalogue of musicals includes Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Secret Life of Bees, and Alice by Heart. Jarrow is best known as the book writer of SpongeBob SquarePants, and for his work with the band Sky-Pony.
(© David Gordon)
Four days after Whisper House begins performances in Theater A, Victor Almanzar's autobiographical solo show, Through the Fire, will begin performances in Theater B. Produced by LAByrinth Theater Company, Through the Fire begins with a near-death experience that lands Almanzar in a Queens, New York, hospital during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. This serves as a frame for his life story, which includes a childhood in the Dominican Republic, a move to New York, a period of gang life, and a stint in the Marines. Performances begin January 15 and are slated to run through February 5.
Almanzar has made memorable appearances in the Paola Lázaro's Tell Hector I Miss Him and Stephen Adly Guirgis's Between Riverside and Crazy. Last year, he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Guirgis's Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven.
The season will continue with two plays in rep from Two Headed Rep (January 16-February 5), both of which respond to Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim's Dulcitius. After that is Happenstance Theater's Barococo, a physical comedy adorned in 18th-century finery (February 9-March 6).
Click here for a complete listing of shows and events at 59E59 Theaters.
