Whistle Previews Delayed for Safety Reasons

The start of previews of Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical Whistle Down the Wind has been postponed until Monday 22 June 1998 as originally planned. Webber had earlier brought forward the preview start date to tomorrow, Wednesday 17 June, but has now had to drop this week's performances due to safety concerns.

In a statement issued to What's On Stage, Lloyd Webber said: 'I fear that my recent decision to add four previews to the schedule of Whistle Down the Wind was tempting fate. After an accident in rigging the set last week, I was told there was a one in a million chance that it could be repeated. These odds were not good enough for me, therefore I decided that, over the past weekend, additional safety work should take place. This is now completed but means that Whistle will preview on 22 June as originally scheduled but without the four over-optimistically added performances.'

The opening date of Whistle Down the Wind remains fixed for 1 July 1998. People who have purchased tickets for this week's performances should contact their original point of sale to exchange them for an alternate date.

Whistle Down the Wind will receive its world premiere at the Aldwych Theatre, having been extensively revised since its Washington DC try-out in 1997. The musical is inspired by Mary Hayley Bell's novel and Bryan Forbes' classic 1961 film in which three farm children discover a man hiding in a barn and think that he is Jesus. Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's version moves the action from rural England to the American Deep South.

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