About
Whisper Darkly is a new electro-swing musical delivered using immersive theatre techniques where the audience become the patrons of the Hush Club speakeasy.
In 1928, at the height of Prohibition and before the Wall Street Crash, Topeka McShane is riding high as the proprietress of Manhattan’s never-been-raided night spot. Her patrons love her, an old friend visiting from Paris is gracing the speakeasy with her vivacious presence, and Topeka’s niece Evie, recently arrived from Kansas, is being introduced to the underworld. But on this night, unexpected events threaten to silence the Hush Club and change the lives of its denizens forever.
Purchase or stream HERE.
“I won’t merely whisper my admiration for the recording of Whisper Darkly – I’ll whole-heartedly shout its praises. Delivered with dazzling panache, its savvy pastiche numbers capture and embrace the 1920s speakeasy setting with cynical dark shadows lurking in the frothy festivities. The old-school stylings are filtered through modern music’s zing with some caffeinated beats and the wizardry of technology. ...judging by the strong potential shown via this recording, [Whisper Darkly’s] future is anything but dark. ”
Download the lyrics booklet HERE.
15 actors and 12 musicians from 4 countries and 3 continents came together over the course of the last year and a half to create the concept album for Whisper Darkly, the first electro-swing musical. What is Electro-swing, you may ask? Exactly what it sounds like: a mashup of classic jazz and Vaudeville musical vocabularies and instruments with 21st-century EDM dance beats – think of it as part 1928 and part 2028.
With music and lyrics by Andrew Gerle (Meet John Doe) and book by DJ Salisbury (The Man Who Would Be King), Whisper Darkly brings together top Broadway, jazz, and EDM artists for the first time to tell the story of one night in Manhattan's most notorious speakeasy during the heart of Prohibition.
Featuring
Aléna Watters (The Cher Show, Sister Act, The Addams Family)
Keri René Fuller (Six, Cats)
Kayla Davion (Tina, Waitress)
Claybourne Elder (Company, Bonnie & Clyde)
Brad Oscar (The Producers, Something Rotten, Mrs. Doubtfire)
Howard McGillin (Phantom of the Opera, Parade)
Alli Mauzey (Kimberly Akimbo, Cry-Baby, Wicked)
Alistair Brammer (West End’s Miss Siagon, Wicked)
with
Luke Hawkins, Victoria Huston-Elem, Riley Noland,
Graham Stevens, Hansel Tan, Khalifa White, D’Kaylah Whitley
Album produced by Andrew Gerle and PiSk (Roberto Costa), co-produced by Pamela Hurst-Della Pietra and Stephen Della Pietra, Avadon Broadway LLC.
Want to enter The Hush Club?
Featuring Peter Saide, Shelby Putlak, Carrie Kozlowski, Khalifa White,
Emma Degerstedt, Chris White, Andrew Sellon.
Costume Coordinator: Kurt Alger
Videographer: Garth Kravits
Lead Vocal by Aléna Watters
Shot at The Back Room, one of the last Prohibition era speakeasies still operating in NYC.
Workshop 2021
In 2021 a fully staged AEA workshop was mounted in Orlando, Florida.
Workshop performers: Aléna Watters, Lauren Nicole Chapman, Mike Starr, Lillie Eliza Thomas, Adrianna Milbrath, Kristen Sheola, Emma Heistand, Brett Waldon-Bryant, Wesley Slade, Philip Nolen, T. Robert Pigott, Philip Ancheta, Casey Tregeagle, and Nigel Columbus
Andrew Gerle
Composer/Lyricist
Andrew Gerle is a composer/lyricist, librettist, pianist and author. Other works for the theater include the musicals Meet John Doe(Jonathan Larson Award, cast album on Broadway Records), Gloryana (Kleban Award, Richard Rodgers Award), The Tutor (three Rodgers Awards) and Prospera (with Fantasticks lyricist Tom Jones). He has been a Fellow at the MacDowell Artists’ Colony and a writer-in-residence at the Sundance Theatre Institute, and served as musical director and accompanist for Broadway and film stars including John Raitt, Betty Buckley, Shirley Jones, Jennifer Holliday and Brian Stokes Mitchell.
DJ Salisbury
Concept and Bookwriter
PiSk
Electro-Swing arrangements
DJ is a director-choreographer who has set over 115 productions for theatres across the USA and internationally. In NYC, he directed Off-B’way’s Chix 6, Alan Menken‘s American Songbook solo concert at Lincoln Center, and numerous readings/workshops. Other musicals for which he has written book and lyrics include The Man Who Would Be King, Poodleful!, Moonshine & Mistletoe, and Merlin’s Magicademy. He was head writer/lyricist for the Emmy-winning Oklahoma Centennial special starring Reba McIntyre, Kelli O’Hara, and Shirley Jones.
PiSk (Roberto Costa), founding-member of the SWINGROWERS band, is an Italian DJ/Producer and Sound Engineer who started to approach self-taught electronic music production in 1999.
Among the many notable remixes he has done (either as PiSk or Swingrowers) are number 1 album charting gold and multiplatinum CARO EMERALD, megastar ANNIE LENNOX, Island Record’s MILLIE SMALL (My Boy Lollipop), DJ PONY of Feel Good Production, SKEEWIFF, JAMIE BERRY, BART & BAKER and many more.
