Duncan Sheik's New Musical 'Whisper House' Opening in San Diego

San Diego take note: following his smash Broadway hit 'Spring Awakening,' Duncan Sheik's new musical theater venture, 'Whisper House,' is opening Wednesday night at the Old Globe Theatre. The play is the result of three-plus years of writing by Sheik and playwright Kyle Jarrow. The tale centers on an 11-year-old boy who's sent to live with his aunt in a lighthouse where a literal band of ghosts end up doing what they do best: haunt.

"There were all these really funny conversations we had in the development, like 'are ghosts real?'" Sheik tells Spinner. "[They were] very ontological conversations. What does it mean for a ghost to be real? Those are questions that I think the audience should be asking. We don't answer those questions and I hope it comes across as enigmatic."

Fans have been able to hear the music that Sheik composed for 'Whisper House' -- the album was released nearly a year ago -- and the singer-songwriter says that above everything, it was nice to get back to writing lyrics. "It had been three-plus years since I'd written any lyrics at all," he reveals. "My last record that I'd written was in 2005, so when I jumped into writing the lyrics for the show, I thought I'd never done this before: written lyrics from the perspective of another character other than myself."

"When I really got into it, I got in a zone," he adds. "The ghosts kind of have an attitude about them, a cynical, sardonic sense of humor. It was great to write from that perspective"

Only time will tell if 'Whisper House' has the same success that followed 'Spring Awakening.' Sheik is being cautiously optimistic about taking it elsewhere. "Hopefully -- fingers crossed -- I'll be like 'we should definitely bring it to New York.' But I'm not an expert at what it takes to produce commercial theater. I just got really lucky on my first show out of the box. It's possible that 'Whisper House' has a different life. It may be suited for a different environment."

'Whisper House' is scheduled to run through Feb. 21.