THEATRICAL THROWBACK THURSDAY: ANYONE CAN WHISTLE Closes On Broadway After 9 Performances

By: Apr. 09, 2015
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Today we are revisiting a famed and fabulous Stephen Sondheim flop.

See What It Gets You

They can't all be winners. The vast annals of Broadway history are littered with musicals and plays that have lasted a mere performance or two before closing - some barely making it to previews, let alone opening night - and unfortunately one of the very first musicals featuring both music and lyrics by the foremost songwriter of the late-20th and 21st century suffered a painfully short run in its original outing way back in 1964, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. Written in collaboration with his WEST SIDE STORY, GYPSY and DO I HEAR A WALTZ? bookwriter and friend Arthur Laurents, Sondheim embarked on one of his premiere full-fledged scores with the daring and unusual musical all about a supposed miracle of a rock spurting water cropping up in a small town in a highly allegorical and metaphorical tale involving a villainous mayoress, a kindly nurse and one confused drifter who attempts to put the dramatic pieces all together. The original cast for the musical boasted three major names of the day, with silver screen icon Angela Lansbury making her American musical stage debut in a musical role via the nefarious Cora, along with film star Lee Remick as Fay Apple and Broadway regular Harry Guardino as Hapgood. Although the creative team and cast was abnormally impressive, particularly for a musical of this idiosyncrasy, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE was unquestionably a risky gamble from the get-go.

Boasting a tuneful score brimming with wit, inventiveness, melody and truly brilliant lyrics, the glories to be unearthed in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE are multitude - and marvelous for those previously unfamiliar with them. Undoubtedly, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE boasts some of Sondheim's most stirring and heartwarming songs - the title song and "With So Little To Be Sure Of" first and foremost - along with some of his most rousing and riveting pieces - such as "Everybody Says Don't", "Me & My Town" and "See What It Gets You" - and some of his most innovative and complex musical sequences to date - the infamous "Cookie Jar Ballet" and the jaw-dropping "Simple" sequence standing tall in even his accomplished oeuvre of incomparably complex mergings of music, lyrics, story and movement. Then, there are the cut songs - only in a score as overflowing with astounding artistry, buoyed further by a seemingly unending and pervasive try-anything attitude, such as this one could that ever be the case. Yet, "There Won't Be Trumpets" is regularly performed to this day and just as usually stops whatever show it may appear in - truly, it is among Sondheim's most bracing, driving and gripping character numbers, with a propulsive and powerful air that is difficult to overlook. So, too, is "There's Always A Woman" one of Sondheim's most biting, bitchy and abrasive comedy songs - one of the main complaints of critics and audience members at the time was the perceivably mean-spirited nature of much of the comedy of the musical at the time, and those claims are understandably justified if lobbed solely at this delectably devilish diva duet. But, no one can deny the humor - and the outright guffaw-inducing nature of many of the retorts within it. ANYONE CAN WHISTLE may have had many issues onstage, but the score as represented on disc - whether the sensational original Broadway cast recording or the even more fleshed-out 1995 Carnegie Hall iteration starring Madeline Kahn, Bernadette Peters, Scott Bakula and Lansbury. It sings, stings and zings - and rings oh-so true. Surely, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE was a musical ahead of its time - and, perhaps, it is still too prescient and potent a message to take (the message being: are the inhabitants of an insane asylum truly madder than the rest of us, or just a different kind of crazy?). Rich, risky, riotous and ultimately rewarding, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE is a flop worth celebrating - and it damn well deserved a lot more than 9 performances.

So, now, go back to 1964 and relive what makes ANYONE CAN WHISTLE a curiosity any Broadway baby worth their weight in sequins should know - and know well.

Angela Lansbury candidly remembers the original production.

Bernadette Peters stops the show with "There Won't Be Trumpets".

Sutton Foster aims for our hearts with the moving title song.

What is your absolute favorite song in the varied and dynamic score of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE? Furthermore, do you think a revival could work on the Great White Way today? Given the Sondheim/Laurents pedigree and the awesome performance opportunities afforded by the material, it sure would be worth a look - or, maybe this time around, 10.



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