Marcus Aurelius said "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Anyone Can Whistle, an absurdist social satire about insanity and conformity (among a dozen other things) is probably the bravest show Stephen Sondheim wrote, at least until Assassins. It was also a spectacular flop when it first hit Broadway in 1964, running only nine performances before closing.
After writing lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy, Sondheim had made his Broadway debut as a composer in 1962 with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but it was with Anyone Can Whistle two years later that the world saw the first glimpse of Sondheim's rebel genius. The show had a book by Arthur Laurents, who had written the book for West Side Story, but the plot was too unconventional and wickedly satiric to find an audience while elsewhere on Broadway people could see shows like Hello, Dolly, more pleasant, easier to understand shows. Anyone Can Whistle played only nine performances.
Sondheim's score for Whistle was a quirky blend of the kind of dissonant, electrifying music he used more confidently in Company (1970) and his later shows, plus a deft takeoff of traditional show tunes to point up the insincerity and shallowness of some of the characters. Unfortunately, since it made fun of the people in the audience, as well as the kind of show tunes they most enjoyed, the show met with more hostility than excitement. The New York Times began its review with the statement "There is no law against saying something in a musical, but it's unconstitutional to omit imagination and wit." John Chapman, in the Daily News, called the first act "joyously daffy" but didn't much like the rest. John McClain, in the Journal-American actually praised it and reported that the opening night audience liked the show so much that they cheered in the midst of several numbers. Norman Nadel, in the World Telegram & Sun, called the show "spectacularly original," "breathtaking," and "ingenious." But nothing can make up for a bad review in the Times. It closed a week later.
Yet because of a cast album recorded after the show had already closed, Anyone Can Whistle became a cult favorite over the years. Sondheim has admitted it has serious flaws, despite its considerable charm and humor. The show tells the story of a town that's gone bankrupt because its only industry is manufacturing something that never wears out. In order to revive her town Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper and her town council fake a miracle -- water flowing from a rock -- to attract tourists. When patients at the local mental hospital, the Cookie Jar, escape and mix with the townspeople and tourists, chaos ensues. Somehow, Sondheim and Arthur Laurents managed to shoehorn a love story in as well, between J. Bowden Hapgood, a psychiatrist who isn't really a psychiatrist, and Fay Apple, a nurse at the Cookie Jar who disguises herself as a miracle verifier sent from Lourdes. In addition to the outrageous subject matter and sharp (though hardly subtle) social commentary, the three-act show also included a ground-breaking, thirteen-minute integrated musical sequence that ended the first act. Whistle was not just breaking the rules of traditional musical comedy, it was thumbing its nose at them -- and, unfortunately, also at its audience.
It didn't help that the show's competition on Broadway that year included more traditional, crowd pleasing musicals like Hello, Dolly, Funny Girl, Fiddler on the Roof, and others. With a delicious sense of irony, Sondheim rewrote history in one scene of his 1981 show biz musical Merrily We Roll Along. The central character, a Broadway composer named Frank Shepard, gets his first hit show on Broadway in 1964. As he and his friends celebrate their success in the theatre lobby with the song "It's a Hit," his producer sings, "Folks, it's Funny Girl, Fiddler, and Dolly combined!" Anyone Can Whistle was vindicated, if only fictionally. Yet in the ultimate twist of fate, Merrily We Roll Along only ran sixteen performances.
Show Data
- Original Broadway Production Info
- Cast
- Musical Numbers
- Cut Songs
- Recordings
- Awards
- Production Rights
Original Broadway Production Info:
| Opened | April 4, 1964 |
| Closed | April 11, 1964 |
| Ran | 9 Performances |
| Theatre | Majestic Theatre |
| Music | Stephen Sondheim |
| Lyrics | Stephen Sondheim |
| Book | Arthur Laurents |
| Producers | Kermit Bloomgarden |
| Diana Krasny | |
| Director | Arthur Laurents |
| Dance/Musical Staging | Herbert Ross |
| Scene Designer | William & Jean Eckart |
| Costumes Designer | Theoni V. Aldredge |
| Lighting Designer | Jules Fisher |
| Dance Music Arranger | Betty Walberg |
| Musical Direction | Herbert Greene |
| Vocal Arrangements | Herbert Greene |
| Orchestrations | Don Walker |
Musical Numbers:
| Sandwich Man | Jeff Killion |
| Baby Joan | Jeanne Tanzy |
| Mrs. Schroeder | Peg Murray |
| Treasurer Cooly | Arnold Soboloff |
| Chief Magruder | James Frawley |
| Comptroller Schub | Gabriel Dell |
| Cora Hoover Hooper | Angela Lansbury |
| The Boys | Sterling Clark |
| Harvey Evans | |
| Larry Roquemore | |
| Tucker Smith | |
| Fay Apple | Lee Remick |
| J. Bowden Hapgood | Harry Guardino |
| Dr. Detmold | Don Doherty |
| George | Larry Roquemore |
| June | Janet Hayes |
| John | Harvey Evans |
| Martin | Lester Wilson |
| Old Lady | Eleonore Treiber |
| Telegraph Boy | Alan Johnson |
| Osgood | Georgia Creighton |
| Ensemble | Susan Borree |
| Georgia Creighton | |
| Janet Hayes | |
| Bettye Jenkins | |
| Patricia Kelly | |
| Barbara Lang | |
| Paula Lloyd | |
| Barbara Monte | |
| Odette Phillips | |
| Hanne-Marie Reiner | |
| Eleonore Treiber | |
| Sterling Clark | |
| Eugene Edwards | |
| Harvey Evans | |
| Dick Ensslen | |
| Loren Hightower | |
| Alan Johnson | |
| Jeff Killion | |
| Jack Murray | |
| William Reilly | |
| Larry Roquemore | |
| Tucker Smith | |
| Don Stewart | |
| Lester Wilson |
Recordings:
Awards:
Secondary performance rights handled by Music Theatre International
Discuss this show in Sondheim.com's
community forum: Finishing the Chat... ››
“Assassins is about how society interprets the American Dream, marginalizes outsiders and rewrites and sanitizes its collective history. "Something Just Broke" is a major distraction and plays like an afterthought, shoe horned simply to appease. The song breaks the dramatic fluidity and obstructs the overall pacing and climactic arc which derails the very intent and momentum that makes this work so compelling...”
- Mark Bakalor
“I found [the Sondheim Celebration's Company] to be completely delightful. Almost all of the numbers excited and energized me, and most of the scenes were about as pitch-perfect as you can get. I just sat there with a big smile on my face the whole show.
Which is not to say that it is perfect...”
- popcornonmyknees
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VHS: $19.98
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