Anyone Can Whistle
Shows · Anyone Can Whistle
In a bankrupt town run by the corrupt Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper, a fake miracle is staged at a rock that appears to spout water in order to attract tourists. When the inmates of the local asylum (called the Cookies) mix in with the townspeople, no one can tell them apart. Nurse Fay Apple and rogue hero Hapgood try to expose the fraud while navigating a romantic entanglement and questioning who in the town is truly…
- Opened
- 1964
- Performances
- 9
- Type
- Musical
- Era
- Golden Age
Productions3 on Broadway
| 1964 | Majestic Theatre Original. April 4, 1964 · Arthur Laurents | 9 performances |
| 2010 | Sondheim Theatre Transfer. April 12, 2010 | |
| 2022 | Playhouse Theatre Transfer. |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Recordings 5 albums held
Licensing 1 entry
| US | Music Theatre International Anyone Can Whistle matched on title alone: a lead, not a confirmed licensor |
Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.
52 passages naming Anyone Can Whistle, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.
Anyone Can Whistle, with a beguiling score by Stephen Sondheim, a murky book by Arthur Laurents, and good performances by Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, and Harry Guardino, lasted only 9 performances, but developed something of a cult following. book:at-this-theatre-100-years-of-broadway-shows-stories-and-botto-louis-viagas-rober#p272
Arthur Laurents contributed the original idea for Anyone Can Whistle (4/4/64; 9 performances). Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, and Harry Guardino made their Broadway musical debuts in the show. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p523
Anyone Can Whistle, 329, 501 book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p614
After the disappointing Anyone Can Whistle, he grudgingly returned to lyric writing with Do I Hear a Waltz? Determined to be known for more than lyrics, he set to work and made theatrical history just as his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein Il, had done forty years earlier with Show Boat. With the electric current of the nerv… book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p77
Anyone Can Whistle, starring musical theatre neophytes Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, and Harry Guardino. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p155
But after Anyone Can Whistle, a fast flop lambasted by the critics, and an unwilling return to just lyric writing on Do I Hear a Waltz’, Sondheim went fallow for almost five years, and many wondered if he was too esoteric ever to succeed as composer and lyricist. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p178
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