CAN ANYONE FIGURE THIS SHOW OUT?

We were especially excited to see the NYCity Center ENCORES production of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE after having spent such a divine evening at SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. Sondheim is responsible for so many hits, megahits among them, that we felt it only right to see his most famous flop (the original ANYONE CAN WHISTLE ran for twelve previews and nine performances in 1964, with Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick and Harry Guardino in the headline roles).

And if we are going to be honest - we will see Raul Esparza in anything. And we mean anything! That includes an evening of listening to him read from the phone book.

The evening started out well. We had dinner at Rue 57; a welcome change from our more normal venues. Dinner was delicious and we had plenty of time for an easy walk to the theatre for a 7:30 curtain. It seemed a bit weird that the inside doors were locked at 7:15 and less weird when we found out the curtain was actually 8:00. This little “oops” however; cannot be blamed on Cathy’s recent Outlook issues! Left to mill about in the lobby (aka: killing time) we saw a flyer for a 25th Anniversary Gala in November starring Angela Lansbury, Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth and Chita Rivera and we scored great seats for this November 8th special.

The theater was filled and it was a very New York crowd. Many of the theatre goers seemed to know each other, which we presume to be the case with ENCORES productions and besides, who else would go to see a well known Sondheim flop? The curtain opened on a great set with the orchestra on stage in the rear behind a scrim. Donna Murphy soon took center stage and the power of her voice and energy of her presence took our breath away. She was electric and her chemistry with Raul Esparza when he appeared worked from the first second they were together.

Sutton Foster more than held her own as did Jeff Blumenkrantz and Edward Hibbert. Minor complaint is that we can’t remember ever seeing a playbill without pictures of the cast and the lack of pictures makes it very difficult to identify those stars we are not familiar with but whom we want to credit.

The music is very Sondheim. Lots of words and then more words and then some more. What ANYONE CAN WHISTLE had in words it lacked in plot or story. There is actually a plot but it’s beyond inane and made no sense at all. The costumes were adorable; actually the right word we think. It is a little tricky trying to figure out what would have made this show work. Sondheim certainly tried, albeit without success, but then who are we to critique him?

It’s unfortunate though that the elements of story didn’t converge better because Sondheim has written two extremely strong women’s roles and very decent men’s roles. We saw some powerhouses of talent. And we can whistle, just don’t ask us to whistle any of the substantially unmemorable tunes.

Next up: COLLECTED STORIES!