Anyone can Whistle

Synopsis

In a bankrupt town in a recession-hit country, the citizens are rebelling against the corrupt Mayoress Cora Hooper. She comes up with a devious plan to reverse her fortunes and keep the town under control. But she reckons without the feisty young Fay Apple and the mysterious stranger Hapgood, who has his own plans for the town and the people who live there...

Our Review:

9 January 2003

Stephen Sondheim is indisputably the pre-eminent Broadway composer/lyricist of the last half-century, and the tiny but resourceful (and shamefully not publicly funded) Bridewell Theatre at Blackfriars has become his British home.

It was here in December 1997 that the world premiere was given of Saturday Night, a show that would, 42 years earlier, have marked his Broadway composing debut but was shelved when the producer died. Now the Bridewell is landlord to London's first full professional staging of Anyone Can Whistle, which is the other Sondheim show that got away - until now.

The show was a nine-performance Broadway flop in 1964. While many of its frequently sublime songs - including the haunting title number, the bracing wordplay of "Everybody Says Don't", the lilting tentativeness of "With So Little to Be Sure Of", and the defiant "There Won't Be Trumpets" - have lived on in countless revues and cabarets, it remains one of his mo...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (195.92.168.176) - 5 February 2003:

I saw the show and thought it good. Admitted the set is a little short on colour, but the story is thought provoking, and surely a mention must go to James Smillie who put plenty into his part. At least it was a good chance of seeing him back in musicals,and I thought Janie Dee was pretty good also. Paula Wilcox should certainly not be in the role of mayor....

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