Theatre Register
Anyone Can Whistle: Live at Carnegie Hall (1995 Broadway concert cast)

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
Music: Stephen SondheimLyrics: Stephen SondheimBook: Arthur Laurents

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.

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.

In the literature52 passages

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

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.