[NEohioPAL]Berko review: ANYONE CAN WHISTLE (Willoughby Fine Arts)

[Roy Berko]

‘ANYONE CAN WHISTLE’ GETS VALIANT TRY AT WILLOUGHBY
FINE ARTS

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Dance
Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	


When the Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Lareunts musical
‘ANYONE CAN WHISTLE,’ which is now on stage at
Willoughby Fine Arts Association, opened on Broadway
in 1964 it was an instant flop.   It was met with
devastating reviews.  The New York Times said, "There
is no law against saying something in a musical, but
it's unconstitutional to omit imagination and wit.” 
The show ran only 9 performances.

The musical was Sondheim's second solo effort.  After
being so successful with  ‘A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON
THE WAY TO THE FORUM,’  and having been hailed as
Broadway’s new “wunderkindt” for his work on ‘WEST
SIDE STORY’ and “GYPSY,’ the negative reactions to
‘ANYONE CAN WHISTLE’  were extremely surprising. 

Sondheim's score is a quirky blend of dissonant music
which is hard to perform and sing and often hard for
the audience to listen to.  His musical choice was
probably to parallel the discordant thoughts and idea
of the characters.  Unfortunately, since the plot
doesn’t work well, neither does the music.  

Sondheim is noted for having one marvelous song in
each of his shows.  Think “Send in the Clowns” from ‘A
LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC’ or “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”
from ‘GYPSY.’  There is no such song in ‘WHISTLE.’  
The score contains such unremembered tunes as "Me and
My Town", "Everybody Says Don't", and "With So Little
to Be Sure Of."  Interestingly, “There Won’t Be
Trumpets’ which became a big cabaret favorite, was
part of the original score, but was cut before the
show opened.  (The WFAA production has reinserted the
song.)

Despite the flop status, there is a cast album of the
show.  Goddard Lieberson, who had optioned the rights
to the cast album, felt that it was an important work
and decided to proceed with the recording.  Over the
years, its popularity has continued to endure thanks
to the talents of the original cast which starred
Angela Lansbury, Harry Guardino and Lee Remick.

Even Sondheim admitted the show has serious flaws,
despite what he considers “its considerable charm and
humor.”  The plot which basically asks the question of
who the loonies really are, those in the asylum or
those outside, much in the vein of ‘THE CURIOUS SAVAGE
,’ has an unconventional and often satirical,
cartoonish and overly obvious plot.  It 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 the economy 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.  Of course there is a love story which
develops 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.

This brings us to the Willoughby Fine Arts Association
production.  WFAA is a community theatre housed in a
wonderful facility.  As with many community theatres
it has a limited pasture of talent from which to cast
shows.  Many of those who try out are of school age
with a mixture of well-meaning adults.  It would be
difficult for professionals to pull off a palatable
production of ‘ANYONE CAN WHISTLE,’ let alone a group
of children, teens and a couple of equity actors.  One
must ask why Artistic Director Fabio Polanco thought
he could save what the likes of Broadway director
Arthur Laurents and actress Angela Lansbury couldn’t.

Palanco pulled out all the shticks and gimmicks he
could.  In order to make the proceedings absurd he has
a preteen play a psychiatrist, a teen play the city’s
comptroller, and even adds a reversal of the Hollywood
1930s dance number showcasing Shirley Temple/Bill
Robinson (African American child and White man).  The
effort is valiant.  The cast tries hard but just can’t
overcome the vehicle.

The casting of professionals Larry Nehring (J. Bowden
Hapgood) and Gina Shmukler (Fay) may have seemed like
a good idea, but, in the end, all it did was show the
lack of stage maturity of the rest of the cast.  Both
Nehring and Shmukler are excellent, though Nehring,
with his Danny Kaye looks and flair for exaggerated
comedy, might have been better cast as the
Comptroller. 

Paul Gatzke’s set is wonderful and Kristen Buchs
lighting works well.  Though Sondheim’s music is hard
to play, Matthew Webb’s small orchestra basically
accomplishes the task and in contrast to many local
theatre pit orchestras wisely does not drown out the
singers.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  The opening lines of the show’s
theme song state, “Anyone can whistle, that's what
they say, easy.  Anyone can whistle, any old day,
easy.  It's all so simple: Relax, let go, let fly! So
someone tell me, why can't I?”  The answer to anyone
planning on staging ‘ANYONE CAN WHISTLE,’ and probably
the advice that WFAA should have followed is, “It’s
not easy when you have a bad vehicle and a limited
talent source.” 

‘ANYONE CAN WHISTLE’ runs through May 15 at Willoughby
Fine Arts Association.  For tickets call 440-951-6637.



Roy Berko's web page can be found at www.royberko.info.  His theatre and dance reviews appear on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal.

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