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<h2 style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-weight:normal">Dan Folino and Katherine
DeBoer make ANYONE CAN WHISTLE worth seeing</span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">Roy Berko</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(<span style="font-size:10.0pt">Member, American Theatre
Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle</span>)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">When Martin Friedman, Artistic Director of The
Lakeland Civic Theatre, announced he was staging Stephen Sondheim’s ANYONE CAN
WHISTLE, there were some raised eyebrows in the theatre community.<span style> </span>Friedman is a Sondheimophile.<span style> </span>He knows the master’s works well.<span style> </span>Why would he even adventure into
Whistle land, which is fraught with land mines?<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Originally entitled, THE NATIVES ARE RESTLESS, ANYONE
CAN WHISTLE was a resounding flop on Broadway.<span style> </span>Classified as the first absurdist musical, it lasted just thirteen
previews and nine performances in spite of a cast that included Angela Lansbury
and Lee Remick.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The show was seemingly doomed from the start.<span style> </span>It took thirty-three backers’ auditions
to raise the money.<span style> </span>The lead
supporting male had a heart attack, one of the dancers fell into the orchestra
pit and died, Angela Lansbury, in her first musical production, was so unhappy
with her performance that they considered replacing her.<span style> </span>The three act format, the last major
musical written in this style, was too long and whacking away at it resulted in
some of the best songs being cut.<span style> </span>This
is not the stuff hit musicals are made of.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Sondheim, himself, in his book FINISHING THE HAT,
COLLECTED LYRICS (1954-1981) WITH ATTENDANT COMMENTS, PRINCIPLES, HERESIES,
GRUDGES, WHINES AND ANECDOTES states, “The show suffered a number of
indignities during the pre-Broadway tour in Philadelphia.<span style> </span>The fault was not in our stars but in
ourselves” (music and lyrics by Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"><span style> </span>The
show takes place in a small American town, which is a financial and physical
wreck because its manufacturing base is a plant that makes a product which
never wears out, and is the home of the Cookie Jar, an insane asylum.<span style> </span>Cora Hoover Hooper, the town’s mayor
and owner of the plant, comes up with a scheme to create a fake Lourdes-like miracle
fountain.<span style> </span>A nurse (Fay Apple) who
covers up her identity by using a French accent and a red wig, a psycho (J.
Bowden Hapgood)who is misidentified as Cookie Jar’s new assistant director, and
three manipulating town employees create pandemonium.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The music is exceptional.<span style> </span>Actually, some reviewers, in retrospect, call it Sondheim at
his best.<span style> </span>The album has a strong
cult following and if the book was <span style> </span>eliminated and the songs just sung, the choral concert might
well have been a hit.<span style> </span>Songs
include <i style>There Won’t be Trumpets</i>, <i style>Anyone Can Whistle</i>, <i style>Everybody Says Don’t</i>, and <i style>With
So Little To Be Sure Of</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Lakeland’s production, under Friedman’s direction,
is quite uneven.<span style> </span>The leads are
wonderful.<span style> </span>Dan Folino, who left
the area several years ago to take a position at Barter Theatre in Virginia, is
back, and local theatre goers cheer his return.<span style> </span>Folino has proven over and over that whether it’s comedy,
drama or musicals, he is superb.<span style>
</span>His strong singing voice, ability to create real characters and dancing
ability all add up to make his portrayal of Hapwood, a show highlight.<span style> </span>Katherine DeBoer is fine as nurse Fay
Apple.<span style> </span>Good voice and a nice touch
with the quirky.<span style> </span>The duo has
wonderful chemistry together.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Voluptuous Amiee Collier doesn’t quite convince as
the mayor, but her singing and seduction scenes are well done.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The rest of the cast tries hard, but they don’t
have a lot to work with and don’t always seem to understand how to create
farce.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Larry Goodpaster does a nice job with the
orchestra, supporting, rather than drowning out the singers.<span style> </span>Trad Burns set design and lighting work
well.<span style> </span>Jennifer Justice’s
choreography is fairly pedestrian.<span style>
</span>There needed to be more bizarre, let-loose joy from the cookies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Capsule judgement: <span style> </span>ANYONE CAN WHISTLE is a weak script which gets an acceptable
production at Lakeland.<span style> </span>It’s worth
going just to experience Dan Folino and Katherine DeBoer in action.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16pt"><span style="color:windowtext">For tickets to the theatre which is on the campus
of Lakeland Community College, call 440-525-7526.<span style> </span>The show runs through February 19.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16pt"><br><span style="color:windowtext"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="color:windowtext"><br></span></p>