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Anyone Can Whistle opened on Broadway in April of 1964
and closed after only nine performances. However, the show refuses
to die, retaining a cult following to this day. In many ways,
it was a sacrificial lamb, challenging preconceptions of what
musical theatre should be and paving the way for Sondheim's future
experimentation.
A surrealistic satire, Anyone Can Whistle proclaims
the sanity of madness as well as the virtue of nonconformity.
The mayoress, played by Angela Lansbury in the original production,
is constantly escorted by four dancing chorus boys who provide
plenty of glitter to cover up the lack of sincerity in her patronizing
addresses to the townspeople. And in the "Cookie Chase",
a stylized ballet sequence, the sane citizens attempt to capture
forty-nine mad people. In fact, a large portion of the action
is conveyed through dance, far more than in any subsequent Sondheim
musical.
In Anyone Can Whistle, Sondheim and Laurents create
a fantastical world of symbols and prototypes in which the townspeople
wear the painted faces and wigs of circus clowns and scenery
morphs at the whim of the players. Perhaps the end of Act I best
summarizes the style and content of the play. In a manner reminiscent
of Peter Brook's production of Marat/Sade (Although Anyone
Can Whistle preceded that production by four months!), the
lights go almost black leaving only an eerie glow from the footlights.
Two groups of players, a potpourri of the mad and the sane, rush
across the stage chanting wildly, building to a frenzy. Then
the lights fade to black, lingering for a moment on Hapgood who
turns directly to the audience and pronounces with a smile, "You
are all mad." At that moment the house lights snap on, revealing
the entire company onstage, sitting in theatre seats, laughing
and applauding grotesquely.
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