About
Book by ARTHUR LAURENTS
Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Orchestrations by DON WALKER
Choreography by JOANN HUNTER
MasterVoices mourns the recent passing of master lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim.
Better than buried treasure! Come rediscover a madcap, provocative, and weirdly romantic gem from the legendary Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents.
Narrated by Joanna Gleason and starring Vanessa Williams in the role of a corrupt mayoress (originally played by Angela Lansbury), who, with her three trusted henchmen (Douglas Sills, Eddie Cooper, Michael Mulheren) fakes a miracle to revitalize her bankrupt town. The zany plot includes an ill-fated romance between a rational nurse, out to expose the fraud (Elizabeth Stanley) and a chaos-loving doctor (Santino Fontana) who makes us question the very notion of sanity.
Rarely performed, this timely “satire on conformity” is also an exuberant musical comedy, filled with one showstopper after another and highlighting what Ben Brantley called Sondheim’s “gift for defining, in song, characters who are a hair’s breadth from nervous breakdowns.” Hit songs from the show include “Me and My Town,” “There Won’t Be Trumpets,” “Anyone Can Whistle,” “Everybody Says Don’t” and “With So Little to be Sure Of”… which is one of Sondheim’s own favorites.
Tickets
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
in the Shops at Columbus Circle
Broadway at 60th Street | New York New York
90 minutes, no intermission
Call 212-721-6500 or visit the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office
Artists
Media
Read reviews From Anyone Can Whistle
"The MasterVoices' concert of Anyone Can Whistle was a lovely and poignant reminder that although we have lost Stephen Sondheim, we will always have his work. And, oh!, that work!" - Show Showdown
"The cast was enthusiastically cheered by the sold-out house, but Stanley seemed to come out strongest on the applause meter with her incisive and sensitive delivery. She made every one of her songs special, and was delightful in her disguise as the “Lady from Lourdes” sent to investigate the veracity of the “miracle” with red wig, crimson gown and a French accent.
The whole was stylishly directed by Sperling who led the MasterVoices chorale and orchestra with his customary expertise and flair." - Forbes on Film & Footlights
“It was a moment. A marvelous moment,” two characters sing at the end of Anyone Can Whistle, and that sentiment perfectly summed up the feeling many of the 2,500 people who packed Carnegie Hall on Thursday, March 10 had at the exact moment those words were uttered. This semi-staged concert presentation by the always impressive Ted Sperling and MasterVoices of the wacky 1964 Arthur Laurents-Stephen Sondheim musical was a long-awaited return to the theater for some." - TheaterPizzazz.com
"Thank you, MasterVoices, for this miraculous revelation." - QonStage.com