Everybody Says Don't

My Favorite Flop

"See what it gets you" as hosts Bobby and Kristina discuss 1964's Anyone Can Whistle on episode seven of My Favorite Flop.

ABOUT ANYONE CAN WHISTLE

Described by theater historian Ken Mandelbaum as "a satire on conformity and the insanity of the so-called sane," Anyone Can Whistle tells the story of an economically-depressed town whose corrupt Mayoress, in an attempt to draw tourists, decides to create a fake "miracle" - which draws the attention of Fay Apple, an emotionally inhibited nurse, a crowd of inmates from a local asylum called "The Cookie Jar," and a "doctor" with secrets of his own. The musical features a book by Arthur Laurents and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Following a tryout period in Philadelphia, Anyone Can Whistle opened at the Majestic Theater on Broadway on April 4, 1964 to widely varied reviews (including negative notices from the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune). It closed after a run of 12 previews and 9 performances and in the decades since its closing, it has not been produced on the scale of other Sondheim musicals; notable productions include a 1995 concert version at Carnegie Hall, a pair of stagings in London and Los Angeles in 2003 that incorporated revisions, and a 2010 concert staging for the Encores! program at New York City Center.

Its score, however, has become an acclaimed part of Sondheim's canon, and songs such as the title tune, "Everybody Says Don't", and "There Won't Be Trumpets" have been widely performed. The show is also known for marking the stage musical debut of Angela Lansbury.

Original Broadway Cast

• Angela Lansbury as Cora Hoover Hooper
• Lee Remick as Fay Apple
• Harry Guardino as J. Bowden Hapgood
• Gabriel Dell as Comptroller Schub
  
• James Frawley as Chief Magruder
• Don Doherty as Dr. Detmold
• Peg Murray as Mrs. Schroeder
• Arnold Soboloff as Treasurer Cooley
• Jeanne Tanzy as Baby Joan
• Harvey Evans as John/One Of The Boys/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Sterling Clark as One Of The Boys/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Larry Roquemore as George/One Of The Boys/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Tucker Smith as One Of The Boys/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Georgia Creighton as Osgood/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Alan Johnson as Telegraph Boy/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Janet Hayes as June/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Jeff Killion as Sandwich Man/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Eleonore Treiber as Old Lady/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Lester Wilson as Martin/Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Susan Borree as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Eugene Edwards as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Dick Ensslen as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Loren Hightower as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Bettye Jenkins as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Patricia Kelly as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Barbara Lang as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Paula Lloyd as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Barbara Monte as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Jack Murray as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Odette Phillips as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• William Reilly as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Hanne Marie Reiner as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc
• Donald Stewart as Cookie/Townsperson/Etc