Anyone Can whistle
Little Triangle
[POSTPONED]
MUSIC AND LYRICS Stephen Sondheim
BOOK Arthur Laurents
DIRECTOR AND DESIGNER Alexander Andrews
MUSIC DIRECTOR Antonio Fernandez
CHOREOGRAPHER Sophie Perkins
PRODUCER Rose McClelland
STAGE MANAGER Christopher Starnawski
MARKETING PHOTOGRAPHER Blake Condon
POSTER AND PROMOTION Alexander Andrews
Welcome to a town so broke, only a miracle can save it.
Set in a financially ruined town whose venal mayoress gets the bright idea of faking a miracle to attract tourists and fill the pockets of City Hall, Anyone Can Whistle is built around two premises: no one is always what they seem and idealists, the apparent fools, might turn out to be the world’s saviours. Part absurdist satire, part romantic comedy, Anyone Can Whistle breaks the fourth wall, acknowledging itself as theatre, rejecting naturalism and sometimes even conventional logic.
When Anyone Can Whistle opened on Broadway in 1964 it shocked audiences with its bold assessment of the modern world. Fifty years on, the musical still rings true in its admonishment of power-hungry politicians and celebration of those who are brave enough to stand up to them. Complete with political corruption, madcap plots, wild chases, and passionate love affairs, this musical is unconventional, inventive, and, above all, playful.
CAST
To be announced!
Director’s Note
"With so little to be sure of, if there's anything at all."
Stephen Sondheim wrote those words fifty-six years ago. How hard they hit now. I first stepped into the rehearsal room—libretto in my hand and fire in my belly—way back in 2019. It wasn't long before I stepped out of the rehearsal room and into lockdown. Two years on and I’m back. Back to theatre, back to play. Still, it's difficult to be sure about anything. Post-COVID, post-Sondheim.
Anyone Can Whistle was first performed on Broadway in 1964 and it feels astoundingly necessary in this time of social, political and emotional unrest. Especially when nothing much in our world makes sense. The musical is absurd, satirical, yet painfully pertinent. Rooted in the idea that we’re all playing a part, be it the devoted caretaker, the trusted ruler or the brave changemaker, Anyone Can Whistle is about a corrupt government lying to its people, and the idealists who are courageous enough to sing out the truth. It is our heroine Fay Apple who gets caught in the middle—caught between protecting those trapped in an unfair system and liberating them. Fay remains our anchor in a raging tempest of lies, cover-ups and uncertainty.
Anyone Can Whistle is a mess of conflicting ideas and arguments. It was my mission to sort through the confusion and find clarity in what is often termed a flawed musical. I am not under the illusion that Anyone Can Whistle is without its flaws—there is a reason why the original production ran only seven performances. That is not to say that it isn't a timely piece with much to teach us about the current state of our world. The challenge was to draw out what was relevant to us right now, at this moment in time. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to look too hard, it’s all there in the libretto and score—an untrustworthy government, a war against individuality and a desire to make great change.
Returning to the idea that we’re all playing a part—constructing a version of ourselves for the world to see—the world of Anyone Can Whistle takes the form of an imaginary town that has been expertly crafted by the woman in charge: Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper. The world's a stage and Cora’s subjects perform this town eight shows a week, without variation or room for improvisation. Within the figurative proscenium arch, the townspeople are kept safe—or trapped depending on how you look at it—and it isn’t until our hero J. Bowden Hapgood arrives that Cora’s demented production begins to fall apart.
Integral to the realisation of Anyone Can Whistle was investigation, collaboration and play. This piece required a deep understanding of the social structures of the 1960s surrounding gender, religion and individuality, and how such structures exist in our world today. In staging a musical in which the characters of a bygone era face the same challenges in our contemporary society, the audience learns that while the world continues to spin forward, there are aspects of our society that have remained stagnant. Anyone Can Whistle was conceived by Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim as a great experiment in concept and form, and in honouring the work of those two pioneers, our rehearsal room was a place for our experimentation; a play to discover truth and meaning through silly, playful fun.
