Anyone Can Whistle--OBC album on CD

While the liner notes to this 1988 CD reissue to this 1964 original Broadway cast album don't give much in terms of the plot of the show, it gives a lot of information about the ground-breaking nature of the show, and how Anyone Can Whistle was the seed that eventually bloomed into Sondheim's successful shows. I particularly liked reading what other shows played Broadway the same season as Whistle--Fiddler on the Roof, Funny Girl, Hello Dolly! Can you hear me singing "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong"? Can something really be ground-breaking if the ground doesn't want to be broken?

That sounds mean-spirited and I don't want to be, because I like much of this score. Didier Deutsch describes it as being embryonic of ideas that will come again in later Sondheim shows. And I can hear that, although I hear themes of Follies, not Company, which is the show Mr. Deutsch compares it to. Perhaps that is because there is a chorus in this show, and I can't think of another Sondheim show other than Follies that has a chorus.

It's a sad thing when I have to say that Lee Remick is the vocal standout of this cast, but that's the state of affairs. She sings her three big songs very well--the title song, "There Won't Be Trumpets" and "See What it Gets You" which feels like a typical (and effective) 11 o-clock number. Harry Guardino is strangley effective and I like the quality of his voice if not the pitch, which is often an issue. I continue to like Angela Lansbury as a musical performer, although her efforts into head voice are a bit tortured.

Perhaps there is another legacy that Whistle can claim--opening up new avenues for musicals to be incubated and hatched. Was there such a thing as an off-Broadway musical at this point? Certainly this show could have benefited from opening on a slightly less-White Way.

Anyone Can Whistle
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Arthur Laurents
Opened in 1964, ran for 9 performances
Cast: Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, Harry Guardino