ANYONE CAN WHISTLE at Southwark Playhouse - Here we go again...

It is twelve years since I last saw the 1964 Stephen Sondheim musical ANYONE CAN WHISTLE; I came out of that production thinking "great score, lousy book".  I came out of the Southwark Playhouse this week thinking "Great score. lousy book".  

Well it's consistant.

After reluctantly writing the lyrics for two now-classic Broadway musicals WEST SIDE STORY (1957) and GYPSY (1959), Sondheim finally had his debut sole Broadway composing credit with A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1962) but was disappointed that despite it's success - and Tony Award for Best Musical - his score was largely overlooked, not even getting nominated for the Best Score Tony.  

Ironically, he always cited his first good notices as being the London critics who pointed out the quality of his FORUM lyrics.  However back in New York Sondheim teamed up with Arthur Laurents, who had written WEST SIDE STORY and GYPSY, and started work on a new musical ANYONE CAN WHISTLE.

As writer and director, Laurents was probably too close to it and following a disappointing out-of-town try-out, it opened on Broadway after twelve previews to mostly negative reviews and closed after nine performances.  The show's one good luck was that the original cast recording was released so the marvellous vocal performances of Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick and Harry Guardino could be enjoyed while Sondheim's 1970s elevation to Musical Genius status made the record a cult success, with individual songs gaining an independant life in cabaret setlists.

WHISTLE has never been revived on Broadway but has appeared in semi-staged concert performances; in London it has been bravely staged in off-West End theatres but in all it's incarnations the book has not been touched - and while Sondheim's score is of it's time but still worthy, Laurents' book has dated badly.

Laurent's clunky satire is set in a small US town, bankrupted by the corrupt mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper and her administration - sounding familiar?  They fake a 'miracle' - water spouting from a rock - to get the tourists in.  But there is uproar when the inmates from the town asylum or 'Cookie Jar', led by the head nurse Fay Apple, escape into the crowd while visiting the shrine.  Unable to tell who is insane, a stranger. Hapgood, appears and is assumed to be the new head doctor; but his theory that everyone is mad and all authority is to be mistrusted has the politicians suspicious. 

Another stranger, "The Lady From Lourdes" appears to report on the new miracle but Hapgood quickly unmasks her as head nurse Fay who also refuses to identify her 'cookies' to the authorities. Their obvious attraction is compromised however by Fay's inability to be impulsive, to "whistle". The show culminates in Hapgood being revealed as a new patient for the asylum, the politicians still in power, the 'cookies' locked up again and Fay finally able to "whistle".

The last production at the Jermyn Street Theatre played up the political angle, making the corrupt mayor and her cronies a rising fascist state while here director Georgie Rankcom has gone for a more brightly-coloured, happy-clappy approach as if the cookies had taken over the asylum. I guess with Laurents' hopelessly twee book of ham-fisted political satire which sugars it's pill by calling the insane 'cookies' it's up to the director what choices are made but I had quite forgotten Laurents' jaw-dropping climax where the patients are rounded up by head nurse Fay calling out there names: Brecht, Kirkegaard, Engels etc. Like... THUNK.  The whole approach that the mad are the sane ones is grindingly dated too.

It's a show which at least has two good roles for women and Alex Kelly is unstoppable as Mayor Cora, giving a very big performance on Southwark's small traverse stage.  No opportunity is missed to make her a comedy villainess but she does it with great timing and a voice that is still travelling when it hits the Playhouse wall.  Chrystine Symone is appealing as Fay and sings her famous numbers "There Won't Be Trumpets" and the always-affecting title song with clarity and conviction, she has a directness in the book scenes which cuts through the campness but she seems wary of playing the character's more vulnerable moments.  But as I said, they were both so good vocally I longed for the cut-on-the-road song "There's Always A Woman" between the two characters to be reinstated.

Jordan Broatch's pronoun choice in the programme is they/them; well all of them are too light for the role of Hapgood and the character's long introductory number "Simple" is probably still going on in some alternate universe; but with that chin and curls a future Dandini has been born.  

The supporting cast are all there and seem to be enjoying each others company but a little eccentricity can go a long, long way.  I did however want to mention the undeniable presence of Danny Lane as Cora's head crony Comproller Schub who played it like he secretly knew we were all there for him but gave a good performance and was adept enough to be able to ride over several prop mishaps.  Also snapps to Nathan Taylor who played the tiny role of Dr Detmold and various other characters but played them all with a big grin - and mohawk - which was infectuous.

I am sure there was a designer but they were hardly taxed while Natalie Pound's out-of-sight musicians are dangerously over-amplified.  Of course the cast all have headmikes - for the 240 seat space - which ruined "With So Little To Be Sure Of" one of Sondheim's most beautiful ballads, with ear-shattering cracks and crunches, like eggs were being thrown at a metal plate.

Despite all this, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE is not adapted from a film, a tv show, a book, and is not cobbled together from someone's CD collection; and is the only Sondheim show in London so... worth seeing for that alone.

On Thursday evening I went with Owen and Angela to the minuscule Jermyn Street Theatre to see a new production of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, the legendary 1964 flop musical written by Stephen Sondheim. It was thought-provoking but for all the wrong reasons.To set the scene: Sondheim's first score was for the musical SATURDAY NIGHT which was ready to be staged in 1955 but was scrapped when the leading backer suddenly died. He was then the lyricist for two shows which are now considered classics WEST SIDE STORY in 1957 and GYPSY in 1959 - he had hoped to write the full score for GYPSY but Ethel Merman coalboxed that idea as she wanted a proven composer so Jule Styne was brought on board. Finally in 1962 he wrote music and lyrics for a Broadway show - A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. Although it was successful and won the Tony Award for Best Musical, his score was largely overlooked and wasn't even nominated for Best Score. So, teaming up again with Arthur Laurents, the writer of WEST SIDE STORY and GYPSY, he started work on ANYONE CAN WHISTLE.Laurent's would-be-satire is set in an American town bankrupted by the corrupt mayoress and her cronies. They fake a 'miracle' - a rock that spouts water - to get the tourists flocking. There is uproar when the inmates of the town's insane asylum or 'Cookie Jar' escape into the crowd while visiting the shrine - a situation made worse when a stranger is assumed to be the new head of the 'Cookie Jar' who wins the public over with his theory that we are all mad and all authority is to be mistrusted. Hapgood is labelled an undesirable by the corrupt politicians and has to fight off the romantic attentions of the mayoress as well as the equally mysterious "Lady From Lourdes" who has come to investigate the miracle.He soon guesses she is in fact the idealistic head nurse Fay who refuses to hand over her 'cookies' to the authorities. Their love is compromised however by Fay's inability to be able to live for the moment, to "whistle". The show ends with the corrupt politicians still in power, the 'cookies' under the control of a new strict doctor, Hapgood exposed as a 'cookie' and Fay finally able to "whistle".

The show's three stars all made their musical debuts - Lee Remick as Fay, Harry Guardino as Hapgood and Angela Lansbury as the corrupt mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper. After a troubled try-out tour - one of the main supporting actors died on stage! - they opened to mostly bad reviews and the show closed after a mere 9 performances. And that should have been that.However Sondheim's score was immortalised by a cast album, recorded as the tradition had it then, on the first Sunday after opening night.
Goddard Lieberson was not only the President of Columbia Records but also produced the cast recordings of the period and although he could have passed on the option to record the show, he felt it was intriguing enough to warrant being kept for posterity. Thank God he did as, although not the full score, it saves the vocal performances of Lee Remick - heartbreakingly wistful in her two ballads - and of course Angela Lansbury who punts her numbers ME AND MY TOWN and A PARADE IN TOWN into greatness.So ANYONE CAN WHISTLE joins Jerry Herman's MACK AND MABEL in being a show that closed early but that has gained it's popularity and a cult following from it's recorded score. However what only becomes evident when you watch these shows in performance is that the book is far-from-memorable.

Such is the case at Jermyn Street - added to a production which seems to misguidedly pursue an artistic vision which the slight book can't sustain.

First the venue. Now I am all for spaces being reclaimed for performance but c'mon - the playing area here is about 7 foot deep so any show that has a large dance element - and there are two long numbers in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE that require a lot of stage traffic - is compromised by the choreography having to be curtailed to a stage the width of a tube train - this was also made glaringly apparent where we were seated at the side of the stage. Although the seats are ok, I was always aware of my surroundings - and by the fact that the Stygian witches have found gainful employment as front-of-house attendants. A smile costs nothing ladies...

Now to the production. The director Tom Littler obviously has a vision as to what the show is REALLY all about which is the rise of fascism. So the show is set in 1930 for no other reason than the town is going through a depression and twice during the second act the show stops dead for no other reason than for one of the 'peasants' to daub an anti-Cora message on the auditorium's wall by torchlight - only to have it converted later into the symbol the ministers are wearing on their armbands - again by torchlight, again s-l-o-w-l-y.

The finale is the real jaw-dropper. Instead of Fay and Hapgood finally embracing while the water from the rock reappears only this time by magic - ergo a happy ending - we have the lights all go red, the music turning into a military beat and Cora and her ministers all appear stern faced and facing us with a clenched-fist martial salute - ergo unhappy end.

Now it's up to Littler if he wants to do a revisionist take on the show - as Sam Mendes then Rufus Norris did with CABARET - but trying to tack this onto Laurents' hopelessly twee book of ham-fisted political satire where the insane are always given the cutesy 'cookie' name and the final round-up of 'cookies' include people such as Agnes Brecht, Brian Kirkegaard, Hyacinthe Engels etc. is really giving it a poe-facedness that beggars belief.

Be warned - this is a production where the music is played by the supporting cast - I am hoping they play the score in so squeaky and Brechian a way due to the general air of misery that the production is aiming for and not due to their inept musicianship. May I state again - I loathe this approach to musical staging - if you can't afford a band then don't do the damn show! It's not a stunning new reinterpretation of the score - it's cheap and half-arsed.
The best performances were given by Issy van Randwyck - once on the books of the actor's agency I worked for - as Cora and Alistair Robins as the venal Comptroller Shub. Rosalie Craig and David Ricardo-Pearce were ok as Fay and Hapgood as were the rest of the supporting cast - apart from the cast-member who plays her character as Catherine Tate's nan who should be ashamed of herself.

This is now the second time I have seen the show - the equally financially-challenged Bridewell Theatre staged it in 2003 with Paula Wilcox singing the role of Cora in the key of Yale but at least they had a band from what I remember.

If anyone wants to do a new production I will see it again if they drastically re-write the unworkable book - otherwise I will be at home with Lee and Angela on my cd player.

In closing, last night I watched Julien Temple's REQUIEM FOR DETROIT? a fascinating and disturbing documentary on the lingering death of what was once America's fourth largest city and is now half-deserted with old car factories literally crumbling to nothingness and being consumed by trees and vegetation - a fine example, Mr. Director, of how with a little imagination this show's setting could have been made relevant to today.