Vanessa Williams, Elizabeth Stanley, Santino Fontana & More to Star in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE Concert

MasterVoices will continue its 2021-22 season celebrating its 80th anniversary on Thursday, March 10 at Carnegie Hall with a concert staging of the cult-favorite musical, Anyone Can Whistle by Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. The performance will star Vanessa Williams, who performed in the 2002 Broadway revival of Sondheim's Into the Woods and the 2010 revue Sondheim on Sondheim, in the role of a corrupt mayor of a small economically depressed American town. Joining her will be Elizabeth Stanley, seen most recently on Broadway in Jagged Little Pill and who played April in the 2006 revival of Company; and one of Broadway's favorite leading men, Tony Award winner Santino Fontana, along with Douglas Sills, Eddie Cooper, and Michael Mulheren. It is directed and conducted by MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling.

In the early 1960s Sondheim and Laurents set out to satirize the loss of individuality in the Eisenhower years with a free-wheeling production that would also break with the conventions of musicals of the era. The 1964 show revealed early signs of Sondheim's rebel genius as it skewered many targets, revealing what can happen when a community puts its faith in an unreliable leader. In his book Finishing the Hat, Sondheim describes the zany plot as "a fanciful story about a venal Mayoress who gets the bright idea of arranging a fake miracle to attract tourists. [...] Farcical complications ensue." Also in the mix is an unlikely romance between a rational nurse, out to expose the fraud, and a chaos-loving doctor, who makes us question the very notion of sanity. Anyone Can Whistle has not been seen in New York since 2010, when it was presented by the Encores! series at City Center.

Said Ted Sperling, "MasterVoices mourns the recent passing of the irreplaceable Stephen Sondheim. Steve was a friend, a great colleague and a mentor. He was delighted we were revisiting Anyone Can Whistle, which has one of his favorite songs, 'With So Little to Be Sure Of,' and he had agreed to help us with the project. The month ahead will be a labor of love, and we know his spirit will be with us as we bring his and Arthur's work back to the stage."

Performance Details:

Anyone Can Whistle

Thursday, March 10, 2022, 7:00 pm

Book by Arthur Laurents

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

MasterVoices

Ted Sperling, Artistic Director and Conductor

Choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter

Lighting design by Aaron Tacy

Sound design by Marc Salzberg

Costumes coordinated by Tracy Christensen

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Vanessa Williams CORA HOOVER HOOPER

Santino Fontana J. BOWDEN HAPGOOD

Elizabeth Stanley FAY APPLE

Douglas Sills COMPTROLLER SCHUB

Eddie Cooper TREASURER COOLEY

Michael Mulheren POLICE CHIEF MAGRUDER

Tickets, starting at $30, may be purchased online at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800 or in person at Carnegie Hall's box office at 57th and Seventh Avenue. Ticket holders need to comply with the venue's health and safety requirements, which can be found here.