Musical Theatre West Announces ANYONE CAN WHISTLE Reading, 5/15

Musical Theatre West is proud to announce a staged reading of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. ANYONE CAN WHISTLE is the fourth reading offered in the inaugural season of the Reiner Reading Series.

Nurse Fay Apple and her wards from the local sanitorium, The Cookie Jar, travel to take the waters from a rock that's just sprung a leak. Enter J. Bowden Hapgood, our hero, to stir things up and make us all question the line between sanity and insanity, miracle and human achievement.
A legendary cult show, thanks to the original cast album, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE premiered on Broadway on April 4, 1964 with Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury making their musical theatre debuts. This wacky, intelligent, highly unconventional musical satire points ahead to Stephen Sondheim's groundbreaking work in the 1970s even as it keeps a foot firmly rooted in the musical theatre's "golden age. Originally running only nine performances, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE is the crown jewel of flop musicals, one that is worth revisiting largely due to its incredible score which includes "There Won't Be Trumpets," "Everybody Says Don't" and the title song.
Musical Theatre West's Reiner Reading Series is produced by Michael Betts and Daniel Thomas and focuses on staged readings of classic musicals and forgotten gems and maintains MTW's commitment to celebrate and preserve musical theater as an art form by exposing audiences to works of that might not otherwise be produced.

Through the minimalism of the staged reading format, we invite the audience and the artists to use their senses and imagination to explore and enjoy the entire range, both in style and era, of this diverse genre, including lesser-known shows by noted composers as well as noted shows by lesser-known composers.

ANYONE CAN WHISTLE will be directed by Richard Israel with musical direction by Daniel Thomas, choreography by John Todd. Featured in the cast for this one night only production are Cynthia Ferrer (Nat'l Tour: Happy Days, MTW's Thoroughly Modern Millie and All Shook Up) as Cora Hoover Hooper, Shannon Warne (Nat'l Tour: Camelot, Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme at the Ahmanson, MTW's ANNIE) as Faye Apple, Dan Callaway (Nat'l Tour: Phantom of the Opera, MTW's Sweeney Todd) as Bowden Hapgood, Norman Large (Broadway: Woman in White, Les Miserable, MTW's Sweeney Todd, Meet Me In St. Louis) as Comptroller Schub, Victor Hernandez (Frank Wildhorn's Bonnie and Clyde, MTW's Wizard of Oz, MTW's Sweeney Todd) as Treasurer Cooley, and to round out the cast as Cookies, Townspeople and Others are Paul David Bryant, Shauna Markey, Jeffrey Parsons, Daniel Smith and Jennifer Strattan.

ANYONE CAN WHISTLE was recently revived to great acclaim in New York at Encores! which featured Sutton Foster, Donna Murphy and Raul Esparza.

The staged reading will be held on Sunday, May 15th at 7:00 p.m. at the University Theater on the CSU Long Beach campus at the 7th Street entrance. This special event is generously underwritten by long-time Long Beach residents and Musical Theatre West donors Ken and Dottie Reiner. Pre purchased general admission tickets are $20.00 ($25 at the door) and are available now through the MTW box office at 562-856-1999, x4.

 

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