“Anyone Can Whistle”

Recommended *** Most everyone knows that I love the works of Stephen Sondheim! No matter who has written the book for his musicals, knowing that “the wordsmith” has done the music and lyrics makes me happy to attend the theater. It is great to be returning to the theater again. Eighteen months without a play on a stage was hard for me to take.  Many of our area theaters are taking it slow and easy on their return. The Paramount’s production of “Kinky Boots” has been the biggest production to date, and the smaller venues are working towards getting their subscribers and followers back in the seats.

The Skokie Theatre, that lovely little gem in downtown Skokie, under the leadership of Madkap Productions is doing a Sondheim musical, “Anyone Can Whistle” as its first production of their “season”. This is a strange one to open with as it only played for 12 previews and 9 performances on Broadway. The original name for the play was  “The Natives Are Restless”(  book by Arthur Laurents) and as the years went by, prior to its original production ( starring Angela Landsbury and a host of other names), it became “Anyone Can Whistle”.

The story is about a small town, its corrupt Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper ( well played by Sarah Saperstein) who along with her cohorts provides a fake miracle to attract tourists and keep the coffers full. In the community there is an asylum called The Cookie Jar and one of the nurses, Fay Apple ( deftly handled by  LJ Bullen) shows concern. When a new “doctor” comes to town everything becomes “shook-up”. We learn that the “doctor” has his own secrets. “Doctor” J. Bowden Hapgood ( well played by Evan B. Smith) becomes the love interest for Fay Apple as we  watch the two of them transform the town and its inhabitants. While the show is one that is hardly ever done, some of the musical numbers are ones that we hear on specials done by Sondheim lovers Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin. By the way, this musical was Ms Landsbury’s first musical and led the way for many success stories for this Broadway favorite.

While I applaud The Skokie Theatre for bringing this musical to its stage, and putting together a solid cast, this is one that many audiences don’t know. It is also a very small stage for a huge cast thus hard to build an appropriate set for. Pat Henderson’s set and lights seemed a bit small for the most part, but the talented people kept our eyes on them making the set just that ( like a painting on the wall). Jason A. Fleece’s direction used the aisles as well as the stairs and the dance numbers ( choreographed by Marianne L. Brown ) were somewhat limited, again, due to the size of the stage.

The musicians were up in the projection booth area ( this was a movie theater, back in the day). Aaron Kaplan and his seven musicians brought Sondheim’s music to life. Beth Laske-Miller’s costumes were smashing and Arielle Raybuck’s props were fitting. What makes a show like this effective? The cast enjoying what they are doing and this cast sure seemed to be having a ball with the story and music. Hats off to Jeri Hart, Andrew Buel, Aaron Mann, Dustin Rothbart, Jonah Cochin, Ben Isabel, Christopher Johnson, Brian Warner, Katherine Dalin, Heidi Hansfield, Dennis Schnell, Wendy Parman Amanda Vinson and narrator John Frisco.

FYI- my favorite songs in this show are of course “Anyone can Whistle ( Ms Bullen does a terrific job with this one), “There Won’t Be Trumpets” ( again Ms Bullen nails it) and of course “Everybody Says Don’t” ( a tongue twister that  Smith handles with ease). All of the numbers that feature Cora ( Ms Sapperstein) are powerful as she always has her own ensemble to work with- either the “Four Boys” or the crooked politicians.

I was glad to see a production of this long lost Sondheim show and congratulate MadKap for bringing it to us. This show will continue thru October 10th with performances as follows:

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays  7:30 p.m.

Sundays  2 p.m.

Wednesday afternoon 9/22 at 1:30 p.m.

Tickets are $45 ( seniors and students $28 and can be purchased by calling 847-677-7761 or online at www.skokietheatre.org

The theater is located at 7924 Lincoln Avenue in Skokie

Plenty of free parking and just steps away from many dining spots.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at ” Anyone Can Whistle”.