Anyone Can Whistle Reading to Feature Cynthia Ferrer, Shannon Warne, Dan Callaway, Norman Large

By Andrew Gans
03 May 2011

Cynthia Ferrer
Cynthia Ferrer

Musical Theatre West's Reiner Reading Series will continue May 15 at 7 PM with Stephen Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle in the CSU Long Beach's University Theater.

Richard Israel will direct the evening with musical direction by Daniel Thomas and choreography by John Todd.

The cast will feature Cynthia Ferrer as Cora Hoover Hooper, Shannon Warne as Faye Apple, Dan Callaway as Bowden Hapgood, Norman Large as Comptroller Schub and Victor Hernandez as Treasurer Cooley with Paul David Bryant, Shauna Markey, Jeffrey Parsons, Daniel Smith and Jennifer Strattan.

"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," according to press notes. "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."

With a score by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents, Anyone Can Whistle opened at the Majestic Theatre April 4, 1964, with a cast led by multi-Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, Harry Guardino, Gabriel Dell, Arnold Soboloff, James Frawley, Peg Murray, Don Doherty, Sterling Clark, Harvey Evans, Larry Roquemore and Tucker Smith. Although the musical played but 21 performances, the Sondheim score contained several thrilling songs: "Me and My Town," "There Won't Be Trumpets," "Anyone Can Whistle," "Everybody Says Don't" and "With So Little To Be Sure Of."

The reading will be presented at the University Theater on the CSU Long Beach campus at the 7th Street entrance. Pre-purchased general admission tickets are $20 ($25 at the door) and are available now through the MTW box office at (562) 856-1999, ext. 4.