Anyone Can Whistle - Ravinia

[broadwaybaby692]

Posted: 5/11/06 at 11:22pm

Did anyone see this production at the Ravinia Festival with Patti Lupone, Michael Cerveris, and Audra MacDonald?

I just read about it on Michael's website, it sounded great and looked spiffy.

How come there's not a CD of this. I love the Bernadette/Madeleine concert CD but this is probably better.

[broadwaybaby692]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 10:02am

anyone? Bueller...Bueller?

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 10:52am

anyone going to move this to the correct board....the broadway board?

AND, you know damn well I saw it at Ravinia last summer, and that I loved it, children......

Updated On: 5/12/06 at 10:52 AM

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 11:06am

I was there for the second night's performance. I thought it was incredible to see such amazing performers onstage together, as well as the legendary Paul Gemignani conducting. Anyone Can Whistle is not a great show in itself. It's scattered and erratic. But the concert was thoroughly enjoyable as long as you went in knowing that this was not Sondheim at his best, since it was still fairly early in his career.

I loved Patti doing "Me and My Town." She looked stunning in her pink suit and she had such energy and a great sense of humor doing it. It was my first time hearing her perform, live or recorded, and I was enthralled by her talent.

Cerveris, as always, was excellent. After seeing him in Assassins, I was excited to see him do something a little less serious and he pulled it off very well. He is a really wonderful stage personality and it's a pleasure to see him do his thing. And the number he had with Audra, "Play Wiz Me," was incredible, not only because they both did the hell out of the number, but because there were two chorus members holding up large placards with translations of the lyrics as they were sung. (Those two men deserve mega props whoever they are for pulling that off so smoothly.)

I think Audra McDonald was the standout on this one, though. I really don't like much of the music from Anyone Can Whistle, but the songs that she had, like "There Won't Be Trumpets," were stunning in her hands. I actually gasped when she really got going with "Trumpets." I can't wait to see this woman perform again.

I was kind of sad that John Mahoney was so underused as the narrator. I don't know what else he could have done in the show, but he's such a solidly good actor that I wish Lonny Price had found more for him to contribute.

Overall, it was a good night's entertainment.

ETA: The Sondheim Review was there and they did a really good review if you can find it.

Updated On: 5/12/06 at 11:06 AM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 11:25am

sorry, I was there saturday......the night Sondheim spoke before the performance, was that the night you were there? I think it was saturday I was there

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 11:36am

I did not get to see Sondheim talk. Believe me, there was crying when I found out he not going to be there the night I was there.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 1:53pm

And Audra's comic turn in "Come Play Wiz Me" was sheer joy.

However, the moment she whistled towards the end was drowned out by fireworks going off elsewhere in the park...

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 2:12pm

I was so pissed about those fireworks. It was ridiculous.