Anyone Can Whistle questions

All right, I did a search on here and found no answers to these questions, and listening to the OBCR does not answer them. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable, or perhaps has seen a staging of it, can answer them. I've searched the Internet for answers with no success.

- How do Cora and her cronies stage the phoney miracle? How does the idea occur to them? How exactly do they get away with it?

- What does locking up scores of town residents in a sanitarium benefit Cora and her cronies?

- How does the aborted song "There's Always a Woman" work into the plot? Aside from this, Fay and Cora have little to no contact at all, do they? And doesn't Fay loathe and despise Cora, and perhaps vice/versa? Why would they engage in song? Why do the characters feel so negatively about women? This is particularly hard to understand for Fay.

- This is more historical than plot, but despite the reason given - redundancy - why on earth was "There Won't Be Trumpets" cut from the Broadway staging of the show? Did Lee Remick fight it? It's a big moment for her to show off. Her part seems substantially limited without it.

- What spurns Fay singing "See What It Gets You?" It's a big moment. Does Hapgood let her down? If so, how does he come through for her in the end?

- What happens once the damn bursts? Does the town drown? What happens to Cora and her cronies?

Thanks. :)

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I read the libretto a while ago so I don't remember a lot of it.
I do know however that "There Won't Be Trumpets" was cut because right before the number, Fay has a huge monologue in which she basically says the same thing that "There Won't Be Trumpets" cover. I think Laurents and Sondheim felt the monologue covered enough of what they were trying to convey and that a song there would be redundant and slow down the action. It's a great song and I agree it should be part of the show.
I cannot remember what exactly prompts the "See What It Gets You" scene, for some reason I think that Hapgood tells Fay that he's leaving and that she can't fully rebel (though I might just be making this up). Can someone clarify Rudy's questions?
BTW, I'm incredibly excited about the upcoming Encores! concert of this show and I really really hope they don't ruin it with the casting (ie please no Christine Ebersole as Cora, love her, but no).

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Updated On: 6/5/09 at 04:15 PM

I think Meryl Streep is the most ideal person for the role. But since they will go for Broadway folks, I am hoping for names like Bebe Neuwirth, Tonya Pinkins, Veanne Cox, or Donna Murphy to be considered for Cora. Ruthie Henshall, who has done Encores! before, would be great too but I imagine she's staying put in London.
Laura Benanti or Jenny Powers could play Fay.

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**SPOILER**

And I pulled out my copy of the script as published by Random House, so that's what I'm basing this on.

- How do Cora and her cronies stage the phoney miracle? How does the idea occur to them? How exactly do they get away with it?

There's a pump in the rock, that is being hand-operated by them. It's hidden from view, so until they are exposed, no one looks close enough to care.

- What does locking up scores of town residents in a sanitarium benefit Cora and her cronies?

This is conjecture, but they are technically insane, and therefore, when the waters do not heal them, the secret will be revealed. Also, of the one's named, they all connect to someone artistically/historically famous: Susie B. Anthony, Brecht, Chaplin, Dillinger, Engels, Freud, Gandhi, Isben, Mozart, etc.

- How does the aborted song "There's Always a Woman" work into the plot? Aside from this, Fay and Cora have little to no contact at all, do they? And doesn't Fay loathe and despise Cora, and perhaps vice/versa? Why would they engage in song? Why do the characters feel so negatively about women? This is particularly hard to understand for Fay.

I can't answer this one terribly well. My best guess it is because the two of them are vying for Hapgood's attention. And they are speaking of each other, not women in general. Remember, this is the first person Fay has been able to be herself with, so she's pretty attached to him.

- This is more historical than plot, but despite the reason given - redundancy - why on earth was "There Won't Be Trumpets" cut from the Broadway staging of the show? Did Lee Remick fight it? It's a big moment for her to show off. Her part seems substantially limited without it.

I believe, and I could be wrong, the monologue was getting better applause than the song, so they cut it. That monologue right before it is pretty phenomenal, and, IMHO, the best thing Laurents ever put on paper.

- What spurns Fay singing "See What It Gets You?" It's a big moment. Does Hapgood let her down? If so, how does he come through for her in the end?

Basically, yes. She wants him to do something about the fact the miracle is a fake and Cora is winning, and he just can't. SHE has to be the one to do it. And he doesn't come through in the traditional sense. Cora succeeds in getting the Cookies back, and the real assistant that was supposed to arrive shows up, and when she launches in on the "Woman of Science" bit that Fay did at the beginning she calls him back by finally whistling. It's kinda confusing, I know.

- What happens once the damn bursts? Does the town drown? What happens to Cora and her cronies?

The dam (no 'n') doesn't burst. The next town over gets a miracle, so all the pilgrims rush to it, and Cora and Shub decide to turn the whole town into an insane asylum.

Hope this helps.

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I still say Donna Murphy as Cora, Jane Krakowski as Fay and Neil Patrick Harris as Hapgood.

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"Lee was not an experienced singer. This was her first musical. She had vocal problems at the time and was having difficulty singing. (I believe I read she went and had her tonsils out after the show closed.) The story that the the speech got a bigger hand is probably true but mainly because she likely didn't have the voice to make the song land. "

According to Arthur's new book (Mainly on directing) this was the case, IIRC.

And Lee Remick certainly did fight it (according to the book), she was threatening to leave, but Laurents promised she'd be the centre of a review/the reviews (can't remember which, and I think there was a more technical term for this), and she was.

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The "hold-up" as explained to be by John Yap is due to a number of factors.

1. The market has gone very soft. CD stores are vanishing, and it is no longer viable for an independent label like JAY to manufacture and sell expensive 2-CD sets. JAY is looking at offering downloads but at present downloads only account for 20% of the overall sales.

2. Although the sessions were completed years ago, there is still the expensive task of editing, mixing and mastering and it is not worth his while until th3 situation in 1 changes.

3. The studio cast re-creations sell less copies because many fans already have the OCR's or other versions and the JAY 2-CD sets compete in the marketplace with the less expensive single disc versions. For the time being he wants to concentrate on recording new scores.

On this last he has a point. If people can get the OBCR of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE through Amazon for $11.98, are they likely to pay $38.98 for a 2-CD set just because it has some extra music? (And bear in mind little of import is missing from the OCR.)

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Did I miss the 80th Birthday? I thought that was next year.

Yes, he was born in 1930, we've got another year.

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Thanks to everyone here not only for your thoughts and answers but also your passion! I have read each sentence. I really enjoy this show and find it nice to hear many of my own feelings, both positive and negative, echoed. :)

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Does anyone know the cast that recorded the unreleased JAY recording?

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On the unreleased Jay recording, Julia McKenzie was Cora, Maria Friedman was Fay, and John Barrowman Hapgood