Let's dream cast a revival of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE.....

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 4/29/20 at 11:55am

OK i will start,,,

BERNADETTE PETERS...Cora Hoover Hooper

JAKE GYLLENHAAL...J Bowden Hapgood...

and???

[binau]

Posted: 4/29/20 at 12:05pm

Agreed Bernadette as Cora. Patina Miller as Fay? I would love to hear her sing Trumpets and the title song.

Where is that bloody Jay Records recording???

[JBroadway]

Posted: 4/29/20 at 12:07pm

Kate Baldwin might be just a tad too old for Fey, but boy would she be divine. 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/29/20 at 12:28pm

I’m still bummed we didn’t get a cast album of the Encores cast with Sutton Foster and Raúl Esparza.

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 6:25am

i would think in this time of forced isolation this a fun game to play...but only a few have commented here or even look at this thread in the first place...people there is nothing wrong with speculation...why even the Hairspray suggestion for a revival getting more looks...after watching the Sondheim 90th Birthday event last Sunday, songs from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE stood out to me...this is a game people...

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 9:22am

Christine Ebersole as Cora.

[binau]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 10:04am

Mmmm yes I would love to hear Ebersole sing the role!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 10:07am

Ebersole would be great but I just want Bernadette to do it so she can check off another Sondheim show on her resume.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 10:17am

I'd also like to see Amber Gray as Cora one day. I bet Benanti would ham it up as Cora too.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 10:41am

I think Benanti as Fay would be fun too.

[binau]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 11:46am

Can’t someone do a covid performance of Whistle with Bernadette or Sweeney Todd with Bernadette as Lovett so we can finally get our bucket lists complete?

Raul Esparza come on please go and organise Sweeney with Bernadette - you can play Sweeney!!!!

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 1:59pm

Bernadette has already played Fay in a concert version of Anyone Can Whistle, so if we're just keeping track of which Sondheim shows she's done, than we can already check this one off the list. But still it would be great to have her return to the piece in a different role. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 2:09pm

That’s very true and we need to see her Mrs. Lovett ASAP.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 3:41pm

Bernadette as Madame Armfeldt! She's gotta be the right age now.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 3:52pm

She’s gonna find you and hunt you down for making that comment.

[binau]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 4:02pm

Gurl has at least 5-10 years left in her before she has to resort to Madame Armfeldt!

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 4:25pm

A number of actors have played Madame Armfedlt in their early to mid 70s, including Hermione Gingold at age 76, and (the one I saw most recently) Dana Ivey at age 73. 

The thing about Bernadette is just that she looks so much younger than she is. It may be another 15-20 years before she reads old enough onstage to play the role. 

 

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 7:13pm

I’m a huge Sondheim fan and besides the score man oh man does this show not do it for me at all.

The only show of Sondheim’s I would call pretentious.

I GET that it’s supposed to be absurdist but it just does nothing for me.

the best and most beautiful songs from it work wayyy better out of context. 

Updated On: 5/2/20 at 07:13 PM

[missthemountains]

Posted: 5/2/20 at 7:25pm

Baranski or Catherine O Hara as Cora, Bernie Feldstein as Faye, Larry Owens as Hapgood.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 5/3/20 at 1:51am

As far as alternate roles go, I think Sutton Foster as Cora could also be fun to see.  I'd love to have "There's Always a Woman" reinstated as well 

[binau]

Posted: 5/3/20 at 2:24am

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "
I’m a huge Sondheim fan and besides the score man oh man does this show not do it for me at all.

The only show of Sondheim’s I would call pretentious.

I GET that it’s supposed to be absurdist but it just does nothing for me.

the best and most beautiful songs from it work wayyy better out of context."

I agree the show doesn’t work. Even Donna Murphy, Foster and Raul couldn’t make it work imo. The whole structure and timing of the show feels weird to me. More reason why a covid concert might be a better presentation, although even then maybe what we really need is just another cast recording. 
 

I could see a covid Sweeney being actually quite fun and creative - people using their kitchen, dining room as a set. ‘By the Sea’ would have extra subject too. If someone was really ambitious it could really work!

[binau]

Posted: 5/3/20 at 12:01pm

LuPone sounds great here singing "Me and My Town"! (The Link is on YouTube, it seems someone might have removed it, maybe because it's a bootleg...though funny how when it is 15 years old and the performance would otherwise be lost suddenly it doesn't really matter anymore). 

Updated On: 5/3/20 at 12:01 PM

[wiggum2]

Posted: 5/3/20 at 1:41pm

One of the first Sondheim shows I ever saw was Anyone can whistle at Ravinia, Patti and Audra were great(I don't remember a lot about Cerveris  though) I never understood Audra before seeing her in person. I think that was the first time I saw Patti as well(but I may have been to a concert of hers though)

Updated On: 5/3/20 at 01:41 PM

[Owen22]

Posted: 5/3/20 at 1:51pm

wiggum2 said: "One of the first Sondheim shows I ever saw was Anyone can whistle at Ravinia, Patti and Audra were great(I don't remember a lot about Cerveris though) I never understood Audra before seeing her in person. I think that was the first time I saw Patti as well(but I may have been to a concert of hers though)"

Oh ****. I forgot about an Anyone Can Whistle done with this cast. Now to be depressed for another 10 years that I didn't get to see it...

I also don't think we're going to get a better casting than the Encores version. And I once saw Bernadette, Madeline Kahn and Scott Bakula do it in concert!

If the show is revived it has to completely embrace that weird 60s aura and mixture of innocent, farcial liberalism and over-the-top, spoofy political cynicism. It should look reminiscent to an old episode of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

 

Updated On: 5/3/20 at 01:51 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/4/20 at 12:36am

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "
I’m a huge Sondheim fan and besides the score man oh man does this show not do it for me at all.

The only show of Sondheim’s I would call pretentious.

I GET that it’s supposed to be absurdist but it just does nothing for me.

the best and most beautiful songs from it work wayyy better out of context."

I think Sondheim would entirely agree. In his FINISHING THE HAT, he says something like "We were too smart-ass for our own good."

I saw a production at the York in late, last century and it really does not work (except for the musical numbers). One hardly knows who anyone is until Act II, which is really late to begin to care about characters in a musical.

I think if we're "dream casting", we should choose a new book writer first.