January 20-26, 2005

artpicks

Whistle While You Work

by Steve Cohen

theater

The idea of commemorating Stephen Sondheim's 75th birthday by mounting his biggest flop may seem crazy. But Anyone Can Whistle is a cult favorite. After two recordings, including one of a 1995 New York concert version, aficionados know much of the music. The original staging closed within a week, but fans love "There Won't Be Trumpets," "Everybody Says Don't" and the title song.

While some say that Anyone Can Whistle is unproducible because of its absurdist plot (it's set in a conformist society where city officials denounce all independent thinkers and commit most of them to a sanitarium called The Cookie Jar) the Prince's mission is to encourage daring new work and unearth neglected treasures from the past. So here is an intriguing landmark from Sondheim's formative years. Written in 1964, it was only Sondheim's second show as composer and lyricist, following A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Oddly, this will be the first Sondheim show that the Prince has ever done, even though the songwriter is a longtime member of the company's advisory board.

Director Charles Gilbert says, "The complexity of the piece is a challenge. Steve has given me advice. He told me it requires lightness of touch: "Don't get heavy with the satire or drama.'" Whistle has a cast of 19, bigger than most shows, so Gilbert is using graduates and students from the theater program he heads at the University of the Arts in addition to Broadway veterans in the leads. The mix of serious and absurd, Gilbert says, is "a feature, and not a flaw."

Anyone Can Whistle, Jan. 26, Feb. 1, Feb. 2, 7 p.m.; Jan. 27-29 and Feb. 3-4, 8 p.m.; Jan. 30, 3 and 7:30 p.m.; and Feb. 5, 2 and 8 p.m.; Feb. 6, 3 p.m.; $30 -$52, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., 215-569-9700, www.princemusictheater.org.