Customer Reviews

Anyone Can Whistle - Live at Carnegie Hall (1995 Broadway Concert Cast)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll admit I bought this album on a leap of faith- as a fan of Bernadette Peters I figured it couldn't be too bad. But that was several months ago- and even today, I have to bribe myself to listen to something else! Anyone Can Whistle was written for the wrong era- as a new show today, I think it might have been a sucess. And this album shows you why. The script is funny, the message is fresh and the performers... well, what can you say. Get Bernadette Peters, Scott Bakula, Angela Lansbury and Madeline Kahn together in the same room and try not to have a incredible experience!

ACW does take some getting used to. In typical Sondheim fashion it may not seem altogether pleasant the first time. But listen again. With the full libertto included you can follow along, and maybe not make full sense of it, but certainly enjoy the creatitivty and fun that this evening was.

The show boasts a wealth of songs that have gotten away over the years- preserved here. Songs such as "Play Wiz Me" and "There's Always A Woman"(cut from the only existing recording from the original show) will keep you laughing long after they are though. The sheer genius of the 15 minute Act 1 finale will baffle you. But when finished, your only regret will be that you weren't there, and that there isn't a video!

All musical lovers should take a leap of faith with this CD and give it a fair run- I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Note: Stephen Sondheim is my hero and Anyone Can Whistle is an early work of his that is, despite what others may say, easily one of his more beautiful and evocative scores. And the lyrics are good as well (perhaps not up there with Sondheim's best, but some of "Me and My Town" and "Simple" are simply great).
When I first bought Anyone Can Whistle about one year ago, I bought the original cast recording. And I was (and still am) extremely happy with that recording. However, my need for some new stuff from Sondheim (even if just different preformances) led me to buy this CD. And this is a really good recording as well. I prefer the original slightly above this one. By far the most appealing part of this recording is Scott Bakula, who is far superior to Harry Guardino in the orginal. Madeline Kahn and Bernadette Peters are both impressive, although I feel that Peters is a little too mature for the role; to be sure, the Nurse is not a juvenile role, but Bernadette comes across as the seasoned Broadway veteran that she is, which I feel to be wrong for the role. Madeline Kahn is very good, perhaps even as good as Lansbury. Overall, an excellent recording, especially if you want more Anyone Can Whistle music. But if you are going to buy your first Anyone Can Whistle recording, buy the original recording. You won't be disappointed.

this concert was full of all sorts of glitches live. madeline kahn blew one number and they had to start over. the fountain didn't function. on the whole people seemed under-rehearsed. FORTUNATELY, none of that is really apparent in this recording. peters surpasses the original performance of lee remick and kahn is every bit as succesful as lansbury was as the original mayoress. (although somehow lansbury's turn in manchurian candidate adds a certain creepiness to her power-hungry mayor).

Magnifique! Not only will you be in awe after a few numbers, but you'll laughing so much that someone should put YOU in the Cookie Jar!

OK, I'm sure someone out there might find it a little odd and eccentric, but that's one of the charms of the whole thing. 5 stars!

In the mid-Nineties, when this one-off performance of Anyone Can Whistle was taped, Sondheim's older musicals had little chance of major revivals, but two of his most interesting scores, Follies and this show, benefited from being recorded in concert. Since then, Broadway has figured out ways to shrink the orchestration and staging of the originals, and Sondheim's whole output is alive and well. I count myself a major fan of this recording, having accepted that the absurdism of the book poses a major obstacle to any stage revival -- I doubt that current audiences would be any less baffled than the one who saw the shows' nine performances in 1964 and walked out in droves during previews. The story by Arthur Laurents makes no sense, but the cleverness of Sondheim's lyrics offers the usual delightful brain twisters. (Every Sondheim show has a bit of ground glass in it; in this case it's the hilarious but archly misogynist "There's Always a Woman.")

Other reviewers complain about technical fluffs on this amazing night, but how can anyone complain with Angela Lansbury, Madeleine Kahn, and Bernadette Peters together in one cast, each adding her own larger-than-life presence? I know a dozen versions of "There Won't Be Trumpets," the only song that has survived on its own -- it was actually cut fro the show out of town -- but Peters' account surpasses every rival in its passion, phrasing, and her inimitable voice. Comparisons with the uneven original cast album are all on the side of this CD, especially considering the non-singing of a gravelly Harry Guardino as Hapgood (Sondheim must have been trying to duplicate the success of another non-singer, Robert Alda, in Guys and Dolls -- this time it didn't work). It also helps that a hip audience in Carnegie Hall catches on to every ironic, campy stroke. Finally, special mention goes to Scott Bakula. No one imagined that this TV star could sing, but he can, and not only that, he holds the stage with style and verve.

I smiled through every moment of this album the first time I heard it, and I continue to smile whenever I return for another whacked-out dose.

This little known obsurdist show by Steven Sondheim flopped in its original Broadway production after only nine performances. This concert cast is the closest thing the show came to a full revival, and it is good. The "dream cast" is exactly what you would expect from a group of such renoun. Peters, Bakula, and, of course, Kahn, are wonderful, as is the music. However, the story itself is rather odd (it is obsurdist after all), and the music is not Sondheims best, nor are the lyrics. (Of course, a mediocer Sondheim show is still better than many other shows today.) All oddities and mediocraties aside, this CD contains some true gems, particuarly Peter's rendition of the title song. For die-hard Sondheim fans, this is a delight. For those not used to his style, this may be a bit too odd, though still worth a listen if only for the amazing talent.

I have always loved this show, despite all it's litle quirks (they're not faults, they're quirks). Why there hasn't been a major broadway revival of it, I don't know. But this is the closest thing to a complete recording fans will get untill that happy day arrives.

There seems to be a lot of critical people out there that are missing something when they listen to this CD. The atmosphere must have been amazing at Carnegie Hall that night; the applause and cheers after (and sometimes during) every number is astounding. Obviously all these problems with the fountain and forgotten lyrics didn't mater to those in attendance. The CD comes over as being almost flawless (one of the trumpet players enters 2 beats early in "Me and My Town" and Chip Zien rushes his passage in "I've Got You To Lean On", somehow, though, that doesn't seem to matter) and I have listened to "There Won't Be Trumpets" with the score several times in the vain hope of spotting the jumped measure that so upset a different reviewer ("reliving a car crash"?). Bernadette seems to me to have been on top form that night. Madeline Kahn was wonderful as the mayoress, her comedic genious shines in "Me and My Town" and I think she sings all of these songs wonderfully well (no one has a belt range like Angela Lansbury so going for someone with a totally different voice seems like a very good idea to me). The other cast members do very well with what is a fairly tricky score.

Although, I recomend the OBC recording as well, this is the one I listen to more often. When I listen to this recording - I'm there, surrounded by other "Whistle" fans and applauding what is a wonderfully tallented cast performing in the presence of Stephen Sondheim himself.

I actually recommend this recording over the original cast recording, because it has additional dialogue and a libretto that does a better job of filling in the story than what's available on the original. And, most importantly, the Carnegie Hall recording has my hands-down favorite song, "There's Always a Woman", which is a delightfully catty battle scene between Bernadette Peters and Madeline Kahn. That song alone is worth the price of the CD!

Most people seem to like this recording of "Anyone Can Whistle" I still can't believe how mediocre it is given the people involved.. here are my reasons

1) It's under-rehearsed, and it shows. There are so many musical mistakes on this. I can't believe that they didn't record a dress rehearsal to have an alternate take at the ready.. Bernadette jumps a measure during the intro to "There Won't Be Trumpets" and you can hear conductor Paul Gemaniani expertly covering the mistake. It's like re-living a car crash...

2) Miscasting - yes I was a fan of Ms. Kahn (rest her soul), but Cora needs to be a belter with head voice extensions.. Her comic soprano was wrong for this role.. Several of her songs were transposed up to accomodate but it just didn't work.. The truth is that Bernadette Peters should have played Cora and cast Nurse Apple with someone else.. I think the only reason Peters is playing Fay is because Fay get's "There Won't Be Trumpets" and the title song.. Scott Bakula is well cast... Unfortunately "Everybody Says Don't" and "With So Little To Be Sure Of" should have been transposed up for him and they werent..

3) All the performances are low-energy... One of the problems with doing this show (other than the fact that is dated) is that the characters have to be played REALLY BIG!! They are very Cartoony... And most of these performances are smallish...

Stick with the fabulous Original Cast Recording...(until John Yap of Jay Records decides to release the complete Masterworks Recording of the complete "Whistle") and for the best performance of the cut "There's Always A Woman" get the Kaye Ballard/Sally Mayes performance on "Unsung Sondheim"

I can't say that I own the CD, but I've heard most of the songs so many times, with the exception of There's Always a Woman, which I love incredibly, though I've only heard it once. As a Bernadette Peters fan, that was the first reason I listened to it on an Internet Broadway station. After that, I kept listening to it, especially Come Play Wiz Me, and Everybody Says Don't. I love the music and the people who sing them are wonderful, especially Bernadette, who is a master with Sondheim. If only there was a video I could get, I'd love to see it,even with flaws!