Synopsis
On today’s date in 1964, the musical Anyone Can Whistle opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theater. The book was by Arthur Laurents, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
The show told the story of a town that's gone bankrupt because its only industry manufactured something that never wears out. To spark tourism, the town’s mayor fakes a miracle — water flowing from a rock — and when patients from a local mental hospital called the Cookie Jar escape and mix in with townspeople and tourists, chaos ensues. The only conventional thing about the new Sondheim-Laurent musical was the inclusion of a love story.
The New York Daily News called the first act “joyously daffy,” and the Journal-American reported that the opening night audience cheered several numbers. The New York Times, unfortunately, panned the new show, opening its review with this statement: “There is no law against saying something in a musical, but it’s unconstitutional to omit imagination and wit.”
Ouch!
It didn’t help that the new Laurent-Sondheim musical’s competition on Broadway that year included crowd pleasers like Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl and Fiddler on the Roof. The show ran for just one week.
But one person who liked the show happened to be a Columbia Record executive named Goddard Lieberson, who assembled the original cast the day after it closed to make an original cast recording that became something of a cult classic.
Music Played in Today's Program
Steven Sondheim (1930-2022): Me and My Town, from Anyone can Whistle; Angela Lansbury; orchestra; Paul Gemignani, conductor; RCA Victor 60515
On This Day
Births
1898 - Italian-born American jazz violinist Joe Venuti, in Lecco
1905 - French composer and conductor Eugène Bozza, in Nice
Deaths
1931 - American composer George Whitefield Chadwick, 76, in Boston
1972 - German-born American composer Stefan Wolpe, 69, in New York
Premieres
1739 - Handel: oratorio Israel in Egypt, in London at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket. As an intermission feature, Handel’s new Organ Concerto (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) is also premiered (Gregorian date: April 15).
1859 - Meyerbeer: opera Le Pardon de Ploërmel (Dinorah), in Paris
1867 - Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 1, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, by violinist Pablo de Sarasate
1897 - Chausson: Poème for violin and orchestra, in Paris, at a Colonne Concert with Eugene Ysäye as soloist
1955 - Stravinsky: Greeting Prelude (for the 80th birthday of conductor Pierre Monteux), by the Boston Symphony conducted by Charles Munch
1964 - Sondheim: musical Anyone can Whistle on Broadway. The show ran for only nine performances, closing on April 11, 1964. Nevertheless, the day after its closing, Columbia Records executive Goddard Lieberson makes an original cast recording that becomes a best-seller.
1971 - Broadway premiere of Sondheim: musical Company
1975 - Rochberg: Violin Concerto, by the Pittsburgh Symphony, with Isaac Stern as soloist
1977 - Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), in Royan, France, with soprano soloist Stefania Woytowicz and the Southwest German Radio Orchestra conducted by Ernest Bour
Others
1954 - Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini (87) leads his last concert with the NBC Symphony, an all-Wagner program
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.