A Sondheim opening (and closing)

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1964, a new musical called “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 (b. 1930) Me and My Town ,from Anyone can Whistle Angela Lansbury; orchestra; Paul Gemignani, cond. 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, age 76, in Boston;

• 1972 - German-born American composer Stefan Wolpe, age 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 in F ("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 (age 87) leads his last concert with the NBC Symphony, an all-Wagner program.