| re: I mean, it is a bomb, I think we can all agree on that | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 11:14 pm EST 02/21/21 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 11:12 pm EST 02/21/21 | |
| In reply to: I mean, it is a bomb, I think we can all agree on that - Singapore/Fling 01:26 pm EST 02/21/21 | |
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| When you say that Anyone Can Whistle was one of the most notorious flops of the 20th century, I can agree only if you mean notorious in the sense of famous. If you mean it in the sense of notably awful, not remotely. Despite what you might read in books and articles by writers whom you might trust on such matters, the reviews were far from universally negative. It is true that there was a bunch of negative reviews. Three of them were in three of the four papers that had influence on the greatest number of ticket buyers (the Times, the Herald Tribune, and the Post). But there were raves from Norman Nadel in the World Telegram & Sun, John McClain in the Journal American, Martin Gottfried in Women's Wear Daily, and Whitney Bolton in the Morning Telegraph. There were moderately favorable reviews from several other sources and a bunch of mixed reviews, along with the reviews that were in varying degrees negative (some of them very negative). For an example of how all over the place the reviews were, Chapman in the News said that the first act was terrific but the show was a bit of a letdown after that, while the AP's William Glover said that the first of the three acts was rather dull but the last two acts were terrific. The Variety tally of the six reviews it counted was two raves, one qualified disapproval and three pans. The qualified disapproval was Chapman in the News, which I would call mixed (and other people seem to agree on this). Steven Suskin's tallies in Opening Nights on Broadway are sometimes somewhat inaccurate, but I think he got this one right: two raves, one mixed and three pans. I think his tally was of the same six reviews. An AP tally was three favorable and three negative. Billboard tallied two favorable and four negative. Anyway, even the Billboard tally would hardly qualify the show as a notorious flop in terms of critical reception. The overall reception was exceptionally mixed, about as mixed a show can get. In the Variety poll of drama critics for the 1963-1964 season, 11 critics voted. In the best composer category, Jerry Herman won with four votes. Second place was a four-way tie: getting two votes each were Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray (High Spirits), Harvey Schmidt (110 in the Shade), Jule Styne (Funny Girl) and Sondheim. Styne also got one vote for Fade Out—Fade In. Perhaps for the only time in any awards competition that had separate categories for composer and lyricist, Sondheim did not do as well in the lyricist category as he did in the composer category, getting only one vote for his lyrics (tying him with Johnny Mercer for Foxy). Winner Jerry Herman got three votes. You wrote, ”We're talking about a musical that stands alone in Sondheim's oeuvre as unproducible.” I'm sure you don't mean unproduceable literally, at least I think you don't. In any case, I'm pretty sure that it has received at least 150 productions and probably more than 200, possibly more than 300. I can't be sure whether it has received more or fewer productions than The Frogs and Saturday Night. Of course, it's been licensed for longer than either. Many of the productions have been in colleges, and at least a few have been in high schools. There have been at least two productions at small theatres in Los Angeles. In 1986-1987, a Los Angeles production that was scheduled to run five weeks ran eleven weeks. A 2003 production in L.A. ran two months. There have been other regional productions in the U.S., including one at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in 1980 that featured George Hearn, Mary Louise Wilson and Rhonda Coullet. In London, a 2003 production at the Bridewell ran 6 previews and 41 performances. A production in 2010 at the Jermyn Street Theatre ran five weeks. The first production in London was in 1990 at the Gladys Child Theatre, a limited run of 4 performances. I have seen Off-Off-Broadway productions in 1974, in 1980 (at York, the best of them) and 1992. In 1977, I saw a university production with a full (and excellent) orchestra and a terrific Hapgood. So it is not a show that I think can reasonably and accurately be called unproduceable, even if you don’t mean it literally. |
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