ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. To 15 February.
London
ANYONE CAN WHISTLE
by Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim
The Gryphon at Bridewell Theatre To 15 February 2003
Tue-Sun 7.30pm Mat Sun 3.30pm
(50 'Pay What You Can' tickets on sale 6pm for Sun eve only)
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
TICKETS 020 7936 3456
Review Timothy Ramsden 12 January
Maybe they can - but can anyone write a tune, or lyrics as witty as Sondheim's?This 1964 musical is true to its decade, in assuming society as the origin of insanity and in giving the theme a featherlight treatment, reflected in Michael Gielata's witty production for musical theatre company The Gryphon.
The piece has a sixties flipness, confronting small-town corruption a fake miracle-fountain concocted to revive flagging finances with Head Nurse Fay, who overthrows crisp-uniformed proceduralism, deleting patients' histories (there's a degree of IT updating) and flinging caution to the winds. Liberated in a dolled-up disguise of black frock, glamour wig and French accent - all donned in the cause of justice she heads for bed with a doctor who turns out (life was like that back then) to be a patient.
Presumably the title offers its easy promise to Fay's patients, residents of the 'Cookie Jar' (there's condescension along with naivety over mental problems), as well as to the strict Head Nurse herself. Her early try at care in the community, which precipitates the action, could hardly be written nowadays; the piece has a waywardness that clicked well with its own time, but now seems like party humour a couple of mornings after.
Given music that's often like karaoke Sondheim with no-one doing the tune, it might seem the show's as much a washout as Francisco Rodriquez-Weil's predominantly clean-washed colouring.
But no. Period charm, maybe, or the cosiness of an innocent age optimistically confident in its sense of being new. And blessed with a witty production, light-textured and pushed along by a strong ensemble, each etching individuality in a moment when called-for. Plus a feline manipulator in Paula Wilcox's mayoress, seductively unobtainable and giving oomph to her trio of male malfunctionaries: Aaron Shirley's corrupt police chief, Mark Heenehan's suited fixer and James Smillie, a PR dream with Clintonesque smiling ease.
On the angels' side are Edward Baker Duly's nice-as-pie should-be inmate and Janie Dee, almost as affecting in her romance and discipline alternations as the humanised android she played in Ayckbourn's Comic Potential and with a heavenly ability (in musical theatre) to sustain tone and tune even on a soft, sustained note.
Hapgood: Edward Baker Duly
Fay: Janie Dee
Cooley: Mark Heenehan
Magruder: Aaron Shirley
Shub: James Smillie
Cora: Paula Wilcox
Ensemble: Marcus Adolphy, Jonathan Glew, Shimi Goodman, Orit Haddad, Helen Healy, Tasha Johnson, Sarah Lawn, Simon Masterton, Aoife Nally, Andrew Piper
Director: Michael Gielata
Designer: Francisco Rodriguez-Weil
Lghting: Mike Robertson
Musical Director: Mark Etherington
Choreographer: Darren Royston
Make Up Designer: Petr Blecha
Assistant director: Judy Gordon
Assistant musical director
2003-01-14 15:05:21