Alex Young (Amalia Balash in She Loves Me at Sheffield Crucible and Young Sally in Follies at the National Theatre) will star in a new London production of Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim’s 1964 musical Anyone Can Whistle, directed by Matthew Rankcom in The Large at Southwark Playhouse from 1 April to 7 May 2022 (press night is 5 April).
A political satire about conformity and the ostracisation of those considered ‘other’ in society, Anyone Can Whistle is set in a fictional town where the government controls everything, even the miracles. Alex Young will play the rich and greedy Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper who is hated by her people.
Director Rankcom is joined by musical director Natalie Pound, choreographer Lisa Stevens, orchestrator Charlie Ingles (original orchestrations by Don Walker), set and costume designer Cory Shipp, lighting designer Alex Musgrave and assistant director Alex Conder. The production is presented by The Grey Area and Liam McIntosh Entertainment.
Alex Young was last seen at Southwark Playhouse as Marge in Promises, Promises. Her recent credits include Amalia Balash in She Loves Me (Sheffield Crucible); Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (Chichester Festival Theatre); Brutus in Coriolanus (Sheffield Crucible); Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible); Poppy in Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible); Sally Smith in Me And My Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre); Young Sally in Follies (National Theatre); Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel (ENO/ London Coliseum); Ellie May Chipley in Show Boat (Sheffield Crucible and New London Theatre, West End); Erma in Anything Goes (Sheffield Crucible and UK tour); Brunhilde in I Can’t Sing (London Palladium); and Liz in High Society (UK tour).
Anyone Can Whistle opened on Broadway in the 1963-64 season, where it played for only nine performances before generating a now-revered original cast recording (featuring Lee Remick, Harry Guardino and Angela Lansbury in her Broadway musical debut), and going on to develop a huge following. Its score has generated several standards, including ‘There Won’t be Trumpets’, ‘Everybody Says Don’t’, ‘With So Little to Be Sure Of’, and the wistful title song.
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