Music News

Anyone Can Whistle Complete Cast Album to Be Released Nearly 20 Years After Recording

Jay Records has set a date for this long-aborning album.

Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents
Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents
(© David Gordon/Joseph Marzullo)

Jay Records is planning to release a long-aborning studio cast album of the Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents musical Anyone Can Whistle on December 4.

Recorded 17 years ago, it is the first-ever complete recording of the 1964 musical, containing the entire score, including playoffs, interludes, and exit music. John Owen Edwards conducts the National Symphony Orchestra on the album, with a cast led by British musical theater stars Julia McKenzie as Cora Hoover Hooper, Maria Friedman as Fay Apple and Dr. Jane Borden Osgood, John Barrowman as J. Bowden Hapgood, and Laurents, who died in 2011, as the narrator.

Anyone Can Whistle tells the story of a town in an economic depression and the fake miracle cooked up by the corrupt mayor in attempt to draw tourists. Jay Records confirmed the date on its website, though it is not currently available to order.