Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The 1964 Playbill for Anyone Can Whistle at the Majestic Theatre featuring Lee Remick is a primary document of one of the most celebrated failures in Broadway history — a production that ran for only nine performances in April 1964 but has been reassessed by theater historians as one of the most artistically ambitious and ahead-of-its-time musicals ever staged. The show marked the first time Stephen Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics for a Broadway production, a milestone in the career of the man who would become the defining composer-lyricist of the American musical theater. The book was by Arthur Laurents, who had previously written the books for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959) — two of the most celebrated musicals in Broadway's history — making Anyone Can Whistle a genuine convergence of major theatrical talents. Lee Remick, the film actress known for her Academy Award-nominated performance in Days of Wine and Roses (1962), was making her Broadway debut in the lead role. The cast also included Angela Lansbury and Harry Guardino. A Playbill from a nine-performance run is, by its nature, among the most uncommon surviving documents from any Broadway production — the brief run means proportionally fewer programs were distributed, and even fewer were preserved. Collectors building archives of Broadway Playbills from the 1960s recognize Anyone Can Whistle as one of the most historically significant programs from the decade.
The 1964 date situates this Playbill in a specific and consequential moment in American musical theater history. The Broadway season of 1963–64 was one of the most artistically turbulent in the form's postwar history: the Rodgers and Hammerstein era that had defined the mainstream musical was ending, and the generation of artists who would replace it — Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, and eventually Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett — were testing their ideas against a commercial theater establishment that was not always ready for what they were offering. Anyone Can Whistle's failure to find an audience in 1964 is now understood as precisely that kind of premature experiment — a work that prefigured the concept musical innovations of the 1970s, produced before the audience infrastructure for that kind of theater had developed. The fact that the original cast recording was made, and that it became a cult document, eventually rehabilitating the show's reputation entirely, makes the original 1964 Playbill both a document of initial failure and an artifact of subsequent canonical elevation. For collectors documenting 1964 through its theatrical and cultural print record, this Playbill is a primary source of unusual historical resonance.
About the Publication
Playbill is the American theater program publication that has been the standard program format for Broadway productions since 1884, providing theatergoers with cast lists, production notes, biographical information on performers and creative team, advertisements, and contextual essays about the production. The 1964 Playbill format combined this essential production documentation with advertising that reflected the cultural and commercial landscape of the period, making individual issues both theatrical artifacts and documents of mid-century American consumer culture. Playbills from short-run productions are inherently less common than those from long-running hits, as the total number distributed is a direct function of the number of performances — nine performances means an extremely limited distribution compared to shows that ran for hundreds or thousands of performances.
Key Highlights Inside
- Lee Remick's Broadway debut: The Playbill documents the film actress's first stage appearance on Broadway — a casting choice that reflected the production's ambition and the prestige attached to Anyone Can Whistle despite its short run.
- Stephen Sondheim's first complete score: This production marked Sondheim's debut as both composer and lyricist on Broadway — a milestone in the career of the composer who would go on to create Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd, and Sunday in the Park with George, among others.
- Arthur Laurents's book: The creative team documentation confirms Laurents — writer of West Side Story and Gypsy — as the book writer, placing this production in direct lineage with two of Broadway's most celebrated musicals.
- Nine-performance run documentation: A Playbill from a production with only nine performances represents an inherently limited-distribution document — the production closed April 11, 1964, making this Playbill a surviving artifact from a remarkably brief theatrical run.
- Cast lists, production notes, and 1964 advertising: As with all Playbills of the era, the interior documents the full creative team and cast alongside period advertising that reflects the cultural and commercial landscape of Broadway in spring 1964. Specific additional interior content is confirmed by the listing's general description of typical Playbill contents.
Condition & Rarity
Good condition with minor wear typical for its age is a meaningful preservation result for a sixty-year-old theatrical program. Playbills from this era were printed on paper stock considerably lighter than major magazines, and surviving copies in good condition with minor rather than significant wear represent the better tier of what exists from 1964 productions. The plastic protective covering indicates deliberate preservation. When evaluating any surviving copy of this Playbill, page completeness — confirming all cast, production, and advertising pages are intact — is the primary grading consideration, followed by cover surface condition and any damage to the binding or spine. Playbills from nine-performance runs occupy a distinct rarity category compared to programs from long-running shows: the total number originally distributed was a small fraction of a successful run's program count, and survival rates over sixty years further reduce the available pool of examples in any condition.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
A Playbill from Anyone Can Whistle's nine-performance 1964 run is among the most historically resonant short-run programs in the Broadway archive — Sondheim's first complete score, Lee Remick's Broadway debut, and Arthur Laurents's book together in a production that has grown in critical stature across the decades since its initial failure. If this one has already found a home, the full archive of Broadway Playbills is worth exploring for other significant productions from across the theatrical calendar. The 1964 magazine and print collection is also worth browsing for anyone building a broader documentary picture of American theatrical and cultural life during that pivotal year.