Donna Murphy to Join Sutton Foster in Anyone Can Whistle at Encores!

Two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy will join previously announced star Sutton Foster in Anyone Can Whistle, the final Encores! production of the 2009-2010 season at New York City Center. Murphy will play Mayor Cora Hoover Hooper, the role originated by Angela Lansbury, opposite Foster as Nurse Fay Apple, the role originated by Lee Remick. Anyone Can Whistle will play for five performances, April 8-11, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, with musical direction by Rob Berman.

Anyone Can Whistle opened on April 4, 1964, at the Majestic Theatre and closed after only nine performances. With a score by Stephen Sondheim and a book and direction by Arthur Laurents, the experimental satire took aim at every target on the American cultural scene of the moment—conformity, psychology, race relations, greed, religion and politics. The title song and “With So Little to Be Sure Of” have survived as cabaret classics, but the rarely heard complete score is a riot of jazzy, showbiz razzmatazz, waltzes, gospel numbers and Broadway pastiche.

Murphy won Tony Awards for her performances as Fosca in Sondheim and James Lapine’s Passion and Anna in the Broadway revival of The King and I. She received Tony nominations for LoveMusik and Wonderful Town, a performance she originated at Encores! She most recently appeared as Phyllis in the Encores! production of Follies. Other Broadway credits include The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Human Comedy and They’re Playing Our Song. Off-Broadway credits include Twelve Dreams, Hello Again, Song of Singapore and Privates on Parade. Film credits include Rapunzel, The Nanny Diaries, The Fountain, World Trade Center, Spider-Man 2, The Door in the Floor, Center Stage, Star Trek: Insurrection, The Astronaut’s Wife and Jade.

The new Anyone Can Whistle star received the unofficial blessing of her predecessor at the recent Drama League Gala: Honoree Lansbury gave Murphy a standing ovation after Murphy sang "Me and My Town," a first-act number from the show.