Page "Anyone Can Whistle" Paragraph 1

The show was first announced in The New York Times on October 5, 1961: " For the winter of 1962, Laurents is nurturing another musical project, The Natives Are Restless.

The narrative and staging will be Mr. Laurent's handiwork ; music and lyrics that of Stephen Sondheim.

A meager description was furnished by Mr. Laurents, who refused to elaborate.

Although the title might indicate otherwise, it is indigenous in content and contemporary in scope.

No producer yet.

" No news of the show appeared until July 14, 1963, in an article in The New York Times about Kermit Bloomgarden, where it discussed the four shows he was producing for the coming season ; two were maybes, two were definite.

One of the latter was a Sondheim-Laurents musical ( now named Side Show ).

In a letter to Bloomgarden from Laurents, he wrote, " I beg you not to mention the money problems or any difficulties to Steve anymore.

It depresses him terribly and makes it terribly difficult for him to work ...

It is damn hard to concentrate ... when all the atmosphere is filled with gloom and forebodings about will the show get the money to go on?

...

Spare him the gory details.

" This behavior is considered unusual for Laurents, which runs contrary to his current reputation.

Sondheim discovered that Laurents hated doing backers ' auditions and he took over that responsibility, playing and singing more than 30.

They found 115 investors to back the $ 350, 000 production, including Richard Rodgers and Sondheim's father.