Show Synopsis:
Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper tries to scam tourists to visit her practically bankrupt town by setting up a pump to squirt water with healing properties out of a solid rock. Fay, a nurse at the town's sanitarium, doubts the validity of the attraction and brings the inmates to the rock to drink the water. On their way, the inmates mix with the townspeople, and suddenly it's not clear who is sane and who is not. Fay, the only person who can identify who is insane, runs from the scene. The mysterious J. Bowden Hapgood arrives, who the sanitarium manager mistakes for the new sanitarium assistant. Hapgood begins asking everyone questions to determine their sanity but won't reveal his findings. Fay reappears in disguise as the Lady from Lourdes, a Miracle Inspector, and tries to seduce Hapgood into exposing Cora's dishonesty. Hapgood refuses and confesses that he is supposed to be in the sanitarium himself, but Fay tears up his records thinking he could be the hero the town needs. Cora stops the rock from squirting water and tries to blame Fay and Hapood for it. The governor sends her a message to lock people back up in the sanitarium. The police begin rounding people up at random, since no one is sure who is truly crazy. Fay is captured, no one believes when she calls the miracle a fake, and she is forced to identify the people who belong in the sanitarium. She lets Hapgood go free and refuses to run away with him. The town starts to leave to see a new miracle two towns over, and the real new sanitarium assistant takes the inmates over to that miracle to disprove it, just like Fay tried to do. Fay and Hapgood find each other at the rock, which begins to spurt water -- a real miracle.	

Character:
Fay Apple, a practical, controlled, and logical woman in her late 20s who longs for a hero to come save her town	

Song Context:
Fay is beginning to fall in love with Hapgood and confesses how she has always been able to handle large problems and challenging tasks, but simple ones are much more difficult. She has a lot of trouble letting go and relaxing, except when she puts on an old costume and wig from a college play and pretends to be somebody else. She begins to believe that Hapgood could be the person who lets her become a spontaneous person who can believe in miracles.	

Fun Facts:
1) Stephen Sondheim tries to deny that the lyrics of this song are completely autobiographical, since it has become a popular assumption. 
2) Anyone Can Whistle was Sondheim's first commercial failure in musical theatre. It closed one week after opening. 
3) Angela Lansbury made her stage musical debut in Anyone Can Whistle playing Cora Hoover Hooper.