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, but 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, and the sanitarium manager mistakes Hapgood 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 and 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:
J. Bowden Hapgood, a devious middle-aged man who wants to retire at the town's sanitarium; helps Fay come out of her shell.

Song Context:
Hapgood tells Fay that he is supposed to be in the sanitarium, and encourages her to tear up all the patients' records so that people can stop pretending to be insane and Fay can forget her responsibility to them. At first Fay resists, but then realizes she has nothing to lose by doing exactly she is not supposed to do.	

Fun Facts:
1) Harry Guardino, best known for his work as a television actor, originated the role of Hapgood on Broadway. 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.