Whatever it's supposed to be getting at, "Anyone Can Whistle" should have the distinction of not leaving audiences apathetic. If it isn't entertaining, it's at least apt to be irritating….

["Anyone Can Whistle"] has a book by Arthur Laurents, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, in what's evidently meant to be a sort of song and dance theatre of the absurd….

The book is a kind of surrealist fable about a corrupt Never-Neverland town in which the supposedly crazy people are sane. The point seems to be something or other about the stultifying effect of that pathetically riddled target, conformity….

Maybe it's supposed to be Brechtian, or something, and obviously it's meant to be symbolic, profound, sophisticated and clever as all get out. By normal entertainment standards, however, it's an enigma—a large, pretentious, numbing shambles. There's not a genuinely memorable song in the show, although the title number, "A Parade in Town," "Everybody Says Don't" and "So Little to Be Sure Of" are briefly, mildly listenable….

In a season already notable for musical mishaps, "Anyone Can Whistle" is an outstanding clinker.