"What's hard is simple. What's natural comes hard." So true and so present and up to the moment, it's hard to imagine that "Anyone Can Whistle" ran for only 12 previews and 9 performances in 1964. Ah, but what a difference a few decades make. The April 10 evening performance is the one considered here.

Jack Viertel, now Artistic Director of Encores!, was 15 when he saw one of the actual 1964 performances. Likening it to a Woodstock of sorts for all who claim to have seen it, he has the program to prove he was there. The mere thought that questioning what people tell you is so was beginning to come into fashion, so shortly after the world shifted, first with the election of the country's first Irish Catholic President, and then, with the first assassination of one in 60 years, the Cold War, and the burgeoning waves of change, which would break five years later with Woodstock, the Summer of Love and Stonewall, this trough was certainly filling. The sheer excitement at the thought of the changes that questioning the "Establishment" might bring were exhilarating to some, chilling to many others. The changes wrought in the last few years, however, have given us all an idea of how powerful we are individually and that's the message of this show.

Celebrating Stephen Sondheim is all the rage in this year of his 80th birthday. Singers love to sing his work, as the challenge is as great as the rewards of doing it well. Thrumming with energy from the very beginning, this production galumphed out of the gate and intermission came as a rude surprise. Wow, what a show!

Here's the 'plot,' so thin you can read the New York Times through it: manufactured miracle "saves" town from oblivion; earnest bluestocking tries to uncover the secret and is declared an outlaw; handsome stranger appears and shakes the idyllic snow globe till not only the snow, but also the people change places; and calling someone, or something, what they aren't, doesn't make them different. Where we make our changes and where we put our energy are key points.

All-star casting is also key to Encores! and swimming in this primordial soup are Jeff Blumenkrantz as Treasurer Cooley, John Ellison Conlee as bumbling Police Chief Magruder, Raúl Esparza as J. Bowden Hapgood, would-be savior-timing is everything, Sutton Foster as Nurse Fay A-p-p-l-e, Edward Hibbert as Comptroller Schub, and the luminous Donna Murphy as Mayor-ess Cora Hoover Hooper. Dreams don't have a cast like this, and on the shallow, intimate stage, half of which was Rob Berman and the Encores! Orchestra, a moveable feast was going on.

Donna Murphy, clad in coral, stood out amidst the khaki and gray suits of the men like a hothouse flower. Fully flowering too is Cora's power over all the men in town-especially vibrating with Hibbert's Comptroller Schub-the great running bit about "meet me for dinner, your place or mine? YOUR place, 7:30 p.m., MINE at 6 p.m.?," as a theme and variations throughout, acting as poignant reminders that sex, power and money always run in close company. Blumenkrantz' former-preacher/now Treasurer is a constant reminder that, then as now, people were concerned about how closely Church and State align, despite our Founding Fathers' desire to keep them from influencing one another. Sutton Foster's earnestness in looking for a hero, not realizing she's her own hero within, is enchanting, and Raúl Esparza, as the beautiful stranger who comes to town, captivating the townspeople and frustrating the false miraculists, makes a delightful Pied Piper leading all on a merry chase to whom-knows-where.

Cora's Boys, Clyde Alves, Grasan Kingsberry, Eric Sciotto and Anthony Wayne, lift us into fantastical territory as they frame Cora and her view of herself-almost existential in needing to see herself as a reflection of the love of her townspeople, or "peasants." This is a passion play of sorts, a mid century Everyman, where it's everyone for him or herself, while each person tries to figure out who they are. Sound familiar?

Raúl Esparza and Sutton Foster were individually charming and a powerful duo. Well-matched in tone and technique, their characters are both worldly and aware, and still have much to learn about themselves and each other. The town leaders are all dyed-in-the wool bureaucrats, who receive the necessary encouragement to use their powers elsewhere. Among the townspeople, it was great to see Tally Sessions, whose work I'd recently appreciated in "Yank!," and Brian Shepard, whom I enjoyed as Chip, in "On the Town" regionally, making appearances as First and Third Narrator respectively.

Donna Murphy's performance was Arch Cougar-and while Foster's Fay Apple's red-haired French femme was oh-so-fatale, Murphy's blonde bombshell knocked 'em out! Murphy also ad libbed great bits around the convention of being on-book for Encores! and her presence is enthralling-your eyes go wherever she is.

Swirling energy, dance with joie de vivre and brilliant songs abound. And quite, honestly though anyone CAN whistle, so few of us do! Encores! performances are true destinations and it remains to be seen what summer and fall will bring. Make certain to bookmark www.nycitycenter.org and visit early and often. These special events bring huge performances to a very intimate space. You owe it to yourself to be part of it.