Anything Goes Synopsis
Set aboard the luxury liner the S.S. American, where nightclub singer Reno Sweeney is en-route from New York to England, her friend Billy Crocker has stowed aboard to be close to his true love, debutante Hope Harcourt. Unfortunately Hope is engaged to wealthy English aristocrat Lord Evelyn Oakleigh.
Billy’s boss, Wall Street tycoon Eli Whitney, is also on board so Billy must avoid discovery at all costs. Aided by Reno and Public Enemy #13 Moonface Martin, Billy sets out to win Hope’s heart through a variety of high-jinks, cunning disguises and even blackmail!
Anything Goes is a fast-paced comedy musical that takes you back to the Golden Age of high society on the high seas.
Cole Porter wrote the music and lyrics for this production which includes some of his most iconic songs including I Get A Kick Out of You, De-Lovely and of course the title song Anything Goes.
Debuting on Broadway in 1934 at the Alvin Theatre, this show has seen many revivals, rewrites and even a couple of films. The version you will be watching tonight is the 1987 Broadway revival where the book was updated and many of the musical numbers were reordered, using songs from other Porter shows. The production opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in October 1987 starring
Patti Lu
Pone as Reno and ran for 784 performances.
Elaine Page was so impressed with the production that she co-produced and starred in the 1989 West End revival which also starred John Barrowman as Billy.
In 2011 there was a further Broadway revival starring Sutton Foster as Reno and Joel Grey as Moonface Martin. This production ran for 521 performances and won 3 Tony awards.
