Anything Goes

Anything Goes is an underrated musical with wonderful Cole Porter songs like I get a kick out of you, Friendship and  it’s De-Lovely, great characters and some delightful comic moments with show stopping dance routines for Anything Goes and Blow Gabriel Blow that are among the best in musical theatre. For amateur theatre societies to take on this delightful show it requires a strong band and excellent all-round performers for the central roles of Reno, Billy and Moonface who drive the narrative. Shinfield Players is fortunate to have performers to successfully carry these roles.

The seven-piece band with a lovely brass section did the delightful score full justice and produced a rich sound well balanced with the vocals to produce some memorable musical moments. It was great to see the band on stage throughout Act 2 in a natural stage setting which added to the overall appeal. Indeed, the whole show was very well staged and lit with the main settings for the deck of the SS America in Act 1 and the Nightclub in Act2 working very well and clever inserts for the bar, staterooms and the Brigg that kept the show flow.

The production did well to bring out the comic moments in the relationships alongside the big musical numbers with excellent performances from Lord Evelyn, Elisha Whitney and Moonface. However ultimately this is a show that depends on a very strong all-round performer as Reno Sweeney who has to combine fine acting, strong vocals, elegantly energetic choreography, and a good comic timing and Shinfield Players certainly had that.

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