Anything Goes

A bright overture gave us a taste of the fine Cole Porter melodies which were to follow and had the audience humming along. The plot in ‘Anything Goes’ is silly but entertaining with some very funny lines but it is really the music that carries the show along.

Set on board the S.S.American we hear how Billy Crocker, a young Wall Street broker, is helped by his old friend Reno Sweeney  to get the girl of his dreams Hope Harcourt who is travelling with her upper crust fiancé Evelyn Oakley and her overpowering mother. Also on board are Moonface Martin, a gangster, and his girlfriend Erma.

Jenna Lee was very well cast as Reno Sweeney the evangelist turned night club singer. This is a demanding role but Jenna gave a most assured performance commanding the stage with style, elegance and sex appeal. Both her singing and acting appeared natural and effortless. Knowing that she is also a very able dancer it would have been good to see her given more challenging choreography particularly in ‘Anything Goes’ and ‘The Gypsy in Me’

Justin Skelton too was excellent as the rather stuffy, flamboyant Evelyn attacking the tango with gay abandon. One felt a real sympathy for Billy (Andrew Jack) in his quest  for love. He sang and moved well especially in ‘You’re The Top’ with Reno and his solo ‘All Through the Night’ whilst also extracting the comedy in his scenes in the second act in his various disguises as Public Enemy Number 1. Michaela Turner was a demure Hope singing very sweetly.

Most of the comedy in the show revolves around the antics of Moonface Martin and his girlfriend Erma. Ali MacDougall is a very accomplished comedy actor who gave a spirited performance with his ‘Be Like a Bluebird’ delivered with a dry humour. Carla Allan was a real star giving an impressive performance as Erma. She conveyed a real ‘joie de vivre’ and had real attitude in her characterisation and in her number ‘Buddie, Beware’

There are some great musical numbers for the company and these were well delivered by the passengers on board with some good ensemble work.

The various deck levels on board were utilised well and sailors setting the  stage taking furniture on and off worked really well.

 Principals, the many minor principals and chorus together contributed to the success of this production which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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